ruddigore 45 So it really doesnt matter

PATTER-TRIO. ñ ROBIN, DESPARD, AND MARGARET.
ROB.My eyes are fully open to my awful situation ñ
I shall go at once to Roderic and make him an oration.
I shall tell him I've recovered my forgotten moral senses,
And I don't care twopence-halfpenny for any consequences.
Now I do not want to perish by the sword or by the dagger,
But a martyr may indulge a little pardonable swagger,
And a word or two of compliment my vanity would flatter,
But I've got to die tomorrow, so it really doesn't matter!
DES.So it really doesn't matter ñ
MAR.So it really doesn't matter ñ
ALL.So it really doesn't matter, matter, matter, matter, matter!
MAR.If were not a little mad and generally silly
I should give you my advice upon the subject, willy-nilly;
I should show you in a moment how to grapple with the question,
And you'd really be astonished at the force of my suggestion.
On the subject I shall write you a most valuable letter,
Full of excellent suggestions when I feel a little better,
But at present I'm afraid I am as mad as any hatter,
So I'll keep 'em to myself, for my opinion doesn't matter!
DES.Her opinion doesn't matter ñ
ROB.Her opinion doesn't matter ñ
ALL.Her opinion doesn't matter, matter, matter, matter, matter!
DES.If I had been so lucky as to have a steady brother
Who could talk to me as we are talking now to one another ñ
Who could give me good advice when he discovered I was erring
(Which is just the very favour which on you I am conferring),
My existance would have made a rather interesting idyll,
And I might have lived and died a very decent indiwiddle.
This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter
Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!
ROB.If it is it doesn't matter ñ
MAR.If it is it doesn't matter ñ
ALL.If it is it doesn't matter, matter, matter, matter, matter!

[@annea1b]

I love how Vincent Price makes an astonishing recovery and picks up the refrain. This is one hell of a piece to sing. He's fabulous in this role and this was one of the best of the G&S productions done by the BBC.. In fact, THE best.

[@karldelavigne8134]

This was not a BBC production.

[@gdj6298]

​@@karldelavigne8134According to imdb, it`s a Brent Walker Films / BBC co-production.

[@AtoMiCM0nkies]

These people are the original RAP GODS🐐🐐

[@liannapfister8255]

This is why G&S shows are amazing. The characters believe in what they are doing 100%. You can’t have any rationality when performing these, or the audience will see through your nonsense & it won’t be funny

[@eveeve8254]

RIP Ann Howard. And also RIP Keith Michell.... And of course RIP Vincent Price as well. Goddamnit, everbody's dead!

[@CayenneRand]

but it really doesn't matter!

[@acyutanandadas1326]

Eve Eve and I'm not feeling so hot myself

[@nicksmith4361]

But they live on beautifully in these cameos.

[@elizabethbrown8833]

Not in Ruddigore 🎭😊

[@richardcleveland8549]

CANNOT get enough of this! Gilbert was a genius with words, that's for sure, and Sullivan's music is a perfect fit.

[@richardcleveland8549]

And AGAIN! This rendition exceeds Wonderfulness & Perfection by a factor of ten to the hundredth power! Brings tears to m'eyes!!

[@cigarman35]

I absolutely love this, this was my introduction to G&S and I recently played Despard - so much fun but breath control in this is a nightmare.

[@Michael326]

I liked the part when they said "matter".

[@richardcleveland8549]

Watching this again! OH EM GEE, WHAT a dynamic trio! This MUST be the funniest trio in all of G&S - it certainly is the most breathless! Once again, Gilbert's incredible mastery of words, rhyme and rhythm are demonstrated! AND THE SINGERS! This was the first time I knew Price was a singer - and a singer who can master Gilbert's incomparable babble is a prize indeed! Bravo times ten!

[@Isrjisoneavalable]

I love Mad Margret as a character especially here, “I could fix things but no one’s going to listen to my suggestion anyway so let’s go with the chaos!”

