If You're Anxious For to Shine Dennis Olsen

From "Patience," The Australian Opera, 1995.

[@richardcleveland8549]

Olsen is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good in this that I can't imagine having to follow him! EVERYthing about his performance marks it as The One to be emulated! "Oh, joy! Oh, rapture unforeseen . . . ."

[@paulhall170]

Gilbert was such a superb wordsmith... And Olsen, of course, is an Australian!

[@abbiegarcia42]

Epic performance from Dennis Olsen. Great facial expressions!

[@nope24601]

I can't stop watching Dennis Olsen. Lol! I just recently discovered him and have watched this at least 20 times.

[@ABC_DEF]

Ditto. I think I've fallen in love with him. I'm hooked.

[@timwillson7490]

A great talent. There is a major voice under this. Diction great.

[@jamesa0330]

Consummate. Brilliant. 🎶💕🎶👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@lesbianmirandareid]

god I rewatch this almost every week hes just so good

[@gabrieltassoni5549]

As much as I enjoyed Dennis Olsen as Reginald Bunthorne, I still prefer him in the role of The Lord Chancellor from Iolanthe. The way he performed it was far more comedic and thus better acquainted to my tastes

[@judynesher5898]

I too love his interpretation of The Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe. However, the role of Bunthorne and the Chancellor are so different that I don't think one should compare them. They both require great musicality and excellent timing, both of which Olsen has in abundance. The fact that he successfully portrayed both characters is a testament to his versatility! Thank you Dennis!!

[@jobreakstheinternet5100]

Contemporary productions of Patience are why I visit this hellsite.

[@martind349]

and it's good

[@richardcleveland8549]

Splendid! SPLENDID! *S*P*L*E*N*D*I*D*!!! SPLENDIFEROUS! WHAT a splendid Bunthorne! Such a marvelous send-up of Oscar Wilde! Sullivan's music is fine, but Gilbert was the true genius of the operas; I don't think WSG gets nearly as much credit as he deserves for his very acute (and often biting) satire. He's my hero!

[@karldelavigne8134]

Fantastic performer who should have been the D'Oyly Carte principal in succession to John Reed.

[@dabedwards]

Agreed, he is a quite remarkable talent, and unaccountably not well known in the Northern Hemisphere. With all due respect to John Reed and Richard Suart, this man eclipses all of them. He has marvellous precision and comic timing in addition to a strong voice.

[@karldelavigne8134]

@@dabedwards I agree. I saw both John Reed and Richard Suart on stage and they were nothing like as good as Dennis Olsen. John Reed's actual successor was James Conroy-Ward because Olsen had already left the company some years before.

[@judynesher5898]

I watched a performances of Yeomen of the Guard recently. Although the singer who played Jack Point was adequate I must confess that I watched him while imagining Dennis Olsen play the role. Was Yeomen ever recorded with Olsen playing Jack Point? If so, I must buy a copy!

[@alisonrhodes7312]

His dancing was incredible. He and Anthony Warlow. And singing at the same time!!

[@ausbrum]

He worked for them for a year but couldn't wait to leave

[@ahogbin2644]

Really superb and quite unknown to me. In the Reed vein but the voice sounds stronger. Delightful discovery!

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

Kinda funny how both this show and _Cats_ use one of London's streets that was featured in Monopoly, for the sake of a rhyme. (For _Cats_ , it was "it must and it shall be spring in Pall Mall...")

[@chrissmith3369]

The best since Martin Green!

[@poilaaliop]

I preferred the emotion Derek Hammond-Stroud put into it, but this is the best version I've seen on KZbin!

[@aburninglandfillofbadmovie2930]

Essentially what he is saying in a lot of words is that he doesn't actually believe what he says.

[@barbaraarnstein179]

It was a parody of Oscar Wilde, who carried a lily around.

[@dianacoles1017]

Wilde himself said that his brilliance lay not in having done it but in having convinced everyone that he had.

