I am in constant communication with the Mikado of Japan, who is a leading authority on such points

[sovay]

I am so tired that I feel like an idiot. It is difficult to think and difficult to write anything without feeling that I'm doing it wrong. I tried to describe my favorite romance plot from Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia, Limited (1893) to skygiants earlier this evening and I'm worried it came out like affectionate word salad.

I have fleurdelis28 to thank for introducing me to the operetta; she mentioned it favorably sometime in 2007 and I read the libretto out of the gigantic volume of G&S with illustrations that I inherited from my grandparents and fell in love with the secondary couple on the spot, even though I think I've heard the music exactly once on a road trip. The whole thing is a satire of Englishness set on a fictitious South Seas island recently opened to commerce with Britain, which is one of the reasons I suspect it is rarely performed. I don't remember being knocked over by the music, either, which may be another. And while I suspect the deus ex absurdo of the Joint Stock Company Act of 1862 will still resonate in an era where corporations are considered people, it's a particularly abstruse get-out-of-jail-free card even for G&S. I have nonetheless hoped for a number of years for a local production to turn up, because I love this one thread and it justifies the existence of the rest of the operetta for me.

At the start of the story, King Paramount of Utopia has imported an English governess, the redoubtable Lady Sophy, to educate his two younger daughters as is now the fashion among all the royalty of the South Seas. (The eldest is off at university in England; her return will precipitate the second act.) She's the middle-aged contralto and he is desperately in love with her, but his unscrupulous advisors have taken advantage of a loophole in the Utopian constitution—the government being of the form known as "Despotism tempered by Dynamite," it's always been an option that a King who governs badly can be blown up by order of his Wise Men—to force him under threat of explosion to write scurrilous articles about himself under various pen names, with the result that even his own Public Exploder believes he's an embarrassing libertine. He takes a kind of sad professional pride in his skills as a satirist and is otherwise very depressed. Lady Sophy, meanwhile, having progressed through the courts of Europe with a wreckage of royal hearts in her wake—she vowed to marry only a monarch of blameless character and hasn't found one yet, though not for lack of trying—actually returns Paramount's affections, but his reputation makes it impossible for her to tell him. In person she finds him sweet, smart, and honorable; then she picks up the latest paper and reads such things as would make Elegabalus blush and despairs all over again. Her attempts to determine the truth of the rumors are prevented by Paramount's resigned insistence that he cannot put the authors to death even if they are lying. It's weirdly poignant for a completely ridiculous situation. Fortunately, common sense and legal obfuscation come to their aid: the Princess Zara returns from England, discovers her father's situation, and determines that the solution is to turn Utopia into the joint stock company of the title, legally rendering the King a corporation rather than an individual and therefore no longer subject to dynamiting ("You may wind up a Limited Company, / You cannot conveniently blow it up!"), whereupon Paramount and Lady Sophy come clean to one another, perform an adorable duet, and kiss so enthusiastically that it embarrasses his children. There's more plot, but I pretty much don't care about it. I am in it entirely for the eccentric middle-aged couple who are just so happy to be able to make out at last. My post-canon fantasy is that ex-King Paramount becomes a political humorist on his own time and is very successful at it.

(This is not a movie, of course, and I need to be writing about those. I need to start sleeping more first. It's four in the morning; much chance of that.)

Comments

[skygiants]

You explained all of this to me both clearly and hilariously! (And it's not easy to explain G&S plots in such a way that they're still funny when put through the word processor; I have tried it and failed before.)

[genarti]

...What an amazing plot thread. Wow. I love it.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That is a fantabulous plot and I don't see why one would need anything else to go with it.

Not 100% off-topic, but close -- I can't remember whether I've ever talked to you about Takarazuka before. All-female musical theatre companies in Japan that appear to be where Golden Age Hollywood's sequins and giant feather fans disappeared to; their male impersonators in particular have obsessive fan followings and one really only has to take a look at 'em to see why. I can dig up video links if desired.

(This digression was brought to you by thinking "that sounds like the kind of plot Takarazuka would perform.")

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

This is delightful, the moreso because I just rewatched Topsy Turvy about a week ago. I impressed on the broadcast of The Mikado from the Stratford Festival when I was about 7, mostly due to the scenic design, but also because light operetta= musical and I was a musical-obsessed child.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Among the G&S fans on Tumblr, Utopia, Ltd. seems to have quite a following, but yes, figuring out how to costume it without coming off as racist is tricky. I suspect the only recourse may be extremely stylized and nondescript outfits on everybody, or a concert production; even though the temptation to steampunk it up is huge. There are clips from a production (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF2d0_w6MTc) on Youtube with the cast in a mix of Victorian and pseudo-South Asian gear (except Zara, whose dress looks more 1930s), but that's probably still pushing it, although I enjoyed the touch of King Paramount making his entrance on a giant mechanical tortoise.

[zdenka]

MITG&SP does it every once in a while. I've somehow managed to be in it twice, once in the orchestra and once as one of the interchangeable twins. I can see why it's not popular, but I think parts of the music are very beautiful. I also have a certain fondness for "A tenor, all singers above."

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Our local amateur G&S - which is seeded through and through with friends of ours, including Connie Willis' daughter - did this last season. Which pleased me because it was the one G&S I'd never seen; and then it pleased me all over again by being delightful.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

MIT G&S just performed this one this past spring, actually. I didn't manage to go and see it, being at the height of juggling-three-student-populations-at-once job madness while it was playing. Judging from the pictures, the Anglicization of Utopia involved Doctor Who costumes, Harry Potter costumes, and other nontraditional elements.

Mind you, I have no room to talk, as I performed some years back in MITG&SP's modern-dress production of Patience which was probably more egregiously nontraditional.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

http://www.cracked.com/article_18626_6-real-people-with-secret-identities-nobody-saw-coming_p2.html

(See #2)

Feel better!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think more nations should try despotism tempered by dynamite! And yes, the solution is *amazingly* in keeping with current day.