It's not natural; trouble will come of it

[pameladean]

On March 5, dd_b, lydy, arkuat, and I went to see the Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company's production of "The Sorcerer." None of us had ever seen it performed live, and I think that only David had seen it on videotape, though he must have seen or listened to it more than once, since he began singing John Wellington Wells's song as soon as he opened the program book and saw the list of characters.

We weren't expecting much, necessarily, since this operetta isn't performed often, and the last one of those that we saw had not impressed us. But this was different. I didn't find much of the music memorable, except for Wells's songs, and many of the characters were slight even by G&S's standards. But the production was pretty sparkly. The woman playing the female half of the obligatory pair of young lovers did a great deal of quite difficult physical comedy. In general, in fact, they did a lot during otherwise, possibly, boring musical numbers by having whoever the song was addressed to attempt repeatedly to say something in response, only to be ignored by another burst of song. This effect could have been overdone, but they stopped short of that.

I was disappointed that, although they added "gender" to the list of qualities that shouldn't be a bar to two people's getting married, all the couples that formed were heterosexual.

The standout performances were those of Wells, the sorcerer who provides the idiot Alexis with a love potion to feed to the whole village; Constance, a young woman who is in love with the middle-aged rector; and the young woman who played both Cupid and a minion of Wells. As the latter, she did a series of perfect cartwheels; as Cupid, in a fairly silly costume, she was really magnificent, sweeping aside whole phalanxes of chorus members and loosing her cardboard bow so smoothly that its goofiness was quite eclipsed.

Constance was fat and staggeringly beautiful, and had a splendid voice, well up to the requirements. It was a pity that they put her into such a frumpy dress, even if it may be standard for the part.

The plot was a little out of the ordinary, too. Wells's summoning of demons to activate his potion was really frightening and spooky, and the solution at the end, while very off-putting to our sensibilities, was at least stark and alarming. I didn't so much mind Wells's getting a severe penalty for his dabbling in the occult arts as I did Alexis's getting off with a slight scare.





Yesterday was so warm that, even though we had lost an hour and forgotten that we would when electing to watch a third episode of "Farscape" after coming back from the Minn-Stf meeting, Eric and I went for a short walk along Minnehaha Creek. Many people were abroad, with bicycles, skateboards, regular skates, strollers, dogs, canoes, kayaks, and canoes with dogs in them. Ignoring the detour sign for pedestrians and passing under 35W, we startled a mourning-cloak butterfly from a large piece of machinery. The creek was brown and active, spreading well beyond its usual banks and running quite fast in narrower spots. Eric noticed as we were hanging over a bridge that beneath the running water were large tracts of ice along both shores. In some of the narrower stretches, there was ice all across. We assumed that the melt water had come along so fast that the creek proper had not had time to melt, so the water was all running over the original ice. We admired many trees and saw five mallards, clearly in mating mode. They were annoyed by the canoes.

We had to tear ourselves away from the outdoors and go to a birthday dinner for David's sister, but we had a very enjoyable time, and we were very happy that David's mother was able to come out and join us. I met his sister's partner's mother for the first time, and quite liked her. I also hadn't seen her stepson since he was maybe eleven or so, and he's turned into a charming young man. The restaurant seemed rather flummoxed by an 11-person party, but all the food came except for the stuffed bread Eric and I wanted to share. They finally brought us yet another basket of naan, and we just ate it. The restaurant was Kurry Kebob, in Northfield, and has not been so scatter-brained with smaller parties.





I noticed yesterday that some crocuses were coming up in the front bed, but it wasn't til after dark that I realized I should have looked for snowdrops in the back. They are up and blooming madly in the shelter of one of the peonies, pushing up out of the unsheared grass with perfect abandon.



I am sure we will have a dreadful blizzard, or worse, temperatures in the single digits with no snow cover, before spring is really here. But I'm glad of the snowdrops.

Pamela

Comments

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

I am sure we will have a dreadful blizzard, or worse, temperatures in the single digits with no snow cover, before spring is really here.

Ditto. I can only hope otherwise, since it's making my family in Ohio jealous.

[pameladean]

Hee, yes, a rare and valuable opportunity.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I wanted Alexis punished and Wells sent off to be the sensible businessman he was. He delivered an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, specters and hags notwithstanding. Alexis was just an idiot.

Also I was seized by the longing to see Hugh Laurie play John Wellington Wells.

But I agree with you that they really staged it quite well. I've seen it on DVD myself and didn't like it nearly so much as this performance.

[pameladean]

I was about to say that Aline could have married Wells, but I think Wells probably deserved better.

David did point out that after Wells was taken away to his death, the wooden form they put out to show he was dead had angel wings.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

True on both counts, and well-spotted of David.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I was a G&S maniac as a teenager, and I'm not sure I've ever seen The Sorcerer, but oh, do the lyrics come back to me. I bet I haven't revisited them in 35 years, but here's what came right into my head on reading your post:

My name is John Wellington Wells
I'm a dealer in magic and spells
In blessings and curses and ever-filled purses
In prophecies, witches and knells.

If you want a proud foe to make tracks,
If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax,
You've but to look in
On your resident djinn
Number Seventy Simmery Axe.

(I could even go on a little bit, but it gets fainter.) Can I tell you what I did last week? Aren't memories fascinating?

[pameladean]

That's pretty much what David remembered on his own.

Memories are endlessly fascinating.

P.

[quility.livejournal.com]

I've seen the Sorcerer dozens of times but couldn't remember any of the music until I read the above. Thank you for the reminder D! I'm surprised I didn't know you were also a G&S fan. Tho perhaps I knew + have forgotten.

