Divided They Fall
(j,ILBERT AND SULLIVAN are s0 generally accepted as an indivisible partnership that I have not reckoned on ever having to consider which of the -two might be the stronger-any more than I might wonder whether it was Bryant or Miay that put the striking power into the match, or whether Lee o1 Perrin put the pep into the Worcestershire sauce. The recent spate of Gilbert and Sullivan provided by the NBS
has forced siich considerations upon me. Gilbert’s pen is needed to deal with the present situation in which parts of these operas pop up all over the country in no particular sequence, first acts cruelly sundered from second acts (1YA even followed Act I of Jolanthe by Act Il of The Sorcerer the other night). With Gilbert’s shrewd, lively dialogue gone, and its place taken by a commentary, we have the nearest possible approach to pure Sullivan. As I listened the other evening to Jolanthe I thought that a duel was being fought between the sounds from the radio and the blueand gilt book on my shelf labelled "Savoy Operas," and that the book was holding its own. Either of these alone can call up memories of the whole partnerships seen on the stage. Yet Sullivan is not a Verdi nor even a Rossini, and I think Gilbert has been the greater strength in keeping the operas alive in our minds, in schools and around the domestic piano. Divided they fall, especially Sullivan.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 351, 15 March 1946, Page 12
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247Divided They Fall New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 351, 15 March 1946, Page 12
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