By Annie RUTTER, Myall U3A

FRANCES Brown thoroughly entertained the Myall U3A audience recently with a presentation about the Victorian era comic operas and partnership of the dramatist WS Gilbert (1836-1911), the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), and the works they jointly created.

Frances, who has performed in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, is a master of her subject and she
relishes the opportunity to bring the audience close to the world of Gilbert and Sullivan.

She said she is intrigued by the whole landscape and theatrical contrivances of the performances and learnt a lot more about the operas by actually performing in them.

“Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.”

The producer, Richard D’Oyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and nurtured their collaboration.

He built the Savoy theatre in 1881 to present their joint works and founded the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company which performed and promoted Gilbert and Sullivan’s works for over a century.

Frances discussed the personal lives of Gilbert and Sullivan, who didn’t really like each other.

Each of them had imagined a much more illustrious future for themselves because of their individual talents, but ironically, the magic of their light operas still endures and they are still household names.

Frances pointed out that despite the absurdity of the operas, English society is thoroughly satirised in the world of Gilbert and Sullivan, and the audience is delighted to be in on the joke.

By setting many of the operas in a foreign and delightfully bizarre landscape, Gilbert was able to freely lampoon English society.

Although ‘The Mikado’ is set in Japan, we know it has nothing to do with Japan.

By removing the opera to a surreal and foreign location with loony characters, Frances explained how Gilbert was able to gleefully satirise English Society.

She pointed out the darker side of the operas.

For example, when The Mikado observes, “It’s an unjust world and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.”

Frances explained that comic opera is what Gilbert and Sullivan called these shows.

However, they are not mere ‘light operas’, nor are they ‘operettas’ which are devoid of any shade of dark and that the genius of Gilbert and Sullivan still influences theatre today.

Frances also played scenes from the HMS Pinafore which opened in London in 1878 and ran for 571 performances.

Frances said that was the second longest run of any musical theatre up to that time.

The lyrics of the song ‘When I was a Lad’ clearly lampoon WH Smith, the newly appointed head of the English Navy who had never been to sea.

Fans of Gilbert and Sullivan always love those lyrics, which Frances says are still relevant today.

The Myall U3A would like to thank Frances for her thoroughly entertaining and illuminating talk on the life and works of Gilbert and Sullivan.

It was a wonderful morning.

If you want further information on the U3A and what we offer, please go online to www.myallu3a.org.au, where you
can get information about the courses offered and enrolment instructions if you would like to join.