No 13 — July 1979 Edited by Michael Walters
GILBERTIAN PATTER SONGS
Ideally, one should have both speed and clarity, you are quite right, though sometimes I suspect, speed can be overworked. When a song becomes a race instead of being merely lively, that may, perhaps, be overdoing the presto. If one or other must be sacrificed, however, I'd say sacrifice the speed and save the clarity. Up to a certain point, of course. If the performer can't do "In Enterprise of martial kind" any faster than "With a sense of deep emotion" without making the words clear, better recast the role. I can also see that the song & mood of its setting might affect the degree to which slowing would be allowable. Point might be permitted to take "A private buffoon" more slowly than Wells would be permitted to take "My name is John Wellington Wells" ... PHYLLIS KARR.
Mr. Hackett has reached a dubious conclusion by way of much faulty reasoning ... Why people should suppose that the question of D'Oyly Carte's allegiance to or betrayal of tradition, purity, authenticity, has any leaving upon the wider question of authentic interpretation of art and theatre in general is quite beyond my comprehension. The DOC may or may not be authentically following the wishes of Gilbert in productions. Just how tradition?bound they happen to be in no way affects the validity of any argument between "purists" and "revisionists". It can be shown that the DOC wander far from the true Savoy path. The present production of Gondoliers would be almost unrecognizable to Gilbert ... The majority of post?WW1 interpretations of the role of the Mikado are so diametrically opposed to the Gilbert/Temple method as to constitute a complete misunderstanding of how the irony of that part should really work. Mr. Hackett's arguments that today's modern audience are less likely to catch on to the words of a patter song than previous ones cannot be substantiated. In general ordinary people are better educated than one hundred years ago. As for actual speed of patter, Mr. Hackett seems to me to be implying that a slowing down of delivery might enable the less?informed on Victorian forgeterabilia to puzzle out the significance of W.S.G's more obscure allusions. Yet, surely, that which in the text can only be understood by reference of some sort, will be no better grasped at two seconds than at half a second. So where is the advantage of slowing down? COLIN ENGEL.
[In mitigation, I must add that while I agree with a certain amount of what Colin Engel says, I think he is being unfair to Mr. Hackett who has had an opportunity to observe the operas over a very long period of t time. His mention of the purists was, I think, little more than tactful phrasing, and rightly or wrongly, there are a great many people who regard any deviation from DOC practice as a sacrilege, Furthermore, Colin has I think misunderstood Mr. Hackett if he thinks that the latter's note was about comprehending what patter?songs mean. My reading of it is that Mr. Hackett is saying that it is more difficult to hear what singers say now than it was in his youth, and it is true (recordings prove it) that voice?training in terms of clarity of diction appears to be much inferior today to what it used to be. But lest I stick my neck out too far, I should say that it is virtually impossible for anybody who knows all the words of the operas inside out, as we do, to make any very dogmatic statements about diction. Ed.]
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