Unpirated Pirates

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 445, 2 January 1948, Page 6

Unpirated Pirates

FTER a superabundance of Savo Operas when the NZBS acquired th tight to put them over the air, Gilber and Sullivan gradually began to b heard less and less, and the perform ance of The Pirates of Penzance th other night from 4YA came as a pleas ant variation of the regular programme No operettas stand constant revival a% well as the Savoy Operas. The ster hand of the copyright-holder, while i sllows us to hear little enough of thi delicious music, ensures also that onl authentic performances of the opera can be heard; and it is probably thi¢ vigilance which has kept these plays sq popular for so many years-audienc and radio listeners do not grow tired, of them through hearing the music t often, through sitting out poor amateu productions, or through listening t (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) mangled "arrangements" of music which is so perfect in its own sphere that the hand of the jazz-arranger must not be allowed to spoil it, as it has unfortunately spoiled those classics which are not protected by rigid copyright, It has always been difficult to’ decide which of the operas is the most popular, but The Mikado and Pinafore usually top the poll, with The Gondoliers atid The Pirates of Penzance equal for second place. The Pirates has a lot of graceful music side by side with such things as "Come Friends Who Plow the Sea," which some critics regard as incomprehensibly banal; but listening to "Poor Wand’ring One" and some of the choruses, it is easy to suppose that both author and composer were here indulging in a parody of genuine opera,