Martyn Green seemed to be willing and able to delve deeper into each of his character s than any of the other pattermen. They seemed content to simply play the patterman. And we're discussing someone here who was not only a fine singing actor, but an agile creative comic dancer with his unsurpassed impeccable diction.

Also consider John Cartier. He was always the understudy in D'Oyly Carte, but later got the chance in another company to play Jack Point.

Very true. Green was also a far better Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe. I think Reed’s best roles are as Ko-Ko in the Mikado and Bunthorne in Patience.

It’s criminal

😫

The whole film is on the internet archive

This: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4jKpJVnfK9pe8k

You are thinking of the George Walker video series of the G&S comic operas (plus Cox and Box). I had most of them on video cassettes. Generally, they were excellent productions in general.

I do and it's magic

Yes,I agree. He is the best singing actor of the D'OYLE Carte Company on record. Versatile too.

I still have my copy!

I met people who saw both Martyn Green and Sir Henry Lytton, and most considered Lytton greater. His voice didn't record well, however.

@@VinDakota Bravo! I got to know these older singers by hunting for old 78rpm records. It is so much easier now to KZbin them 😊

@@karldelavigne8134 Yeah it is! The music is just fantastic, i've been learning some of the arrangements on my piano recently!

@@karldelavigne8134 Henry Lytton followed very much in the tradition of George Grossmith in that his greatest strengths were in his innate comedic skill and his almost imcomparable stage presence. One of the invaluable qualities which Martyn Green brought to the comic baritone roles as his successor was that he was able to infuse into them - in addition - a profound sympathy with the audience and, when required, a pathos which greatly increased the depth of the character. Prior to his engagement, for example, 'Tit Willow' in 'Mikado' was performed simply as a comic song and entirely for laughs, with "Oh Willow, Tit Willow, Tit Willow" at the close of each verse being sung in falsetto [as is the case in, if I remember correctly, the 1917 recording.] Martyn Green treated it as a serious, if self-interested, attempt by Koko to engage the affections of Katisha and in so doing added an element of poingnancy to the dilemma in which both characters find themselves.

@@robertwhittaker5477 That is a very interesting observation and a good illustration of the difference in performance style between the two of them. Another example that comes to mind is the end of Yeomen, with Green depicting Jack Point "collapsing lifeless" and presumably dead of a broken heart, whereas Lytton collapsed but apparently wiggled his toes. I am sure both approaches worked, and perhaps the lyrics of Tit Willow lend themselves more to comedic than real pathos, but Green's acting brilliantly balanced the two.

yes. another bit of ahistorical fun. Martyn Green playing George Grossmith playing Passmore playing Point...

The complete film, The Story Of Gilbert and Sullivan is available on DVD at the Premiere Opera site

@@lotteweill At last! Thankyou so much for this information: - it was broadcast by the BBC - only once! - in the 1980s when I was able to record it for my own personal use on an ancient VHS tape, but as the means of replaying that are now long gone I've been trying to get hold of a copy in a more recent format ever since!

And the 1939 Mikado. And I hope someone finds the TV broadcast of the D'Oyly Carte Patience from the mid-60s.

@@karldelavigne8134 There was a VHS of it; I don't know whether it's been issued on DVD.

@@jamessheridan4306 To the best of my knowledge, no one has yet found a copy of it. Are you confusing it with something else?

@@karldelavigne8134 Shortly after I left that comment I did manage to track down a DVD copy. It's from a company in New England. I forget the name.

@@jamessheridan4306 If you can find it again, it would be of great interest to a lot of people. I have only managed to find that there is an audio recording of it, apparently recorded privately from the original broadcast.

The way Yeomen is performed usually yes. But the stage directions read "Point falls insensible", and that was how Grossmith, the original stage Point played it, with him waggling his toes and winking at the audience as if to assure them he was still alive. It should be noted however, that Grossmith was a long established comedian who probably felt his fans would never accept him as anything other than funny. It is also on record that Gilbert the authr himself, when informed that Henry Lytton was playing Point's fall on tour as a death scene, commented, "That's just what I want. Point should die, and the end of the opera should be tragedy". Interestingly though, he never altered the direction and the main production in London never portrayed Point's fall as a death in Gilbert's lifetime.

Interesting observation, if you accept that Jack Point goes beyond the stage direction. I think, however, that the threat of death is made in every Savoy opera.