[@murielbarker4311]

Michael Ball showed them at the Proms he could sing this song very well and so camp

[@shakespearegames5378]

Check out the final scene of Patience where Heather Begg (Lady Jane) accidentally knocks Dennis Olsen (Bunthorne) to the stage. She can't carry on for several seconds! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKiupaZjfLKSedU

[@alisonrhodes7312]

I know!! Hilarious! But the whole production is superb. I wonder if in subsequent performances they included the “accident”?

[@fastidiousfarce5769]

Is their a full video, Sir?

[@sKid-gh9ub]

This DVD sold as separate unfortunately appears to be discontinued, however it is available as part of the Opera Australia Gilbert and Sullivan Collection box set. There are also a few second hand copies on eBay.

[@fastidiousfarce5769]

@@sKid-gh9ub Thank you.

[@kellandunlaptenor]

1:15

[@SarahB1863]

How old is this character supposed to be? He's singing about being a young man but he looks like he's in his 50s...

[@sKid-gh9ub]

Dennis Olsen is playing much younger than his actual age here, something quite commonly done in Opera Australia G&S productions.

[@Tocsin-Bang]

@@sKid-gh9ub Actually common the other side of the globe too. In fact I was a member of The Young Savoyards who were formed in response to people in their fifties & sixties playing roles like the girls in the Mikado. We had an upper age limit of 30! All very artificial, but it gave real opportunities for many young performers, OK we were amateur. Sadly the groups is no more. I was not a member of the cast I was the SM.

[@sKid-gh9ub]

@@Tocsin-Bang Amateur societies have to make do with whomever they can get. Unfortunately, young people these days don't seem to be drawn to G&S. I think marketing G&S to younger people needs to be approached differently to how it's currently being done, because what's currently being done isn't working.

[@steerpike1359]

"Young" is a relative term in Gilbert & Sullivan...best not to ask too many questions !

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

Hey, it could be worse - you could be listening to a 60-year-old George Baker playing the part. I’m not joking - I actually own the recording of _Patience_ with Malcolm Sargent conducting the Pro Arte Orchestra, and... yeah, Bunthorne sounds like an old man. But even worse, Grosvenor sounds like Mr. Nezzer from _VeggieTales_ - and he’s supposed to be the nice one!

[@alisonrhodes7312]

My favourite G and S operetta. And this is an unequalled production. Why does the aesthetic movement of 130 plus years ago remind me of the “woke” culture of today?

[@sKid-gh9ub]

That's a very interesting parallel, and not one I've thought of before. Maybe it's the "holier than thou" attitude those two movements have in common?

[@winifredtrout1]

It's a spoof about Oscar Wilde...didn't you know

[@d.f.4830]

The funny thing about this piece is the extent to which it represents a kind of soft ‘culture war’ between someone like W.S. Gilbert and someone like Oscar Wilde, with Gilbert as the speaker here. History shows who won, and, as much as I have a soft spot for G&S, it certainly wasn’t Gilbert. 😂 It’s pretty likely that so-called “woke” culture will go the same way - in 100 years, it will just be culture.

[@bloodwolf9017]

Help me out here. Is he singing about how people viewed gay men in the (let's say) 18th century?

[@sKid-gh9ub]

He's singing about elitist attitudes to art.

[@BetterthanyouIknow]

Interesting you ask that. This character is based on Oscar Wilde, a leading Aesthetic who was also homosexual. Wilde's manner, dress and general attitude has really imprinted on modern thinking what a "gay" man is like. Prior to Wilde, you could be effeminate and still straight. While the manly men were out shooting, riding and playing rough sports, you'd be safe inside discussing poetry-with all their girlfriends! Then came Dear Oscar...

[@steerpike1359]

He is singing about how he is just pretending to be a person of taste and culture in order to get attention. Give 'em the old "razzle-dazzle" in other words !

[@bloodwolf9017]

@@steerpike1359 Still a camp performance. Even Michael Ball thought it was camp when he played the role

[@pocketjohnson1820]

Like all Gilbert and Sullivan operettas it satirised English Society in this particular case the aesthetic movement which was is sort of a counter to the mass production of the industrial age although it's often associated with Oscar Wilde when it was first produced it was more aimed at James McNeill Whistler and Algernon Swinburne

[@noahklinger7083]

It’s a good performance but the tempo is waaay too fast.