# Gilbert & Sullivan **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711 "2013-05-19T01:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/41 "2013-05-20T15:52:57Z")
Pirates of Penzance is the only G&S that I’ve seen performed live. It was a college theater production. I enjoyed it. Theres some good music. A bit dated but fun. Weird poll. Theres no yes I enjoyed it? ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/42 "2013-05-20T16:49:25Z")
I’m on the fence about G&S – enjoy the operettas in a lukewarm sort of way, but am not a passionate fan. I find many of the tunes lovely (though I know that there are music aficionados who consider it lame and “philistine” to enjoy nice tunes); but I feel a lot of the word-content to be rather weak and laboured. Some of the satire is dated and no longer applicable; some deals with timeless themes. I get more pleasure from Gilbert’s “Bab Ballads” – copious comic verse, with no goal of trying to improve people or ridicule their bad / foolish conduct: the “Ballads” just strike me as gloriously and delightfully silly, purely for the sake of being silly. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/43 "2013-05-20T18:00:05Z")
I think your poll leaves a lot to be desired. Put me down as somebody who still loves G&S. While they may be dated I still agree with most of “I’ve got a little list”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/44 "2013-05-20T18:55:54Z")
I don’t love them, but have performed in many of the shows. Their popularity has not waned a bit, as far as I can tell. College and community theatres perform their works on a very regular basis. And they are enjoyed by both Liberals and Conserva-tives. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/45 "2013-05-20T18:58:53Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I don’t love them, but have performed in many of the shows. Their popularity has not waned a bit, as far as I can tell. College and community theatres perform their works on a very regular basis. And they are enjoyed by both Liberals and Conserva-tives. I belonged to my university’s G&S group when I was a student, and stayed in the group after I graduated. I remain a member to this day (playing in the orchestra.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/46 "2013-05-20T19:11:20Z")
When I was stationed at The Presidio of Monterey, in 1974-1975, a local theater group put on a parody of HMS Pinafore, titled FSS Trekstar. Spock did the “Modern Major General” song. _“And I never never mess with girls!!!”_ \*“What never?” “Well, almost never.”\* And the show opener began: _“We boldly go where men Have never gone before us…”_ The whole thing was hilarious, and I really wish I’d brought a tape recorder.(Remember, this is the mid-70’s) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/47 "2013-05-20T19:13:09Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I wish they were more popular today. When I was a child back in the 60s, I get the impression that their music was pretty universally known, but I fear they are obscure to the current generation. Of course it might have just been my home - my dad was a big fan. > > Sadly, what opportunities do kids have to be exposed to their work today? Both my nieces are sopranos and would have been wonderful G&S ingenues, but sadly their high school music directors insisted on wasting money paying for the rights to mediocre Broadway crap. > > Oh, and Fear Itself, listen to it again. It is a suicide song. I love them, and they are still performed reasonably often in the San Francisco area. There’s a troupe called the [Lamplighters](http://www.lamplighters.org/season.html) that specializes in them, they usually do two of their shows every year. Also the [Stanford Savoyards](http://www.stanford.edu/group/savoyards/cgi-bin/). And by total coincidence I went to a youth theater production of \*The Pirates of Penzance \*just a couple of days ago! ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/48 "2013-05-20T19:16:46Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I belonged to my university’s G&S group when I was a student, and stayed in the group after I graduated. I remain a member to this day (playing in the orchestra.) In that case I love you. If you play viola or trumpet, I want to marry you. (In every show I did, I was the music director. Getting a good orchestra together was like pulling teeth.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/49 "2013-05-20T19:17:50Z")
In my last post I made an error and was too late to correct it. It was Kirk who did the captains lines of course, only in this version it was about girls. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/50 "2013-05-20T19:28:18Z")
[quote=“Baker, post:46, topic:658711”] Spock did the “Modern Major General” song. _“And I never never mess with girls!!!”_ \*“What never?” “Well, almost never.”\* May I nitpick? Those lyrics belong to _I am the Captain of the Pinafore_. I’m wondering how many adult Americans even know who G&S were. A few weeks ago I was talking to someone about how I’m a musician. When she asked me more about it, I mentioned Gilbert and Sullivan. “Are they a local band?”, she asked. It took a lot of self-restraint not to burst out in laughter. My jaw did drop, though. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/51 "2013-05-20T20:51:44Z")
tdn, see the post directly above yours. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/52 "2013-05-20T21:22:36Z")
I think your perception of their popularity has a lot to do with location. On the East coast, they are a lot more popular, but as far as I know, there are only two groups performing G&G in the greater Chicago area, and each only does one production a year - the [Evanston Light Opera](http://www.light-opera-works.org/) and the [Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company](http://www.gilbertandsullivanoperacompany.org/) at the University of Chicago. I saw the latter’s 2008 production of _Iolanthe_, and the majority of the cast were well past the age of retirement. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/53 "2013-05-20T21:44:17Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > In that case I love you. If you play viola or trumpet, I want to marry you. (In every show I did, I was the music director. Getting a good orchestra together was like pulling teeth.) I play clarinet. I did play the viola part on the clarinet for two of my years in the group, because we were short a violist. Good times. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711/54 "2013-05-21T02:51:54Z")
I am the very model of a modern major GS Fan I’ve seen the shows and bought the record I know the lyric back to front,I am a committed GS man From work to home and back again, GS blares from my old ford I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters Gilbertonian I understand the pun, both the simple and Sulivanial About inside joke I’m teeming with a lot o’ news With many cheerful facts that I would not share with the like of yous With many cheerful facts he would not share with the like of yous With many cheerful facts he would not share with the like of yous With many cheerful facts he would not share with the like of yous With many cheerful facts he would not share avec de vous I’m very good at history and victorian society I know the popular slang of citizens Albionious In short, of opera light , like Gilbert and Sullivan I am the very model of a modern major GS Fan In short, of Opera light, like Gilbert and Sullivan He is the very model of a modern major GS Fan I know my music history history, From Primal to the Minimalist Duke Ellington, or Laurie Anderson, I may be an esoterosist I make with parody lyrics a tribute to some great men Who would wipe the floor with my tripe, and then do it all once again I can tell a Classic from a fad when I hum its tunes all day long Unlike the croaking chorus from the modern gansta rap star song Then I can not slay kill the earworm, that cerebrally sings at my core And blasts me all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore And blasts me all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore And blasts me all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore And blasts me all all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore Then I can write a parody in Sulllivanic pentameter And tell youwhat the points of Gillbert’s puns is fer In short, in matters of Gilbert or of Sullivan I am the very model of a modern Major-GS Fan In short, in matters of Gilbert or of Sullivan He is the very model of a modern Major-GS Fan My Apologies… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilbert-sullivan/658711.md?page=2)