Cat, cat where have you been?

 I've been to the castle to look at the Queen.

So a family friend who is totally into G&S operettas suggested that I had a listen to Merrie England (by Edward German and Basil Hood (yes I put the composer first!)). I remembered seeing a couple of vocal scores for it at the local second hand bookshop so after work I pootled along and picked up a very lovely condition copy for not very much money.

I then downloaded Spotify (again, not sure why it wasn't on my computer... it used to be). and proceeded to listen to the first version I found.

I'm highly confused.

Firstly by the plot. I have no idea what happens. There's love, I know that much, and someone that people don't like and Queen Elizabeth and a lot of singing about Robin Hood for a while. I guess it doesn't help that there was no libretto in the recording but the songs didn't make a lot of sense either.

I also spent most of the time being confused because it isn't Sullivan. I didn't realise how set Sullivan is in his composition. You hear G&S and generally you can tell it's that. Yup there's another one! Off it goes being what it is. This is similar, there's the solo lines, the chorus, the orchestra. The four part harmony in chorus. But it's weird. The tunes don't quite follow the same patterns, the harmony goes in slightly different directions, the chords and key changes are just... strange when all you are used to is G&S (and very much from the music aspect of life).

By the end I was bobbing along because the refrain of "hey Robin, jolly, jolly Robin" is bloody catchy.

One really interesting thing I noted was that often it wasn't the higher line that was optional but a lower line. Sullivan liked to give the option of higher notes for soloists (especially the soprano lines) but often they would be little notes as an option but if you can't do them, hey it's ok, we aren't judging you (yes we are) they were just optional. In here there are a lot of high notes for not just soloists but chorus too! One solo line (optional this time and a cadenza part either vocally done or played by clarinet, in the recording it was sung) went upto a top Eb! (I think the technical term is Eb6 but it's three ledger lines above the stave) and although a fleeting passage and an optional one at that I was impressed that it was there to begin with. That's very very high stuff!

I would quite like to see Merrie England performed now actually, to see if any of it makes more sense than the rather fuzzy crackly recording that I could get (with a few cuts in which meant that the madrigal (and yes there is a madrigal) didn't have the verse with nonny nonny in it which was a shame) and see if the lib makes sense and if it is funny. That's the thing: they are comic operas. I would usually term them operettas due to the use of libretto and not singing start to finish but at the front of the score states "A new and original comic opera". And thus it should be at least amusing. Or that you can see how people might have found it funny way back when because some of the jokes don't really make sense now, depending on how you play it.

That's another point. Some people take these things far far FAR too seriously. They are comedies. Sure they have sad bits where you shouldn't laugh because the person is heartbroken or whatever and that is the sad part of the show but there is always the twist of the story at the end. The comedic parts (normally baritone) who lighten the mood. The minor interjections of asides that the cast aren't privy to but the audience can see all that is going on making the scenario all the sillier. And yet people sometimes believe that you should sit in silence and applaud at the right moment at the end of a song for an appropriate length of time. My god you must live a boring life! It would be like going to see Billy Connolly and clapping at the end of a long joke to show that you approve of what has just happened. Imagine not laughing! This is the first modern equivalent that I could come up with but I guess it works.
I have to admit I don't always get the jokes but if you have a good enough cast then you can normally laugh because you see their reactions to all of it so you know it was rude or whatever. And thus you laugh because their character is insulted by the whole thing.

I must admit I am yet to see the funny side of Merrie England but then like I said I didn't really understand a great deal of what was going on. Staging does help.

I would like to listen to some more of these things I think. Not just G&S but I do believe that out of all of them it is G&S I will return to most, and in particular the S part. What can I say, I am music driven and thus when it comes down to it I will be a Sullivanite over a Gilbertian, but often one goes in hand with the other better than without the other. I wonder what it is I like about their shows though. Maybe it's just because I've been in them and not others. Who knows.

I should really get back to editing Patience though... it needs to be done.

Go listen to something different, you might surprise yourself,

loves,

Buttercup xxxxx