Gilbert & Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance / Michell, Kelly, Oliver, Allen, Opera World
by Rodney Greenberg
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DVD details
Actor: Alexander Oliver, Gillian Knight, Janis Kelly, Keith Michell, Peter AllenDirector: Rodney Greenberg
Cinematographer: Derek Chason
Editor: Barry Stevens
Producer: Edward Simons
Producer: George Walker
Producer: Judith de Paul
Writer: William S. Gilbert
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Acorn Media
DVD Reviews of Gilbert & Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance / Michell, Kelly, Oliver, Allen, Opera World
DVD Review: Simply the best for a viewing into a world of fantasy. Keith Michell alone....!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say the girls paddling in the tide pools entrances but Keith Michell as the Major General (like the Sorcer Clive Revell) is so perfect! I really love the sets and feel brought in, in a dream like way like the whole series. This is a Comedy! folks. Gibert DID want to do great Opera, but this is still a comedy and I love the self mocking. It may be that my fellow Americans (Ustado Unidenseheads) who like Opera wish not to laugh at ancestry and position, but the Brits had had quite enough of that when these operas were written. Be campy and be fun. Get up on the stage and laugh. Let me have a close up of that mock sneer. Paddle those dainty feet Maidens!! Oh! And I am in heaven. DVD Review: Nothing Special
Summary: 2 Stars
If you like Gilbert & Sullivan and are also a fan of under-rehearsed lip-syncing, than this tame production could be for you. Fans of Peter Allen might be disappointed, however, as he doesn't really cut loose, and given the wholesale overacting of the rest of the cast (particularly Keith Michell) you might not notice if he did. I'm not a G&S fanatic, but this seems to be reasonably well sung by the chorus and ing?nues. (Though that word is used advisedly as the actor playing Frederick looks pretty long in the tooth to be playing a twenty-one year old, rendering all the jokes about his and Ruth being mis-matched pretty pointless.)DVD Review: Good Performance - Perhaps not the idea cast...
Summary: 4 Stars
Good choreography, especially funny for I am a Pirate King.
Good recording and video quality.
One has to really wonder who chose the cast.
Mabel, Janis Kelly, was great in the middle registers, but did not sing up into the stratosphere.
Frederic, Alexander Oliver, could sing, but did not quite look the part of a dashing young lad of 21.
General Stanley and Ruth were both fine.
The Pirage King was not the strong singer that you would expect, but was clearly enjoying himself.
Includes a libretto with almost all of the lyrics.
It would have been nice if they had also included subtitles for those of us who can not resist the urge to sing along.
DVD Review: It Was Okay But It Could Have Been Better!
Summary: 3 Stars
I love the Pirates of Penzance and have seen other productions that were great but though not horrible this is far from perfect! Peter Allen wasn't the best Pirate King and not the greatest singer but his acting was good and was kind of enjoyable, I think what really bothered me about this production was that Frederic is 21 years old and the man playing him looked more like he was 51 years old and way to old to be playing a 21 year old, the woman playing Mabel looked kind of too old to be playing Mabel but at least she didn't look as old as the man playing Frederic and was somewhat more believable! There were some good performances from the people playing Ruth and Major Stanley and some good musical numbers with Mabel's sisters but I just could not get past the fact that the man playing Frederic was too old for the part and was badly miscast!DVD Review: Not excellent, but passable in parts...
Summary: 2 Stars
Overall, I thought that this version of Pirates was pretty disappointing. Mabel and Frederick, although their voices are decent, are practically elderly, which spoils the whole idea of young love and contradicts all the verses that praise Frederick's beauty. Frederick and the Pirate King also seem to lack... well, there's not another way to put this... masculinity. I found the whole second act boring.
There are a few high points. The Major General has excellent diction, and does a decent job in his role. Ruth is probably the most spectacular Ruth that I've seen... she's ugly, a good singer, and has excellent comic timing. The production does a good job of making her definitely rough-around-the-edges. Personally, I find the choreography and songs of all the girls in Act 1 delightful. Each of the "girls", even if they're older, play their roles with exuberance and light-heartedness.
The commentary and footage of ships, nature, scenery, etc. were just insipid.
Overall, I'd say that this is a good movie to rent or check out of a library. There are a few shining spots, but more often than not, the production falls flat.
Description of Gilbert & Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance / Michell, Kelly, Oliver, Allen, Opera World
Featuring the london symphony orchestra and a host of international stars including vincent price joel gray peter marshall keith mitchell frankie howerd and peter allen. Filmed in england and created especially for tv they have delighted fans on pbs and the bbc. Studio: Acorn Media Release Date: 01/20/2004 Run time: 96 minutesThe 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 anti-sentimental Gilbert and 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 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
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