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15 Jul 09 - 09:25 PM (#2681137) Subject: ADD: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Q (Frank Staplin) When a Felon's not Engaged in His Employment Gilbert and Sullivan, 1879, Pirates of Penzance. Sergeant- When a felon's not engaged in his employment Police- His employment. Sergeant- Or maturing his felonious little plans- Police- Little plans. Sergeant- His capacity for innocent enjoyment- Police- 'Cent enjoyment. Sergeant- Is just as great as any honest man's- Police- Honest man's. Sergeant- Our feelings we with difficulty smother- Police- 'Culty smother. Sergeant- When constabulary duty's to be done- Police- To be done. Sergeant- Ah, take one consideration with another- Police- With another. Sergeant- A policeman's lot is not a happy one. Police- Ah! Sergeant & Police- When constabulary duty's to be done, to be done, A policeman's lot is not a happpy one, happy one. Sergeant- When an enterprising burglar's not a-burgling- Police- Not a-burgling. Sergeant- When the cut-throat isn't occupied in crime- Police- 'Pied in crime. Sergeant- He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling- Police- Brook a-gurgling. Sergeant- And listen to the merry village chime- Police- Village chime. Sergeant- When the coster's finished jumping on his mother- Police- On his mother. Sergeant- He loves to lie a-basking in the sun- Police- In the sun. Sergeant- Ah, take one consideration with another- Police-With another. Sergeant- A policeman's lot is not a happy one. Police- Ah! Sergeant & Police- When constabulary duty's to be done, to be done, A policeman's lot is not a happy one, happy one. |
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15 Jul 09 - 10:44 PM (#2681159) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Arkie I do enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan. I used to live near a city that had a Savoyard group and was able to enjoy several live operettas. Also managed to tape a couple of the PBS telecasts of G&S several years back. Now a CD has to supply the occasional fix. Was also lucky to be in the audience at Philadelphia Folk Festival many years back when Pat Sky, Tom Paxton, & others sang "When I Was A Lad". Thanks. |
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16 Jul 09 - 03:24 AM (#2681220) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Keith A of Hertford I played the sergeant in a school production once. It is by far the best part. You are not in the first half at all,and you are the only character who is not a fool. |
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16 Jul 09 - 01:54 PM (#2681583) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: GUEST,leeneia Thanks for posting, Q. From time to time, I have considered the place of Gilbert & Sullivan in the world of music. Their music is too fancy for the folkies and too silly for the longhairs. And yet it's enjoyable, fun to sing around the house, and attracts an audience when performed. I like to do the following when washing the dishes: A Wand'ring Minstrel, I Tit Willow A Maiden Fair to See |
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16 Jul 09 - 02:37 PM (#2681632) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Q (Frank Staplin) Watched a dvd of "Le Compte Ory," an opera by Rossini, last night. Like many comic operas, it is silly, as much so as G&S. The stories of many operas are slight and unbelievable, it is the music and comedy that catches the audience. There are many baroque operas in which the gods get involved with humans and cause all sorts of trouble, but there is a happy ending. Pure fluff, but good music, dancing, an innocent, rather stupid pair of lovers, and a happy ending. Handel, the expert showman, put on a number of these. The music's the thing in which I'll catch the audience, should have been Shakespeare's remark. G&S has many longhair supporters; it is the folkies who like those sad, lugubrious songs of dying and pining away. |
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17 Jul 09 - 01:29 PM (#2682306) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Tattie Bogle The different genres are certainly not mutually exclusive! I belong to our local Gilbert and Sullivan Society, who this year put on both "Patience" and "HMS Pinafore" all in one week (3 performances of each). Never quite sure if I was a lovesick maiden or "lightly tripping to the shipping"! |
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17 Jul 09 - 01:49 PM (#2682326) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: robomatic When I was but a lad I witnessed a Beeb televised production of "Ruddigore" which I think was stop-action animated. Only saw it the once but became a devotee of that Operetta and the G & S canon. It made a BIG difference in my life and education because it was SO clever and nevertheless SO Victorian and the popular wisdom of the time was that we were so lucky to be modern and out of that era. In college I was in a production of "Pirates" in which I was a chorister pirate in the first Act (and got to grab a laydee) and a policeman in the second Act (and got to rescue a laydee, at least temporarily). And a la Goons I got to say 'rhubarb! rhubarb!' a coupla times, too. Re: The first posting- I never knew what a coster was, or why he'd be jumping on his mother, and I believe the proper wording, if not the staged version as opposed to the printed lyric, is the Sergeant makes a poor pun of it and sings: Sergeant- When the coster's finished jumping on his mother- Police- On his mother. Sergeant- He loves to lie a-basking in the sun- Police- In the sun. Sergeant- Ah, take one consideration with another- Police-With another. Sergeant- A policeman's lot is not a nappy one. Police- OHHHH! I think G & S have a long run ahead of them because the humor was sly and self deprecating and the music so engaging. I recall hearing about thirty years ago that during the Occupation, Americans staged a production of Mikado in Japan and there were some PC questions asked about how appropriate that would be. They went ahead with it and the Japanese loved it. I'm also aware that Frederick gained his majority in 1940 and I'm sure that someone in Wartime Britain would have celebrated the fact but I've never found out what in fact happened. |