I'm so happy to know there is a G&S society in town! Tho a bit bummed that I missed Ruddigore last year. I never get to see it anymore. :( I must get on their mailing list.

Thanks for this heads up! :)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Ooh, The Sorcerer is a rare one. I have seen it in performance, and it was brilliant, because what they did was they cast everyone exactly to type as Gilbert would have, except Mr. Wells, who was a very slim androgynous young-looking woman with a very high speaking voice but a perfect women's tenor. And everyone treated him precisely as though he were an elderly and rather frightening sorcerer. The effect ranged from mildly surreal through to stunningly creepy.

And then they pulled a happy ending out of it, because in the demon-summoning bit, the demon who appeared and did the choral lines was a very slim androgynous young-looking man with a lovely countertenor, wearing a gorgeous dress, and at the end the demon appeared in a puff of smoke and grabbed Mr. Wells, and Mr. Wells dipped him and kissed him. And you could tell that it was going to be rather the opposite of damnation.

I am, I am afraid, rather spoiled for other productions of The Sorcerer, because I can't imagine a better staging than that.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a very cool production!

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera company has performed The Sorcerer twice, it looks like, but I didn't see their first production. Hmmm; I can't find a list on their web site, but I remember from the lobby display that it was in 1985, and if so that would explain it, I wasn't in town that spring.

I've heard a professional recording that was on a CD set with something else I bought, but hadn't seen it before. The staging (this staging) added a lot; as just music, it's somewhat lackluster.

[pameladean]

Oh, that's an excellent ending indeed.

P.

[mdlbear]

Oh! Very cool indeed!

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

we startled a mourning-cloak butterfly

Thank you for reminding me that there was one in my backyard yesterday! It was so unlikely, the thought went right out of my mind immediately.

[pameladean]

Iknowright? Much too early. See subject line of post. Yeah. But I'm glad you got one too.

P.

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

I'm envious - our crocuses aren't up yet.

I do, however, have some borage with your name (figuratively) upon it.

[pameladean]

Snowdrops are much earlier than crocuses, as a rule; that's why I have them. And they seem too sneaky for bunnies to chomp them down to the ground, whereas I lost a thirteen-year-old clump of red tulips to rabbit teeth last year.

I do have one set of crocuses up, near the sidewalk where they get the reflected heat, but they are just barely up. The rabbits will probably eat them, anyway.

P.

[pameladean]

And hooray borage! Let me know when it's getting in your way and wants adopting.

P.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Speaking of theatre, I mentioned this to mrissa, and she suggested that I mention it to you. mmerriam and I are attending this Sunday.

[pameladean]

Good grief.

P.

[lcohen]

how was the play?

and pamela, my lilac has buds and it's plunging down to 22 tonight :( .

[careswen.livejournal.com]

It was good fun! Plenty of hilarity for MMORPG gamers (or those who love gamers) to appreciate; not sure non-gamers would have enjoyed it much.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

About fourteen of the bookgroup go out to dinner after discussion and we've only had problems with one restaurant so far. When I mentioned the problems on my LJ, they offered us a free dinner. You'd be surprised how many restaurants search for their names.

[pameladean]

Now I'm worried I didn't spell it right!

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

LOL I met my brother and most of his family for lunch last week at Dixie Bones and posted about it. The next morning I had a note from them. I think there are companies that have people who do just that.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Have you read Isaac Asimov's take on the ending of "The Sorcerer"? Being Isaac Asimov, he was able to write it up as a short story (entitled "The Up-To-Date Sorcerer") and get it published. (Unfortunately he felt the need to try to turn the love potion into thoroughly unconvincing science fiction, instead of staying with outright fantasy.) I actually agree that Asimov's ending is better:

Gur fbyhgvba vf gb gnxr nyy gur pbhcyrf nssrpgrq ol gur cbgvba...naq zneel gurz gb rnpu bgure! Fvapr gur cbgvba qbrfa'g nssrpg zneevrq crbcyr, guvf jvyy pnapry vgf rssrpgf. Gur zneevntrf pna gura or naahyyrq. Nfvzbi fcrphyngrq gung guvf jnf Tvyoreg'f bevtvany vagraqrq raqvat, naq gung prafbef jvgu Ivpgbevna abgvbaf nobhg gur fnapgvgl bs zneevntr sbeprq vg gb or punatrq.

[pameladean]

That's a brilliant ending.

P.

[momomom.livejournal.com]

I need to take pictures but last year I dug and separated and spread my snowdrops and Oh*My*God they grew and bloomed and now I have so many !!! plus some that are still in clumps and can be further divided.

So, if you are into that sort of thing, when the flowers fade and the foliage begins to look weakened but not all the way dead is when I did it. That left leaves for me to visualize where I had already planted.

[pameladean]

I'm theoretically into it, but bad in practice. However, I will strenuously remind myself, when tempted to buy more snowdrops in the fall, that I have a cheaper method of increase handy.

P.

[thinkum]

I haven't seen any snowdrops, but the office flowerbed has been sporting purple crocus for the past week, and after two and half days of pouring rain, the Sun! is finally Out! once again -- so perhaps Spring really is knocking on the door.

(Of course, this being New England, a blizzard, perchance, might be less surprising. But I'm thinking Positive. ;-))

[biblio-tech.livejournal.com]

I have a johnny-jump-up blooming, but there's still ice where my snowdrops should be.

Is the "Creek Closed" sign still on the bridge where the bike and walking paths come together (you'd see it if you were in a canoe going downstream)?

[pameladean]

I didn't see it, but we weren't necessarily looking very closely at the bridges. We walked basically from Nicollet to Portland and back again, crossing the creek a couple of times.

Some of the walking paths are still closed, though.

P.