Mike Leigh who is better known for his more earthy screenplays on contemporary
mores, now turns his lens on Gilbert and Sullivan, evoking as he says the
atmosphere of their world rather than simply documenting their story. His
musical collaborator was fellow
G & S enthusiast, Carl Davis who had actually played rehearsal piano
for his local G & S Society and arranged a Sullivan ballet for the re-opening
of the Savoy Theatre after its terrible 1991 fire.
For the film Davis conducted extracts from the three operas that figure in
the action of the film: Princess Ida, The Sorcerer and the
ever-popular The Mikado. Leigh explains, to answer potential complaints
about favourites being omitted, that numbers were chosen to suit the requirements
of the story. Nevertheless, a goodly number of Mikado favourites are included
here such as 'A Wand'ring Minstrel I'; 'Three Little Maids from School Are
We'; 'A more Human Kind of Mikado' in which the Mikado is anxious "To let
the punishment fit the crime"; and, of course Behold, The Lord High Executioner'.
Timothy Spall as the Mikado is excellent. Yet he is overshadowed by the
gloriously OTT expressive singing of Martin Savage in so many of the comic
numbers like 'If You Give Me Your Attention' from Princess Ida in which King
Gamma boasts "I've an irritating chuckle, I've a celebrated sneer, I've an
entertaining sneer, I've a fascinating leer..." but then wonders why "Yet
everybody says I am a disagreeable man! I can't think why!"
Interspersed with the vocal numbers, are a few orchestral interludes that
Carl Davis has arranged from Sullivan's music for other shows including The
Gondoliers, The Yeoman of the Guard and The Grand
Duke. Three Overtures are also included: Princess Ida, The
Mikado and The Yeoman of the Guard. In keeping with the general
Victorian atmosphere the album also includes a rendering of Sullivan's much
lampooned The Lost Chord, with those immortal lyrics - "Seated one day at
the organ, I was weary and ill at ease…It might be that Death's bright
Angel Will speak in that chord again.. "
Curiously, the album ends in a rather depressing downbeat mode with the slow
measured tread of Resolutions from 'The Long day Closes.' Keen film and film
music enthusiasts will remember that this was used most movingly in the passing
clouds sequence that ended Terence Davies' wonderful film, The Long Day
Closes.
The sumptuously illustrated booklet includes biographical notes about Gilbert
& Sullivan, a useful timeline charting the dates of all their operas
and brief synopses of all three featured operas, plus the words of all the
songs featured in this album which will be cherished by G & S fans
Reviewer
Ian Lace
OST
