Light Operas by William Schwenck Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan: The Characteristics of Their Works and Peculiarities of Their Performing Style

Breytburg Valeriya Vyacheslavovna PhD in Art History Associate Professor at the Department of Popular and Jazz Singing of the Faculty of Music Variety Art of the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music 121069, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Povarskaya, 30-36 5291685@mail.ru Other publications by this author

William Schwenck Gilbert (lyrics and libretto) and Arthur Sullivan (music) were among the most influential artists in late nineteenth, early twentieth-century English-language musical theater. For a long time, their joint performances occupied a leading position among various places of British cultural leisure. Interest from the audience, performers, and researchers has not faded to this day. Several works have been dedicated to that of Gilbert and Sullivan. One of the most significant and solid is the dissertation of the Russian musicologist Y. M. Polyanovskaya, which presents various aspects of Savoy opera: genre essence, issues of drama and musical style; also, Savoy opera is considered a separate theatrical system ^[7]. O.-L. Mond's scientific and methodological works are devoted to the issues of common musical theater vocal and dramatic features of performing styles; the traditions of acting in the performances of Gilbert and Sullivan are informative ^{[5, 6]}. Articles and books by Western European authors that reveal various facets of Gilbert and Sullivan's creativity are of great interest [8–15]. At the same time, the problem of the actors' performing style of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas remains open and requires a separate study.

The most productive collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan was under the direction of producer Richard D'Oyly Carte at the Savoy Theatre in London. For this reason, we often refer to their works as "Savoy operas." These are musical performances that are still very popular: H.M.S. Pinafore (or The Lass That Loved a Sailor), The Pirates of Penzance (or The Slave of Duty), The Mikado (or The Town of Titipu), Ruddigore (or The Witch's Curse), The Gondoliers (or The King of Barataria), Patience (or Bunthorne's Bride), Iolanthe (or The Peer and the Peri), Princess Ida (or Castle Adamant), etc.

The D'Oyly Carte's special purpose was to attract a respectable audience. Savoy opera set itself the task of "educating" the audience. Together with the mass audience, the creators wanted to see people in their halls who could understand the sophisticated subtleties of musical theater. And the Savoy has largely achieved its goal – it has managed to become a universal, but at the same time, elite theater for different segments of society.

The common works of Gilbert and Sullivan combine aristocratic and vulgar literary and musical components. They carry a dynamic musical drama, an appeal to original stories, an emphasis on and a desire for entertainment. The performances are characterized by a brilliant sense of parody and a sharp mind, a delightful, sparkling absurdity, and great artistic skill in creating the script and composition. The result of all this is one of the funniest, most charming, melodic, and wonderful examples of musical theater in its entire history.

The primary task in interpreting the studied works is to immerse oneself in the content of the literary part of the performances. Gilbert and Sullivan were well versed in the rules of high Victorian society as they themselves were representatives of its upper echelon; both were subsequently awarded a knighthood. At the heart of their best work is a mockery of the institutions and conventions of well-bred Victorian society (1837–1901), such as ideas of honor and duty, the social and class structure of English society, the absolute superiority of the British armed forces, respect for the monarchy and the recognition of its right to lead the empire, chivalrous gallantry, and romantic love.

Perhaps there was no more absolute value in Victorian culture than the unquestionable respect for authority. The hierarchical class system placed the Queen at the top of the social hierarchy. It moved down through the ranks of the royal family and the aristocracy to the industrial and religious leaders. Next on the social ladder were the middle classes (the primary part of the audience of these operas) and, finally, the lower working classes. In many of their operas, Gilbert and Sullivan made a lot of fun of the various foundations of the social ranking system.

Gilbert wrote rather tightly "twisted" texts in terms of plot and composition. He continued wordplay traditions in English theater and literature, showing the comic, ironic, or satirical possibilities of language that go back to the time of William Shakespeare. Gilbert honed a tradition of writing lyrics and librettos that go directly back to Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1910s and 1920s), Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter, Noël Coward (1920s–1950s), and Stephen Sondheim.

Some tendencies were particularly evident in the literary librettos. For example, Gilbert coined the phrase "topsy-turvy," which perfectly corresponds to his artistic point of view: to take a normal situation and turn it upside down, turning the logically expected social reactions inside out, bringing them to an illogically absurd extreme. This leads to the appearance of characters who satirically embody opposing values. For example, members of parliament who disguise themselves as pirates, who grant clemency only to those who declare themselves as orphans; admirals who know nothing about real naval operations; convicted criminals who are appointed royal executioners, and so on.

