Gilbert and Sullivan: Founders of British comic opera | A Motley Pair (1/5)

Opera star Simon Butteriss presents a lively look at the beginnings of great Victorian double act, Gilbert and Sullivan, and how they produced some of the most famous operas to date.
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Gilbert and Sullivan are synonymous for British operetta. This celebrated collaboration has been one of the most successful in music history and yet most music lovers outside the English speaking world just about know of "The Mikado". Of Sullivan's more serious work little or nothing is known and even in the UK almost non of it is performed today. But the operettas resulting from the collaboration with the gifted poet W. S. Gilbert have achieved fame through the D'Oylo Carte company and its successors, the Carl Rosa Opera Company. Time for a close look at what made this unique couple tick.
Simon Butteriss’s in depth look at the works of Gilbert & Sullivan is brought to life in this five part documentary, including commentaries from Michael Ball, Germaine Greer and Dr Jane Glover. Musical and dramatic excerpts illustrate the narrative in addition to some important archive footage and specially recorded performances by our own repertory company, including world renowned G&S soloists like, of course, Simon Butteriss himself.
Original title: "Gilbert and Sullivan - A Motley pair (1/5): If you want to know who we are..."
Written and presented by Simon Butteriss
Directed by Tony Britten
Produced by Capriol Films
© 2010, licensed by Poorhouse International

[@ColeHalford]

Love the backstage stories

[@charlotteamalie]

My great-grandfather toured with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1890s. First as the First Huntsman in The Vicar of Bray (Mar 1892-Dec 1893 and Nov 1894-July 1895), and later as Nicodemus Knock-Knee in Haddon Hall.

[@hazelwaghorn518]

A most enjoyable series with plenty of details that we didn't know.

[@coloraturaElise]

What a fantastic program! Though I'm quite a G&S specialist, Simon taught me several things I didn't know!

[@mrscpc1918]

Glad to find this 😊

[@ColeHalford]

Same here

[@deewesthill6966]

The influence of G&S tunes is far-flung. The Pirate King tube was the inspiration for the theme song of Popeye the Sailor Man. The Sun Whose Rays from The Mikado influenced the Un Bel Di aria in Madama Butterfly, whose composer also included in that opera the original Japanese tune used in The Mikado's entrance music.

[@DJStotty]

Thank you Simon, this is so interesting, informative and really enjoyable - wow!

[@jorgecruzseda7551]

Simon butters this up !!!😂

[@Mercutiossword]

that scarf is a choice

[@byronarnason6006]

Winston Churchill was an unapologetic shrill for G&S. By the way, Winston also saved Western Civilization. Did I mention that he also negotiated and mapped the eastern border of present day Israel? He found Israeli wine and Israeli women irresistible. Worthless tidbits of history. Winston's parents were equally G&S zealots. Sullivan's grandma was a Jewish victim of Italian Pogroms who fled to UK for auxilio ... Italy's loss, UK's gain.

[@spotter623]

did you know to this day there is a community theater company that stages G&S operas regularly in Jerusalem? doing Patience this year. some of the operas were fully translated into Yiddish and we often do at least one encore in yiddish. their theatrical legacy is astounding and still enjoyed by young people 100+ years later in Israel.

[@johnnyj0104]

11:50 this shot is so extra! 😅 ✨️💁🎥

[@alexsutton1772]

SIMON BUTTERISS!!!!!!! Delicious!

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

Such a luvvie😂❤

[@alexsutton1772]

@@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311 HAHAAHAHA!!!🥰🥰🤪🤪

[@oldcremona]

Any prospective suitor who would spurn Charlotte Page needs to have his eyes examined.

[@557Franklin]

The narrator is such a toff. ZZZZZZZZZZ.

[@Derna1804]

Imagining that anyone could miss the satire in Gilbert and Sullivan makes him come off as a bit of a dunce, but at least he's enthusiastic.

[@deewesthill1213]

It's okay to be a "toff"! 😀

[@coloraturaElise]

He is neither a toff nor a dunce. He's an actor who apparently chose a narrator voice that makes you feel your inferiority.

[@coloraturaElise]

@@Derna1804 He doesn't have to "imagine" people missing the satire, because as a performer, he's had audience members who made it clear that they had indeed missed it. I'm glad you are 'enthusiastic' enough to comment, whatever else you might be.....

[@jonathanjeffreys3007]

Face it: this "informative" piece is really only a thinly disguised vehicle designed to exhibit your evident vocal ability and overwhelming desire to present your favourite G&S roles as solo performances, in complete isolation from the operettas from which you have cherry-picked them. If you wanted to exhibit your talent, why bother to go to the trouble of adding make-up and costumes? It would have been far more effective to make a montage of seasoned G & S cast members performing these extracts, meanwhile giving us some interesting (and hitherto unknown) facts about the operettas and their creators.

[@coloraturaElise]

What a churlish comment!

[@sharonholdren7588]

For he's gone and married his Yum Yum. On this subject I pray you be dumb, dumb, dumb. You will find there are many critics who'll work for a penny. A word for your silence is mum, mum, mun. Sounds like a recitation on sour grapes, to me. There are lots of good fish in the sea.