WHAKATANE D.H.S. TO PRESENT A LIGHT OPERA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 41, 21 September 1949, Page 5

WHAKATANE D.H.S. TO PRESENT A LIGHT OPERA

Between the .infrequent visits of overseas touring companies, New Zealand audiences have few opportunities of seeing and hearing the popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. Copyright restrictions are severe, and permission is not as a rule granted for amateur performances, except in the case of schools. Recorded selections are frequently broadcast, but even the New Zealand Broadcasting Service is restricted, and cannot broadcast complete versions.

These comic operas are unique combinations of sparkling comedy and delightful music. Gilbert contrived in each of his operas to poke good-natured fun at the foibles of his fellow-Englishmen, and Sullivan captured the spirit in his music. “The Pirates of Penzance,” which will be performed by pupils of the Whakatane D.H.S. next week, has always been a favourite. The characters and plot are in the usual Gilbert mould—the major general who knows just about everything except soldiering, and cannot tell a Mauser rifle from a javelin, the sentimental pirates who cannot make piracy pay because they are so soft-heart-ed about orphans, and 21 year old Frederic whose fate turns on the discovery that, having been born on February 20 in a leap year, he is really only ""five and a quarter. Then there are the general’s daughters, whose main functions are to sing sweetly and to look charming, the sentimental pqlicemen, who hate arresting anybody and sing to keep up their courage, and the would-be-amorous maid Ruth, who apprenticed her small charge to the pirates owing to a confusion between “pirate” and “pilot.” Much of the music is well known —the policemen’s choruses, the burglary song “With cat-like tread” the song of the Pirate King, Mabel’s solo “Poor Wandering One” and the beautiful love duet “Ah Leave Me Not To Pine” being examples.