No 43 -- 1995 Edited by Michael Walters
Gervase Lambton on THE SORCERER (Gilbert and Sullivan Journal vol. 4, (1936), p. 154):
"I think Alexis is the best drawn of all Gilbert's heroes. Nanki-Poo and Strephon seem insipid beside this egotistical Gardsman". By this he clearly meant the most strongly written, ot, in view of what he later said, the most admirable. Any one got any comments?
Gervase Lambton (? from Gilbertian Characters)
Fairfax did know something of Elsie's character, for they had been living in the same house for 2 days, and in Lambton's opinion, this shews Fairfax up in a very bad light. "He is blustering and overbearing, and facetious at her expense".
"Hilarion is a strange mixture of manliness and effeminacy, at times stern and vigorous, at others a sentimental dreamer ... Hilarion's passionate love for Ida is in a different class from the other love affairs of Gilbert and Sullivan, most of which are petty romances or mere infatuation. Not many of Gilbert's swains are ready to die for their sweethearts..."
"Cyril ... is one of that vulgar but often attractive type of humanity - the bounder".
"Alexis is a hopeless egotist".
"Although she is not a mortal, the Fairy Queen is one of the most human charcters in the Savoy Operas. Her attitude to the fairies is not that of an orthodox queen to her subjects, but of an old hen with her chicks."
In "A Tradition and an Anomaly" (G&S Journal 1969, ix, p. 196) Andrew Lamb tried to argue that Gilbert used the same set of characters for each opera, a claim that was quickly challenged by Diana Burleigh in the next issue, on the grounds that Gilbert had refuted this when he complained that he had created a fresh character in each opera for Grossmith, but that the latter's bad acting made them all seem the same. Nevertheless, Mr. Lamb's basic point is not invalidated in any way, namely that there is an individuality about the different categories of parts in the G&S operas which sets them apart from anything to be found in the stage works of any other writer, that this similarity can really only be explained by supposing that it was because they were written for a stock company of actors, and that basically the rigidity of casting has continued in DOC productions to this day. Miss Burleigh seeks to invalidate this last point too, but the examples she quotes in fact suggest the exact opposite, that casting has become more, not less, rigid, with the passage of years.
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