I haven’t mentioned in a while that Planet Waves has official theme music. All Gilbert & Sullivan songs are titled by their first line; this is called “When I Was a Lad.” The song is sung by Sir Joseph Porter, from the Victorian-era light opera, H.M.S. Pinafore; it is basically his resume, the story of how he became first lord of the admiralty (and based on a real life guy named Smith). This particular recording is a recent New York production of the play; I will add recording details in a little while. This particular track includes a prelude, called “I Am The Monarch of the Sea,” also about the fictional Sir Joseph.
I was pretty darned surprised when I found out my mom did Pinafore at 10 years old. Have you met a 10 year old girl any time lately? They’re young! However, my mom, like Washington, Lincoln, Caesar and Lucille Ball, has a Capricorn Moon — old when they’re younger, young when they’re older. She performed G & S shows for years.
My dad performed in some as well — at least Ruddigore.
They took me to several of the shows when I was younger, at the now defunct Light Opera of Manhattan (a big plus growing up in New York City is the proximity of very good theater). I rediscovered them while living in Paris in 2005. They weren’t performed in Paris, of course; that would be a feat. But I started to discover the songs again…and now I love them like I love the Beatles.
The shows are populated with ironic, salty characters: the admiral who’s never been to sea; a general who can name every bug, rock, mineral and plant, but only has a “smattering of elemental strategy,” sea captain who “hardly ever” gets seasick, and pirates who hail from a docile resort town in the south of England (but which is on one level a joke about the piracy of their other plays).
I’ll share more of their work with you over the next few weeks.
Camille – I completely understand what 10 year old does that. It sounds wonderful, what great fun that must have been. And this is coming from a similar 10 year old whose mother gave her and her sister tickets to go and see The Gondoliers at a theatre up town (we got a taxi and everything!) on our own. What a night!! We’d never been to the theatre before, didn’ t know where to go, the protocol – but we had such a time. Sang all the way home.
Then, after pleading with our mum, we got to join our City choir. We had to audition in front of the existing choir of about 70, accompanied with just the piano and our choirmistress (complete with diamonte Dame Edna spectacles) tapping the wooden stage floor with her cane when we duffed it up. Months of early Saturday mornings followed, as we got 2 trains and a bus all the way in to class (we lived far out in the country then) to learn Schuberts ‘The Trout’ and ‘The Skye Boat Song’. Oh those were the days.
Thank you for the story Camille. I can picture it well.
I don’t know what 10-year-old auditions for the school operetta, a junior high school operetta at that, and finds herself cast as Josephine, the daughter of the captain of the Pinafore; the female lead.
I did not think that this was in any way unusual. So instead of going to typing class in the 7th grade, I went to rehearsals for H.M.S. Pinafore and fell in love with the wit and humor and music of Gilbert and Sullivan. A complicated script? No problem. Vocabulary words I never heard? no problem. High notes? Easy.
Singing was suddenly fun and since I totally lacked stage fright of any kind, I was thrilled to hear that applause. And I learned how easy it was to learn songs when the lyrics made sense and the rhymes all fit. Everybody gets married at the end and I got to wear a wedding dress! And the thrill of, “For He Is an Englishman!” with “said it” rhyming with “credit” and British flags waving on stage.
Some of the songs told a story. Some were sad. All were great to hear and great to sing and so I sang every day, all day. I memorized every song in Pinafore and jumped at the chance to be Yum Yum the next year in the 8th Grade, joyful in a white kimono, marrying Nanki Poo.
More great music, more great lyrics and enough great words to get me through my college entry exams.
I thought my life was going to be an operetta. And, I never learned to type.
— Camille Savitz
At the top of the tree…just don’t go to sea!
Ha ha! Oh that’s so good – haven’t heard that for years. I’m stuck to my desk at the moment, wonder where I’ll end up…xx