Skim milk masquerades as cream;
Highlows
pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.”—
“Things
Are Seldom What They Seem," in H.M.S. Pinafore
(1878), libretto by W.S. Gilbert, music by Arthur Sullivan
In
an environment that has recently been called “post-truth,” it’s nice to know
that some things don’t change. One person who might have chuckled at that
recognition was English librettist-director W.S. Gilbert (pictured), born in London on this date in 1836.
Together
with his creative partner, Arthur Sullivan, he produced 14 comic operas that
continue to be performed worldwide—and a raft of some of the most bitingly amusing
verses in the English language, including these from “The Judge’s Song” in their first success, Trial by Jury:
“You’ll
soon get used to her looks, said he,
and
a very nice girl you’ll find her;
She
may very well pass for 43,
in the dusk with the light behind her.”
Mike
Leigh’s 1999 film, Topsy-Turvy, recounts how the creative
partnership between Gilbert and Sullivan almost foundered before they scored
with one of their career highlights, The
Mikado.
Gilbert’s
comic sensibility proved hugely influential to Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw
and Stephen Sondheim. But his imprint might have been most noticeable on Noel
Coward. It’s difficult not to think of Gilbert when reading the lyrics to
Coward’s “Why Do the Worst People Travel?”, for instance.
A blog associated with the radio station WQXR offers a nice summary of Gilbert and Sullivan's virtues: "What's So Special About Gilbert and Sullivan? We've Got a Little List."
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