You may watch the playlist here, or click in the bottom right corner of the video to watch on YouTube. I suggest making sure each video is starting at the beginning, as I’m not sure where they were starting from when I added them to this collection.
I have listened to much of the Gilbert and Sullivan music, but I have not seen all of the operettas visually performed. Most of my comments are from listening to the music, and from watching the videos included in this playlist and a few snippets of the other operettas.
Notes on the playlist:
I created this playlist as an opening to conversations about the impact of politics on art, and art on politics, and to the interesting interactions between comedy, satire, and classism, racism, and sexism in response to the mention of the three little maids from the Mikado being used to advertise corsets in Tompkin’s Racial Indigestion. Much of my notes here are from personal observations and opinions, as I have not studied Gilbert and Sullivan and the interactions between art, theatre, and the sociopolitical sphere in depth, but I think they can still be interesting starting points for conversation.
Video one: Full recording of the Mikado. I have not seen this full version, so I don’t know how some of the changeable songs have been interpreted in this version, but it can serve as good context and a reference point to the original subject of Tompkin’s mention.
Video Two: To me this appears to be a relatively traditional performance of the song “Three Little Maids” from the Mikado. These are the three little maids mentioned in Tompkins, and the song mentions their homecoming and their expected times to be married, from my interpretation. Yum-Yum is already betrothed, and the others will not have to wait very long.
Video Three: This is a more modernly interpreted version of three little maids. I chose this video to showcase the differences in the way the shows are performed. As far as I can tell, it’s at least tradition, if not written into the operettas themselves, that certain songs are changed to fit the circumstances.
Video Four, Five, and Six: Several versions of the song “I’ve Got a Little List”. I’ve arranged them more or less in what I would call more tradition to more modern interpretations. This song is discussing various types of people that society wouldn’t miss if ‘someday a victim must be found’. Depending on the performance, political figures, people who puff peppermint in your face, and various other types of people are listed.
Video Seven: “When I was a Lad” is the story of how a man went from office boy to Ruler of the Queen’s Navy without ever going to sea or being on a ship. It’s poking fun at how authority figures are chosen and social hierarchies. I believe in this show the character who sings this song ends up having been switched at birth and trades places with the captain of a ship, again playing with various ranks and social orders. This song is from HMS Pinafore.
Video Eight: “If You’re Anxious for to Shine” pokes fun at intellectualism, or at least empty intellectualism, stating that if you speak in confusing ways that others’ can’t understand they’ll think you’re deep and profound. This song is from Patience, I think.
Video Nine: “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” is a very fast song that has been used in various parodies including Tom Lehrer’s Element’s Song, and a fan song about National Novel Writing Month called “I am the Very Model of a WriMo Individual. This song is also poking fun at various kinds of practical versus intellectual knowledge and position and authority. This song is from The Pirates of Penzance.
The last three videos are political parodies I chose to highlight the interaction between art and theater and politics. the first, Video Ten, “The Modern Fundamentalist” is making fun of the Kim Davis marriage certificate issuing scandal from a year or two ago, set to the tune of Modern Major General.
The Eleventh Video is a parody about Donald Trump, from before the election, set to the tune of “Ya Got Trouble” from the musical The Music Man.
The Twelfth Video is another parody of the Kim Davis situation, this time set to the tune of “Cell Block Tango” from the musical Chicago.
I chose these Gilbert and Sullivan songs and parodies using the music of musicals to begin a conversation about the dynamics and influences of art and politics on each other. This is not an exhaustive list, nor a particularly scholarly one, but it comes from my own personal observations and things I’ve found particularly interesting or amusing that art/theater/politic interactions have created. I hope you find some interesting thoughts, or at least amusement, in some of these videos and the connections that can be made between them.