[@dangruff]

Vincent Price plays Sir Despard Murgatroyd, Ann Howard - Mad Margaret, and Keith Michell as Robin Oakapple

[@ThatScattyBatty]

This was the first video I had as a child. I was 4 and used to watch Ruddigore obsessively (it was the only video in the house). I was too young to know who Vincent Price was, it wasn't til I saw this clip that I realised that even at the age of 4 I loved Vincent Price!!!

[@chookaschookas444]

According to his G&S book, Martyn Green was the first one to sing Robin's verse in a single breath. Keith Michell manages the same trick. It ain't easy!

[@ChuckHowell]

Kevin Kline did it during the Joseph Papp production of Pirates (!)

[@kennethwayne6857]

@@ChuckHowell Of course Mr. Kline did it much faster (which may make it more difficult).

[@jameshorn270]

When I was at Cornell, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences played Sir Despard in a local production of Ruddigore; he did pretty well. He later was Jimmy Carter's Inflation Czar and led the deregulation of the airlines. He should have stuck with G&S.

[@lekmirn.hintern8132]

You don't like the cheaper air flights? Flying today, especially when you adjust the prices for constant dollars, costs a fraction of what it did prior to deregulation. The airlines were getting away with murder back then.

[@richardcleveland8549]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, the unkindest cut of all!

[@DaleBurgess]

Not originally in Pirates, but since it is such a fun song, they replaced one of the others with a version of this (different words). This tune is also the basis for "Speed Test" from the stage show of "Thoroughly Modern Millie". It is a classic.

[@Tareltonlives]

I love how deadpan he is during the song

[@wickedfeylady]

Oooooh I adore this adaptation! Everyone in it is great esp Vincent Price (of course) and Mad Margaret, she is awesome!!

[@hiitalkalothita3810]

I found this from Jack Rackham and oh am I thankful he introduced me to this lovely and very..very catchy song

[@naly202]

You know it's Vincent Price when you can actually understand whichever rubbish he is saying at whichever speed

[@magenta-rosepark4965]

Took me awhile to recognize that it was Vincent Price as the brother.

[@benk6737]

Well this particularly rapid, unintelligible patter isn't generally heard.

[@Legoranger-1]

This was also in Pirate of Penzance, 1982 ver!

[@cynthiahawkins2389]

No, and I have HUGE respect for holding one's breath while spinning out the lines in song like that. Very strong skills required!!!

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

"And I don't care twopence" The bird woman has left the chat.

[@magicamadeye]

Two pence halfpenny

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

@@magicamadeye Wakko Warner has left the chat.

[@joshualupyan519]

SPITTIN HOT FIRE 🔥 #BARS

[@junkb0x99]

I heard this song in a concert once. Out of several hundred in the audience, I was one of maybe a dozen or so that bust out laughing at that line. Nobody else could UNDERSTAND the Rapid Unintelligible Patter!

[@HuggyMackay]

W S Gilbert, the true master of words. Sir Arthur Sullivan the true master of light operetta. I thought I was a Bach, but Sullivan thought I was an Offenbach :P

[@mathewdallaway]

This is not operetta. Gilbert and Offenbach are a galaxy apart.

[@HuggyMackay]

@@mathewdallaway Gilbert had the advantage of "knowing two tunes, God save the Queen and another one". This is why I admire him so much. The quote about wanting a Bach and finding an Offenbach refers to the lovely film 'The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan', where Sullivan wanting to marry Grace, hears from her father Wilfred Hyde-White : "I suppose she wanted a Bach and found he was only an Offenbach"!!! :)

[@richardcleveland8549]

@@HuggyMackay In his "Campaigning With Grant," Horace Porter gave what was almost certainly the first recounting of USG saying that he only knew two tunes; one was "Yankee Doodle," and the other one wasn't. And THEN, we have the old, OLD, *O*L*D* joke about the owner of a music store who was wont to post this sign in his window when he went out for lunch: "Bach by noon; Offenbach sooner."

[@richardcleveland8549]

@@mathewdallaway I disagree; they inhabit the same galaxy, as operetta is generally defined. I love both G&S and Offenbach and feel no need to make a hair-splitting distinction between them.