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17 Jul 09 - 02:31 PM (#2682367) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Bernard Interestingly, the intro to the Policeman's Chorus was (inadvertently?) cribbed in part from a song from Offenbach's 'La Perichole' (1868) - can't just remember which song... Sullivan probably didn't do it on purpose, but Gilbert was so much on the last minute with the libretto for every operetta that Sullivan probably had to cut a few corners. It is well documented that G&S drew some of their inspiration from Offenbach. Certainly D'Oyly Carte would usually go on stage for an opening night hopelessly under-rehearsed, with the words concealed in hats, umbrellas, anything they could use! I still have the score from 'La Perichole' somewhere, along with Pirates, Princess Ida, Trial By Jury and The Gondoliers... I played the part of the Gondolier in 'La Perichole' in a local production some 35 years ago! My 'big song' was 'Come, Heart's Delight' as I recall. Only a couple of years earlier I'd played Marco, one of the G&S Gondoliers! Typecast?! |
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17 Jul 09 - 04:09 PM (#2682430) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: GUEST,robomatic Isn't it said good composers 'borrow', great ones 'steal'.??? |
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17 Jul 09 - 04:13 PM (#2682433) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Bernard Sounds about right!! |
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17 Jul 09 - 04:58 PM (#2682463) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Q (Frank Staplin) My first experience with G&S was in highschool, with "Pirates of Penzance. Everyone cooperated, students, teachers, parents, and volunteers (more like coerced labor). The town was small, just the one public high school. We gave 3 performances to a packed auditorium. At least one of the students, who learned to handle the lighting, etc., later went on to technical work for one of the California studios. My next experience was in graduate school. Each of us was assigned a room (office) in a row of old decrepit houses that the school was planning to demolish and replace with some new building. Next door to me was a scholarship student from England who had a record player and a large collection of G&S LPs. Other students in the building commiserated with me, but I grew to enjoy it. I still have several scratchy old sets of G&S on LP. I am trying to find a dvd of La Periclore, but it was withdrawn, and no luck so far. It's another one in which everything looks tragic but somehow ends happily. |
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17 Jul 09 - 05:02 PM (#2682467) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Q (Frank Staplin) ?!Perichole! |
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17 Jul 09 - 09:41 PM (#2682606) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: GUEST,Billy The tune to "When a felon..." is used in what I consider to be the most literate composition in a Rugby (i.e "filthy") song entitled "The Portions of the Female". |
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18 Jul 09 - 11:59 AM (#2682840) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: dick greenhaus For those who hate to see references to songs that they don't know, "The Portions of the Female" is in DigiTrad as "The Doctor's Complaint" |
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18 Jul 09 - 09:44 PM (#2683094) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: GUEST,Billy Hi Dick, It seems to be listed as "The Doctor's Lament". The DT version seems more erudite than the one I learned. |
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20 Jul 09 - 09:25 AM (#2683836) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Bernard Yes, Q, I do know the translation of 'La Perichole'! The operetta isn't quite as raunchy as the title suggests...! |
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26 Oct 09 - 03:15 AM (#2752770) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: GUEST,Ken I believe the expression, "the 'coster" is a bastardized version of the word, "the accoster." |
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26 Oct 09 - 03:34 AM (#2752773) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: MGM·Lion Just to share my own G&S CV with all you other members of the Church of Latterday Savoyards:— Chorus of HMS Pinafore* at school, about 1949. Sir Joseph Porter in same opera, 1960, at school in S London [Peckham] where teaching at time. Judge in Trial By Jury, Sawston Village College, Cambridgeshire, where Head of English Dept, early 1970s. * "O, a British Tar is a Soaring Soul..." |
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26 Oct 09 - 09:32 AM (#2752881) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Dave MacKenzie A coster is a street trader or barrow-boy. The first couple of bars of the tune appear in the middle of Mussorky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" |
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26 Oct 09 - 11:18 AM (#2752932) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: EBarnacle "A coster is a street trader or barrow-boy." So what is a coster monger? This form is often seen in historical novels. |
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26 Oct 09 - 12:45 PM (#2752971) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Arkie Peter, Paul, and Mary's recording of "I Have A Song to Sing O" remains one of my favorites of their recordings. That along with Pat Sky's Philadelphia Folk Festival performance stirred my interest in Gilbert and Sullivan. Having grown up in rural southeast Virginia with little exposure to television there were not many cultural opportunities. We could not even get the Grand Ole Opry on radio. |
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26 Oct 09 - 01:21 PM (#2752992) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: MGM·Lion Acc to Chambers Dictionary, 'coster' is an alt form of 'costermonger', which was originally 'costardmonger' = cooking-apple-seller. |
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26 Oct 09 - 06:33 PM (#2753241) Subject: RE: Add: When a Felon's not engaged in his employment From: Dave MacKenzie It's in Collins, Oxford and Funk & Wagnall's (NY) too. |