Gilbert & Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance / Michell, Kelly, Oliver, Allen, Opera World [VHS]

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	Actor(s):	Keith Michell Alexander Oliver Janis Kelly Peter Allen Gillian Knight
	Video by:	Image Entertainment
	Sales Rank:	102177

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Product Details/Specifications

Actor(s):
Keith Michell
Alexander Oliver
Janis Kelly
Peter Allen
Gillian Knight

Creators:
Derek Chason (Cinematographer)
Barry Stevens (Editor)
Edward Simons (Producer)
George Walker (Producer)
Judith de Paul (Producer)
William S. Gilbert (Writer)

Director(s):
Rodney Greenberg

Recording label: Image Entertainment
EAN: 9781578900060
Binding: VHS Tape
ISBN: 1578900069
Format: Classical, Digital Sound, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC,
Release Date: 1997-01-01
Universal product code (UPC): 619439000637
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: NR (Not Rated)

Description
A group of pirates celebrate the coming of age of their apprentice, Frederic. But Frederic has only remained a pirate because of his excessive sense of duty. Now he plans to return to normal life, and go to the police to have his friends arrested. The arrival of a chorus of beautiful 17-year-old girls on a beach outing with their guardian, Major-General Stanley, leads to one complication after another. The opera ends with a hilarious battle between pirates and police, and the discovery that the pirates are, after all, "noblemen who have gone wrong."

Amazon.com
The Pirates of Penzance would seem to be one of the most indestructible of theatrical works, with its seamless parody and melodic brilliance. No material is surefire, however. In this lackluster version, the pleasures are sporadic at best. The production, originally shown on the BBC, is a nondaring affair that avoids any modern sensibility or satiric edge. Mabel's song "Poor Wand'ring One," a swipe at the trilling idiocies of opera, here lacks any sting at all, with Mabel's sisters pirouetting in wholesome Victorian fashion--just what the antisentimental Gilbert & Sullivan didn't have in mind. Nevertheless, there are some good gags. When Frederic reveals himself to the sisters as they are daringly taking off their shoes, they hop backward in fright, simultaneously, on one foot. The casting includes some fatal errors. Alexander Oliver as Frederic is plainly so much older than his juvenile character that the role is reduced to nonsense. Worse, his performance is drab and lethargic. The singer-songwriter Peter Allen, cast as the Pirate King presumably for star appeal, contributes a hip-swiveling Vegas style that jars with everything around him. Keith Michell, as a charming, befuddled Major-General, is much better.

This is an entry in the Opera World series of Gilbert and Sullivan videos, made in the early 1980s. The operettas in the series, which in many cases feature the considerable asset of subtitled lyrics, were sometimes cut to fit a two-hour time slot. Pirates, instead, was padded with a bland making-of-the-film segment, followed by endless travelogue shots of the seaside town of Penzance. Don't bother. --David Olivenbaum

Running time: 98 minutes