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Product Description
This 10-disc boxed set includes "The Gondoliers," "H.M.S. Pinafore," "Iolanthe" (1982), "The Mikado" (1983), "Patience," "The Pirates of Penzance" (1982), "Princess Ida," "Ruddigore," "The Sorcerer," and "The Yeomen of the Guard."
Amazon.com
The Master Collection includes 10 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas produced for British television. The Opera World series (1982) is the only comprehensive Gilbert and Sullivan series on video. It comprises 12 G&S works (if you cheat and count Cox and Box, written by Sullivan without Gilbert), including, for some titles, the only available version. (Cox and Box and the one-act farce Trial by Jury, their first collaboration, are not part of this set.) In terms of quality, the series is uneven. There are some treasures, but some productions have a disconsolate penny-pinching look, and a few need more rehearsal. The casts are a blend of Broadway singers, British and American comedians, and D'Oyly Carte veterans, with stars including Vincent Price (Ruddigore), Joel Grey (The Yeomen of the Guard), and singer-songwriter Peter Allen (The Pirates of Penzance). Frequent standout performers include Keith Michell, Clive Revill, Kate Flowers, and Anne Collins, who shines as a procession of unloved older women.
Of the series, the standouts are Ruddigore, a trifle of a ghost story set to gorgeous music, and The Sorcerer, a buoyant tale of a magic potion that causes a whole village to fall in love with the wrong people; Iolanthe (a House of Lords satire mixed with ethereal fantasy), The Gondoliers (with Sullivan's Italianate, most radiant score), and Princess Ida (a satire of higher education for women set in an Arthurian kingdom) are also well worth seeing. The others--The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience, and The Yeomen of the Guard--are less satisfying. --David Olivenbaum
Gilbert & Sullivan - Master Collection Opera World Reviews
Gilbert & Sullivan - Master Collection Opera World Reviews
| 130 of 131 people found the following review helpful  Less than hoped for, By Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan - Master Collection Opera World (DVD) For many (most?) of us, this set provides the first chance to see as well as hear all of the principal G & S operas except "Trial by Jury," in all their "innocent merriment." That said, I have to observe that the set is not a source of "unalloyed pleasure." The individual productions range from very good to unmitigated disasters. At the same time, I must acknowledge that it is something of a miracle that any of them are even acceptable because they were produced under conditions that virtually guaranteed that excellence was impossible: the principals apparently worked under the handicap of singing to pre-recorded accompaniment, allowing them no flexibility of phrasing for expression. In addition, each production was rehearsed for only a week and then taped in a week. All are plagued by generally poor diction, especially from the chorus, and by lots of busy, pointless moving around, especially by the chorus. When the chorus has to brandish swords,... Read more 72 of 75 people found the following review helpful  Where's Trial by Jury?, By This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan - Master Collection Opera World (DVD) This is the "Brent Walker" series, noticeably missing from home video for some time. The set makes up the bulk of the G&S popular canon. Recorded but missing are "Trial by Jury" and "Cox & Box" (more on that in a minute).I saw the series on PBS when it was originally aired about twenty years ago and enjoyed it very much. Bootleg off-air copies and a short-lived VHS release of the series have been all that's available of the Brent/George Walker set until now. I hear that copyright fights over the videos have resulted in years of delays. There must still be a problem with what would be the 11th DVD in the set: "Trial by Jury", coupled with "Cox & Box", which had been released on the the VHS tapes. Perhaps someone else has the facts about this omission. Over the years aficionados have argued the videos' production values which seem to vary somewhat from opera to opera. However, the use of close-ups and conventional television effects make for good television, and these are... Read more 36 of 37 people found the following review helpful  A Great Disappointment, By Ranger243 (East Coast USA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan - Master Collection Opera World (DVD) I purchased the Favorites Collection from the same series, which contains most of the DVDs included in the Master Collection. Let me start by saying I love Gilbert and Sullivan, but the productions in this series are so bad I winced watching them. When Captain Corcoran first appeared on deck, I furrowed by brow and said out loud, "No, it can't be." But sure enough, a check of the credits revealed that the hardy captain of the H.M.S. Pinafore actually was game show icon Peter Marshall. That claim to fame and his constant horse-toothed grin were distracting enough, but his terrible performance made watching this version of Pinafore almost unbearable. Pete should have stuck to the likes of Yahtzee! and Hollywood Squares. Frankie Howerd speaks most of his lines as Sir Joseph. That may have worked fine for Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, but it was a deep disappointment to a diehard G&S fan waiting to hear some of his favorite songs actually sung. The cast includes a plain-looking... Read more |
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