The researchers note that the musical art of Great Britain, where the main type of earnings was trade, developed quite differently than in continental Europe with its deep, noble tradition. In England, the bourgeois class had become a powerful force, in one way or another subjugating the culture of all strata of society. That is why the music of the "third layer" has become more widespread than opera and symphony music. The musical culture was a complete example of the art generated by the psychology of the bourgeoisie and its social foundations ^{[4, p. 54]}.

Bourgeois life itself was put under the gun of the visionary creators of conventional musical performances. "The bourgeois, as a matter of course, become [...] inside out […] extravagance triumphs over thrift, exuberant cheerfulness over solidity and religiosity, plebeian sensuality over conservative sensitive taste, audacity over reverence, dreams over accounting" ^{[1, p.129–130]}.

Operettas are also full of examples of situations in which Victorian values are turned inside out. For example, in The Mikado (The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, 1885), Koko is sentenced to death for looking at a woman who was not his wife. The commandment "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" is carried here to its absurd extreme.

Romance and virtue were central values of Victorian culture. Marriage was love and romance's ultimate goal. Female virtue was supposed to be protected and worshipped, even in marriage. Gilbert and Sullivan often laughed at some of their characters' suppressed desires but traditionally did not stoop to obscenity or vulgarity. Often lovers, such as Frederick and Mabel from The Pirates of Penzance (The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty, 1879), are very naive, and their unimaginable innocence looks funny from the outside, adding to the audience's fun. True love with incredible romantic adventures is the basis of such stories, in which young lovers try to connect, but they are not allowed to do so until the very last minute.

Victorian society was a highly formalized structure, and this officialdom penetrated deeply into the manifestations of relations between people in public. This is also true of the normative characters of the Savoy Opera. Gilbert and Sullivan sought to match the social expectations of the time with the reality of responding to extreme circumstances. At times, the formality could serve as a useful obstacle to the development of the action or an occasion to laugh at the heroes.

To play well in Gilbert and Sullivan's works, one must have a good grasp of Victorian society's fundamental officiousness and inflexibility to understand exactly how to laugh at it. It is very important to know the specifics of the plot's content, as well as the skill of the actors themselves. The well-known musicologist Valentina Konen wrote: "In contrast to the opera, where the plot plan forms only the outline for a musical work and, as a rule, outside of music, it is unbearably schematic and generally devoid of independent meaning. In operetta, the entertainment of the character, its conditional dramatic logic and high skill of the actor's conditions sine qua non [indispensable, lat.]" ^{[4, p. 46]}.

The performer's task in Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas is to understand exactly what values of this culture are being ridiculed and emphasize how exactly the character they play fits into this value system. Who is he – a man of duty or one who runs away from obligations? Often, the answer to this question turns out to be the central core of a character's identity.

The hero's display started through his stage attire.The fashion ideals we see in European operettas also reigned in Victorian culture, but with a slightly more conservative approach to men. However, the exotic locations and circumstances of Gilbert and Sullivan's plots often dress the characters in fancy costumes; in our time, they are often combined with some details of the Victorian wardrobe, thereby helping to connect the plot with this particular cultural moment. Women were required to wear corsets, floor-length dresses with layered skirts (or bloomers that eventually came into fashion, suits with trousers and a cropped full skirt), and fully covered legs.

The reality of men's clothing was embodied in a dull gray, brown, or black business suit or frock coat, complemented by a shirt with a tie and a faceless bowler hat. But the stage clothes for these operas were much more interesting and often evoked the clothing styles of the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries or were so distinctively specific to this character that it hardly made sense to talk about the fashion of the current time in relation to it.

Dominant performing traditions.At that time, there was melodrama and extremely formalized acting styles, such as those that François Delsarte brought into the system.In both of these traditions, actors assume exaggeratedly expressive poses that indicate feelings and relationships. As you know, Gilbert sought a more realistic approach than many of his contemporaries. But, nevertheless, this influence was still significant. Another strong influence of the time was the British music hall, the approximate equivalent of American vaudeville. Pure entertainment, direct audience appeal, comedy, and novelty were the rule in this genre, which was characterized by the "collision and interaction of two worlds: a world completely legalized, official, decorated with ranks and uniforms"..."and a world where everything is funny and not serious, where only laughter is serious" ^{[2, p. 493]}.

Interestingly, for the Christmas season of 1879, the popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera H.M.S Pinafore, or The Lass That Loved a Sailor, was staged at the Opera House in London, where children under 16 years of age took part. Critics noted that "the audience literally choked with laughter," considering the play "infinitely more comical" with child performers than when it was presented by adult actors ^{[8, p. 38]}. At that time, the English public liked to look at children who behaved like adults because they are able to create new concepts of character, and their natural talent and originality could only de admired. At the same time, the minor characters and the choir are a spirit of freshness and spontaneity that keeps the stage in a state of constantly changing diversity, which is very consistent with the general fervent mood that the authors originally laid down in the performance [cit. po: 8, pp. 40–41].

Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas are now performed in two divergent traditions. The original productions of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company were meticulously painted. For decades, they were reproduced with minimal deviations from the originals, almost in the same way as the traditions of kabuki theater in Japan are passed down from generation to generation. This was because Gilbert and Sullivan had unquestioning authority and completely controlled the entire rehearsal process: "the poet dominated in matters of acting and stage; the composer dominated in matters of music, vocal and instrumental" [cit. by: 7, p. 105]

The second performing style is prevalent in the United States and has been particularly strong since the early 1980s. In this approach, the actors play their roles in a manner that is much closer to modern musical comedy. In terms of characterization, you can expect anything –irreverence, witticisms, obscene humor, and even reworking the text to include modern words and allusions. Proponents of this approach feel entitled to do so because it allows the delightful humor and music of these two geniuses to continue to live on for a 21st-century audience.

For vocal incarnation,roles are characterized by the use of the bel canto opera tradition – rounded, rich sound production for men and pure academic intonation for women; the desire for the organic existence of the text in singing. In most cases, in Sullivan's comic operas, there is a correspondence between the register, the character of the voice, and the emotional content of the words. The strength, lightness, timbre expressiveness, "flight" of the sound is achieved not by pressing the breath on the larynx but by the effective use of the resonant properties of the vocal apparatus by the singer. At the same time, a more relaxed approach to vibrato is allowed even in traditional productions. Sullivan's music places great demands on vocals and requires a brilliant vocal technique from anyone who undertakes to perform it.

In rare cases, you can meet the same high requirements for diction as when learning the roles in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, especially the comic ones. Words are of paramount importance here. Gilbert and Sullivan invented a special type of patter-song, in which the character engages in stunning articulatory acrobatics at a puzzling speed. A patter-song often appears in the place of the exit aria of a "high-ranking" character. The participants in the productions mainly speak in the dialect of British high society. Sullivan inherited this combination of music and lyrics from Jacques Offenbach and the latter from vaudeville.

As in diction, the singer's freedom in terms of phrasing in the Savoy operas is much more limited than in European operettas. This is largely due to how closely words and music work together in these scores. Therefore, too much freedom in handling musical phrasing, especially in fast songs, will make the text illegible. In addition, the rhythmic component of the vocal parts is very important here. This is confirmed in Sullivan's own words, for whom the rhythm was paramount: "The first thing I find is the rhythm, even before the melody. The melodies are similar, they have common points, but my goal is the greatest originality in rhythm" [cit. po: 12, p. 103]. Ballads and romantic duets allow for greater flexibility (rubato).But it is still highly desirable to stick to good taste. Emotional excess is not characteristic of this style.

Attitude to plastic drawing. The acting role of the Savoy operas was formed under the influence of the stage traditions of the time. A powerful influence was melodrama, which required the actors to assume physical forms and poses that "denote" the feelings or type of their character. Central to this type of acting is the idea that no character can be so complex that it can't be understood at a glance. In this case, the actors should be literally "met by the clothes." Images of vile villains prowling around the stage, or lovers gracefully perched on fallen tree trunks, or kneeling on one knee with the other leg outstretched, arms outstretched, are typical of this style. It was all implemented in a rather "eccentric" style, in which carefully rehearsed rapid movements were combined with abrupt stops, resembling a puppet theater.

The gestures used in the original productions would be considered pompous and exaggerated by modern standards. Due to the breadth of the character spectrum, the palette of gestures, shapes, and movement quality is wider now than in most earlier styles. But complete with this breadth comes the basic requirement of clarity and accuracy of all physical movements. Sullivan provides the performer with such musical concreteness that it is necessary to consistently combine physical actions and behavior in the performance of the part with this music, pursuing the necessary professional goals. Carelessness in this material is unacceptable.

And in conclusion, as you know, Gilbert was not only the author but also the director of his theater works. His approaches in the Savoy Opera's traditional productions have survived to this day. D. Eden, a researcher of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, writes about the Gilbert theater: "it was a kind of total theater, each part of which fully met the intentions of the playwright" ^{[11, p. 22]}. The acting and singing, the sets and costumes, and the theatrical lighting formed an artistically complete concept, and everything was included in the action. That is why it is so important to understand the unique specifics and preserve the original performing style in Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas.

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