Utopia Ltd.
THE D'Oyly Carte's Gilbert and Sulliv monopoly still has a year and a half to r the copyright on Gilbert's librettos does expire till the end of 1961. But the company br already begun to draw in its tweed skirts again the cold winds of corruption. That is the id° behind the Trust, announced this week, which" to take over the whole stock of scenery. ens tumes, band parts and contracts and the h°1 task of maintaining 'the standard and tradin° of the operas.' The obvious danger which Inf Trust seems to want to prevent is of an epident of hotted-up versions, rumpled Pinafores an' problem musicals exploring Gilbert's strung' predilection for orphans, changelings and gr"• tesquely frustrated old maids: Since Sullivan copyright expired in 1950 there have been 01 or two acts of depredation. A nasty reminder this came only a few days before the announce' ment of the Trust, when an American television company put on a truncated Mikado lasting al hour and featuring Groucho Marx as the 1-°Idl High Executioner. But as the great man trni! remarked, 'if this doesn't kill Gilbert and Sul livah, nothing will.' G. and S. has survived an' will continue to survive. A far more deadly and to the D'Oyly Carte is likely to come from people who perfor'm the sacred works straight but Pc''. form them better. In the last few years, as it''' a series of EMI recordings with Sir Malcalir Sargent and Glyndebourne or Sadler's Well' singers (based on the ingenious argument PI since the music inevitably suggests the words. lb' words themselves can be logically considered oul of copyright) has been successfully running the blockade and proving that it is perfectly possible to preserve the authentic flavour of the operetw while at the same time freeing the music from tyranny of the traditional bandstand approach' and the text from the arch, mannered elocution beloved of generations of the faithful. Even the literal accuracy of the guardians of tradition not beyond reproach: how often do we hear performance with Sullivan's full and origin's) orchestration? At the moment the D'Oyly Cars company is in a powerful position. It has the scenery and the costumes, and it has a vast though possibly ageing, retinue of admirers for whom precisely the charm of these productions is that everything is dated . and., nothing changed' For them, to attend a D'Oyly Carte performance is to partake of a soothing, time-honoured ritual, to have all their dearest reflexes most tenderly stimulated and to return, for an evening, to a world in which the Empire was big and red on the map, income tax was 6d. in the £ and America had not yet been invented. With the present vogue for fast, tough street-corner musicals, the instinct will be all the stronger for Putting the Carte before the whores. But will the appeal last in this narrowly sectarian form? It is surely improbable, and certainly undesirable. A spokesman of the company has claimed that in handing over to the Trust Miss Bridget D'Oyly Carte had made 'virtually a gift of Gilbert and Sullivan to the nation.' But if companies like Sadler's Wells become interested in the operettas, the most valuable gift to the nation will be the expiry of the copyright and the very wholesome competition which will ensue.
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