[@adarkerlight]

I have two more patter songs to memorize and I'll be done. This one, and "My Name is John Wellington Wells" from The Sorcerer. These songs are ruddy brilliant, been singing them for years. (Can't get to all of them at once!)

[@richardcleveland8549]

Stop! STOP! *S*T*O*P*!! Yer killin' me!!!

[@dorothydawson9131]

Thoroughly Modern Millie brought me here.

[@5610winston]

Many years ago, PBS undertook an ambitious project to produce all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas using well-known and highly regarded talent (eg Joel Grey as Jack Point in YEOMEN, etc). This is an excerpt from the 1985 broadcast of Ruddigore, and first-rate it is!

[@richard1493]

0:05 my sleep paralysis demon

[@rayfridley6649]

The music of It Really Doesn't Matter is used in the stage musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.

[@MrTrevor181]

Saw animated version of RUDDIGORE as a youngster - like to get hold of this. Funny!.

[@marnanel]

It's not in G&S's version of Pirates, the fact that someone once put on a production with a song transferred from a different operetta notwithstanding.

[@dnarii]

Keep in mind that this is a parody/pastiche of a Victorian Gothic melodrama, so there is not a lot of the animated cheeriness typical of other G&S. If you watch "I Once Was A Very Abandoned Person" it is a very similar example.

[@oldcremona]

Vincent almost manages to sing the melody on this one! ;^}

[@GeishaShattori]

I get out of breath from just watching!

[@acyutanandadas1326]

We will all forgive Vincent Price for taking one breath His was the most legible version ever

[@thepantweaver]

Is it sad that every time I hear Margaret say she's generally silly, I always think of Monty Python? lol

[@philhersh]

Love it

[@gasmmusic]

My thoughts exactly!

[@lopenash]

"Rapid"

[@Bobsheaux]

Yes yes, we know it doesn't matter... But is he a modern major general??

[@PBQLead]

Is that Vincent Price as Despard?!

[@scottbullitt723]

Yes.

[@GrayManichean]

OH SHIT I forgot it was Vincent!!

[@WondersNassiri]

It's a musical by Gilbert & Sulliivan. It started off on stage and this is the movie musical

[@qeetuhd]

Keith Mitchell is such a good actor. I thought his Dennis Stanton Character from Murder, she wrote was his best. Nope, this one here is it

[@jasonhurd4379]

Actually his best part was Henry VIII

[@aarondaguio7179]

Boom! Vincent Price dropped his mike after singing his part of the song.

[@icebergmike27]

Wow. My first introduction to a version of the song was the Pirates of Penzance Film Production in 1983 play with Kevin Kline Angela Lansbury and Rex Smith and Linda Ronstadt. Kevin would have smoked any one of these guys with his recital

[@charlesajones77]

Same here. I've often wondered why they put this in the Pirates movie. It serves no purpose. They cut verses from several other songs, and yet added in a whole song from a different play, one that, excuse the pun, really doesn't matter.

[@ianfinrir8724]

Charles Jones Well, this song was also in the stage production of Pirates (the one they based the movie off of)

[@dimetronome]

​@@charlesajones77Yeah, that Pirates movie was terrible. I'm not a purist who insists on never modifying or updating G&S, but that movie removed too much material, Americanized it, and dumbed it down with too much slapstick (which just makes it less funny).

[@Sunflowers1591]

I've tried this (MM part) and it is NOT easy! In the end I stuck to singing her "mad song" as a solo and managed it much better.

[@henriettahenson]

The lady singer looks just like DAWN FRENCH I DID A DOUBLE TAKE 😂😂😂

[@gungdegalang4635]

I love the flat face

[@SingularSuperNinja]

I shall admit that I don't know Ruddigore well at all. But is there any character related reason to why all three of them move and sing in a very wooden and bored fashion. It's a very fun and upbeat piece of ingenious composition... and yet these three actors managed to make it depressing. Are the characters meant to be like that???

[@shakespearefreak-upon-Avon]

This how kids at Drama Class show off.