@@trinitymplayers As I was reading through the comments, I had decided someone needed to tell the history of Jack Point's ending. But then I came to your post, and you have already stated it exactly as I would have. Well done. Martyn Green was Henry Lytton's understudy for many years, while doing other roles in the company before Sir Henry's retirement. I wonder how much of Lytton's Jack Point influenced Green's, given Lytton was the first to play the ending as a death scene. Green was certainly very innovative, and would have put his own stamp on each character. It was Green who changed the whole character of Tit Willow in The Mikado as well. If you listen to early versions, such as C.H. Workman's recording, Tit Willow is heard as a purely comic song. Green added the Pathos to it, which is now the standard interpretation. I never got to meet Green, who died one year before I saw my first D'Oyly Carte performances. But I later studied with a tenor who had spent years with Green, touring in America, and knew him well. Wish I had asked for more stories!

I'm playing Strephon in two weeks. The peer costumes really aren't that complicated actually.

Ede and Ravenscroft. But first you need to be elevated to the peerage 🙄

@@karldelavigne8134 Don't put the royal cart before the horse.🐴

Yes. Jack Point dies at the end of the opera.

Yes. From a broken heart. And as Martyn Green, who was playing the jester Jack Point here interpreted it, from a fatal heart attack as well.

I remember first timw I saw yeoman blind. Expected the usual happy ending walked out feeling like crap for jack point. Honestly the best of the pairs work

I actually think it’s open to interpretation. I believe the stage direction says ‘Jack Point collapses senseless’, or something like that, it doesn’t say he falls dead. The point being that he hasn’t eaten or drunk since he found out that he had lost Elsie. The personification of their opening song, ‘A Merryman and his maid’. So he dies of a heart attack which is the way that Martyn Green plays it,or a dead faint due to lack of sustenance?

The script reads: “[FAIRFAX embraces ELSIE as POINT falls insensible at their feet. CURTAIN

Hark!

The American release was called "the great"

NPorganist Totally, Ruddugore, especially the second act is probobly one of my favorite of thier work.

He was 54 when this film was released!

I have to disagree here. I like Martyn Green a lot but in my opinion Reed had a better singing voice, better diction, held the melody better and was a superior comic.

There are plenty of recordings of him in existence, though.

kzbin.info/www/bejne/joesYpWFi7Bnick

@@trinitymplayers Plus this movie and his appearances on Alistair Cooke's 1950s Omnibus television show showcases his physical wit as well as his clear diction and amused reactions to the lyrics.

The baritone, Rutland Barrington, was played by Eric Berry. Elsie Morison wasn't in the film, according to IMDB. The soprano was either Dinah Sheridan, as Grace Marston, or Bernadette O'Farrell, as Jessie Bond. The former wasn't a member of the D'Oyly-Carte, the latter sang Hebe in Pinafore, so who knows?

@@maryjokelleher6396 Hi thank you for replying. If you scroll down on IMDB you will find Elsie Morison listed as a singer in the additional cast. She sang on the soundtrack , but didn't appear. Dinah Sheridan was a delightful actress who appeared in plays and many films , but she didn't sing. The wikipedia for the film also lists ' additional voices for the soundtrack' none of whom worked with D'Oyly Carte including Marjorie Thomas, Jenifer Vyvyan , Webster Booth, Owen Brannigan , John Cameron. I met John , Marjorie & Elsie much later during my studies in the late 1980s . I was pretty sure that was Elsie's voice , although she gave up her singing career in the early 1960s when she married Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik. Have a wonderful time enjoying these wonderful Gilbert & Sullivan Operas.

@@Tenortalker To my ears it sounds like Elsie Morison (unmistakeably) and John Cameron. They sang Josephine and Corcoran on the Sargent/EMI recording, and comparing the two recordings it sounds like the same soprano and baritone. Different Sir Joseph of course!

@@maryjokelleher6396 It is definitely not Dinah Sheridan, who plays a prudish love interest of Sullivan earlier in the film. I concur that the voice sounds like Morison.

I was a late bloomer. I didn't discover them until I was 10. Our grade school put on a show of various musicals and one class did excerpts from HMS Pinafore. I was hooked! I was probably the only 10-year-old in Ohio who had Pinafore, The Mikado, Iolanthe AND the Gondoliers memorized! And, my vocabulary was AMAZING.

@@SarahB1863 For me, it was when I was 17, but then I made up for lost time!

Though Gilbert confirmed Point does in fact die at the end of the opera.

@@jasonhurd4379 really? I know it depends on the director but I always thought he colapsed in sheer dispair. Still always brought a tear to my eyes

​​@@drewbakka5265Gilbert said it is up to the audience. Grossmith, great comedian that he was, raised his feet in the air and waggle them as if having a tantrum. Later performers preferred the heart attack ending. To me it's equally tragic to live seeing the love of your life snatched away.

The Queen wears the mantle of Defender of the Faith very lightly. Her successor already shows signs of abandoning it all together despite swearing to it in his coronation oath.