The Gilbert & Sullivan Master Collection (1982/Acorn Media)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B     Opera/Libretto Performances: B

 

 

I have to admit that I thought the critically acclaimed Mike Leigh film Topsy Turvy was counterproductive and annoying, turning off more people than it ultimately turned on to the work of Gilbert & Sullivan.  In 1983, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. hosted a series of 10 of their modern Opera works co-produced by PBS and the BBC.  Acorn Media has collected them in The Gilbert & Sullivan Master Collection, devoting an entire DVD to each work.  Those titles are:

 

H.M.S. Pinafore

Iolanthe

The Gondoliers

The Mikado

Patience

The Pirates Of Penzance

Princess Ida

Ruddigore

The Sorcerer

The Yeoman Of The Guard

 

 

Having seen many of these upon their original broadcast, I was struck by the distinct space given to the performers in the videotaped shows.  These versions are nearly referential, but there is still something about this series that did not stay with me like so much similar TV production of the time.  The issue is not the whimsy of G&S being repetitious, though it often is, but there is something darker being ignored in all this “turvy” and wit that makes these versions date oddly.  Like the feature film version of The Pirates Of Penzance, they were also made in the last months of the pre-MTV era, before Music Video’s classical era of 1982 produced so many classics that changed music, television and film editing forever.

 

The staging is traditional and the cameras do what they can to capture the performances.  In one of the smartest moves Acorn could have come up with, helping to prove my point, each DVD includes the entire companion libretto booklets inside the DVD cases.  That is a coup and makes this a referential DVD set for fans, even if they have the same mixed feelings I do about this set.  Of course, the booklets are available separately…  somewhere.  However, here, with ambitious TV produced performances, this makes for a great study set of the value and legacy of their creators.  That is what DVD is supposed to offer and Acorn gets that once again.  I wish more video companies did.

 

The full frame 1.33 x 1 images on each of the ten programs are equal, having been analog PAL taped around the same time.  The image quality is decent, but ironically, the “New Romantic” look of early British Music Videos of the time surfaces here unintended as bright lighting maybe beyond what the format was capable of is used here.  It also shows that times were changing for the visual (and videotape) vocabulary.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 on all ten discs takes the monophonic sound and boosts it better than expected to a simple stereo that translates well over 20 years later.  It is nothing spectacular, but better than you would expect, but Acorn (like A&E) takes care of its technical quality on older titles as well as anyone.

 

Besides the nice packaging, the extras include those Fairbanks intros, booklets, a song index for each program and the same profile of Gilbert & Sullivan on all ten discs.  So, if you had the same problems with Topsy Turvy that I had (and I know I am not alone), then you should see the programs in The Gilbert & Sullivan Master Collection to give their work a better chance.  These shows are more authentic, pure and to the point of their work.  That is why they still hold up as well as they do.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo