Talking of Gilbert & Sullivan........

Which I sort of did in my "Sleep-wrecked" post...........see what I did there! I'm now in the exciting final few rehearsals phase of preparing to tread the boards in a production of a Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta.

*DISCLAIMER: I am not actually a G&S expert, I just like it and read Wikipedia a lot...........*

Now, if you aren't familiar with the work of that awesome duo, well they go together like strawberries and cream, gin and tonic, Reeves and Murtagh..............I digress.  Together they wrote the words and music for an impressive number of well-loved and popular operettas (like opera but with less anguished dying). If you like them you can go to any of their shows secure in the knowledge that there will be:

• the tum-ti-tum-ti tum one
• the tiddle tiddle tiddle one
• a patter song (loads of words, delivered very quickly, an impressive feat of diction and memory)
• the romantic songs - ranging from fa la la sad-ish madrigals to real "just one cornetto" feats of tenor virtuosity and almost Queen of the Night coloratura (ie soprano showing off).

And they are brilliant and funny!

The singing will be good- no company can get through a production without being able to sing pretty well, plus most of the people who love performing G&S really know their stuff (it's a drug that gets into your veins and you just can't stop doing it! Before you know it you are on your fifth revival of Pirates!)

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean to imply that there is no variety, on the contrary Gilbert & Sullivan seem to use a well-tried "if it ain't broke" formula, but they tackle a huge range of issues with wit and scathing satire - class distinction, politics, gender divides you name it - using clever word-play and ingenious composition.  I'm a fan as you can tell.

I'm playing the romantic lead who is rather shallow and vain (insert own joke)  to start with.  However she does of course (*PLOT SPOILER*) end up marrying her true love after some hilarious misunderstandings, cases of mistaken identity, lover's quarrels, lovers getting engaged to other people, threats of death etc and ultimately reconciling in some rather beautiful duetting.

My love of G&S predates my love of and parting from the Law, and predates my love for Mr LAL.  My long missed grandad was a great fan, and would have been very pleased to see G&S being kept alive on stages all over the world at every standard - from village hall amateurs to Opera House professionals.

There's a huge amount of musical snobbery about G&S by some - ignore it!!  Go on, find some G&S near you - ENO are doing The Mikado, and various companies of all shapes sizes sounds and stages are throwing themselves with gusto into those rousing Finales all round the world.  What's the worst that could happen...........well, as it's G&S: a gaggle of fairies cast a spell on you, you are to be beheaded, clapped in irons, marry a woman old enough to be your mother, forced to be a joint king and possible bigamist, demoted from ship's captain to foremast hand..........but don't let that put you off!

Right, I'm off to a rehearsal (with costumes today!) - tiddle pom tiddle pom fa la la la.........

Enjoy............