[@jwcnmr]

Margaret shows how to get the words our in her very difficult 2nd verse: put more nose into your voice.

[@ThePorpoisepower]

I keep thinking that's Vincent Price

[@Poet2916]

Thoroughly Modern Millie stole from this in "Speed Test" GRR. This is so much better.

[@trigun630]

"her opinion doesnt matter" XD i love this song but man somoene needs to meme this

[@WillScarlet16]

Wow. So many people seem to think Vincent Price actually is English, but in this clip his American-ness is very obvious.

[@villainp8843]

Actually he had some british and wells descent)

[@Vadergeek]

Vincent Price never really catches up after his breath.

[@beachbears564]

Is that Vincent Price??

[@ianfinrir8724]

What's the matter!?

[@YouWouldntStealABag]

Blocking this must have been hell. But like what is this about?

[@shawnmulligan2894]

The song Your Fault from Into the Woods is much like a reworking of this with totally new lyrics. Great fun!

[@liannapfister8255]

Shawn Mulligan ...only in terms of speed

[@kittyprydekissme]

So who is the other guy, the one that isn't Vincent Price? He looks familiar.

[@WondersNassiri]

lol someone has issues... you act like I don't know that? I've done Pirates, Mikado, and am currently the Captain of the Pinafore! I know they're so much more; I just call them musical because it's primarily what they are, and not many americans know what an operetta is nowadays.

[@thepantweaver]

What is this from, btw? I know it's Ruddigore, but is it a movie?

[@wickedfeylady]

@thepantweaver LOL nope I do the same thing.

[@goldenheart3887]

I'm writing you a letter to demand an explanation.

[@rks581]

Why is this called "So it really doesn't matter" and not "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation"? Other G&S songs that have famous lines are usually called by their first lines (e.g. "I am so proud" in The Mikado)

[@josephssen]

it's called 'the patter trio'

[@orangutansoda]

I actually believe the true name is "My eyes are fully open"

[@kittyprydekissme]

My first thought was that the other guy was Jon Inman, but I didn't think the voice was right (I've only seen him on Are You Being Served?). But my mother just saw this and she thought it was him, too, without my suggesting it. Does anybody know for sure?

[@JoeLibby]

It's Keith Michell.

[@kennethwayne6857]

@@JoeLibby The late great Keith Michell, supreme performer of G&S, Broadway musicals, Shakespeare, etc.

[@reginanitta8896]

does anyone know what year was this production?

[@klandersen42]

According to IMDb it was a 1982 made for TV movie. www.imdb.com/title/tt0184871/

[@crippmeister]

IT'S NOT A MUSICAL IT'S AN OPERETTA! Sorry, it does annoy me when people call G&S musicals. They're so much more.

[@mathewdallaway]

Please do not refer to G&S as operetta. So insulting and belittling.

[@kennethwayne6857]

@@mathewdallaway When I performed them in Colorado we called them operas.

[@mathewdallaway]

@@kennethwayne6857 Yay! Correct thing to do. Opera Buffa is probably the term Sullivan would have used. Or just Comic Opera. But Operetta?

[@christinefarquhar2858]

Ciop

[@TheZacula]

Good, but I prefer the version from Pirates of Penzance.

[@lhrlyc]

poor performance - though the idea was appealing - shame it doesn't work ... Vincent price as sir despard !!!!

[@codyevaristo8029]

It's really not that hard to learn to be honest

[@yvonnehoward902]

It may be for you, you lucky thing.but l found memorising it really tricky. Never to be forgotten once learned, though.

[@klandersen42]

@@yvonnehoward902 Actually learning to sing it at the speedy tempo is the tricky part. learning the lyrics is the simple part.

[@TheZacula]

@cullmurr Troll harder, friend.

[@lettiebeethezadok]

Sounds like casting word spells Witches & Warlocks No Thanks

[@acyutanandadas1326]

We will all forgive Vincent Price for taking one breath His was the most legible version ever

[@lucyrodrigues7609]

I like the part when they say "matter"