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The reputation of The Mountebanks
has always suffered as "The Lozenge
Plot" which Sullivan refused to set for Gilbert. While Sullivan may have
been right in his assessment of the entire opera, this adaptation of
some of the best numbers in the work demonstrates that there was much
that was (and is) worthwhile therein. About 80% of the words in this
adaptation are by Gilbert, but the adaptation is so skillfully done that
without the original score, one couldn't tell which are Gilbert's and
which have been modified. The work contains some of Gilbert's best
numbers including: "Though I'm a buffoon," "Ophelia was a dainty little
maid," "Those days of old," "Now all you pretty villagers," "If our
action's stiff and crude," and "When your clothes, from your hat to your
socks" (the latter being the original version of "When you find you're a
broken-down critter", from The Grand Duke.)
Gilbert's take-off on Hamlet is worth the price by itself.
Cellier's music is extremely tuneful. It derives more from the French
School of Offenbach than the Italianate sound which Sullivan favored.
This is a performance which brings a small piece of The Mountebanks
to life and is one which I have not yet tired of viewing.
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