The Mikado

A wet afternoon with nothing really to do was an opportunity to browse YouTube. And I came across the 1966 d’oyly carte film of the Mikado. It was a straight transcription of the stage production of the time with donald Adams, Kenneth Sandford and the incomparable John Reed conducted by Isadore Godfrey. Clearly dated but so evocative of happy youthful afternoons in the theatre.
Now I know that Gilbert and Sullivan isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but accept the poor sound, the fading film and Victorian attitudes and this is a wonderful way of spending a couple of hours.
And without giving a spoiler I think it fair to say that the hero avoids beheading at the hand of the Lord High Executioner.

Watch and enjoy.
 
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Lindier, are you able to supply a link to the film, so that we are sure to see exactly the one you mean?
 
Sorry. The only clue I can give is that it is described as a video and that it was filmed in 1966. The poor quality of the film should give it away together with the cut glass english accents.
To be fair I don’t think there is any danger of confusion.
And also it’s a great production for anyone with an interest in Gilbert and Sullivan. It was probably when the d’oyly carte hadn’t started their sad decline into oblivion.
Hope you manage to find it, it’s well worth watching.
And if you can post the link then congratulations and thanks.
 
Thanks deaddirty for posting the link.
 

When you hear music such as this, the veil is parted between Earth and Paradise, and you realize how small you are, and how much you are loved!
attribute unknown
 
November 11, 2018






In somber tribute to the centenary of the end of
World War 1
which happened this very day
being
the eleventh day
of the eleventh month
at the eleventh hour
November 11, 1918 ---- November 11, 2018



Being Irish,
this is my favorite World War 1 musical work,
remembering County Tipperary in Ireland,
not far from whence my ancestors in Ireland originate:


"It's a Long Way to Tipperary "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP0LWMMpXvk


 
The thought of dead soldiers makes me very sad. World War I was brutal and ugly, as is each war in its own way. The Tipperary song is certainly cheerful, and so were those poor Irish boys before they fell in the Great War.
 



Theme from the epic

"Band of Brothers"



".... This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother
;

be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day ....."


Henry V

Act IV
Scene Three
by
William Shakespeare










 
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~ WELCOME 2019 ~








Music to welcome
in the

~~ New Year ~~

"The Prince of Denmark March"

commonly called
"Trumpet Voluntary"
composed by the classical English Baroque musician
Jeremiah Clarke
circa
1699
Anno Domini

This masterwork was also the signature tune the
British Broadcasting Corporation
transmitted into Denmark
during World War II

In addition to being traditionally performed to greet

the New Year
it has also been used by
British Royalty
for
Coronations

and also
for
Royal Weddings


 
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Cool! At first, I thought this was the old theme music for Masterpiece Theater in the Alistair Cooke days. But, alas, no. That was something else by someone else, a Frenchie named Mouret who lived in the same era.
 

Happy
242nd Birthday

America!
YES,
it has now been
242 years
that the United States of America

declared INDEPENDENCE
from a tyrannical British King
and became a nation
on

July 4, 1776

GOD BLESS
America

Sung by the
one and only
Kate Smith
on the eve
of
World War Two
in 1938


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1rKQReqJZg
this rendition will KNOCK your SOCKS right off !
Composed by the legendary IRVING BERLIN in 1918


~~ Happy
July 4th ~~



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7XWhyvIpE



This woman and this song epitomize the spirit that brought America through the dark days of The War. So what if she sang some songs in her youth that are inappropriate today. Do we dump her? I found an inappropriate reference in one of my mother’s youthful letters. Do I renounce her? And another in a letter my grandfather wrote many years ago. Do I chop him from my family tree? Life Magazine ran a story in 1941 about a “Pickaninny Beauty Contest” in Memphis. Do we destroy every copy of Life magazine in our library archives? Do we burn Mark Twain’s works because of Huckleberry Finn?

Nope. Kate Smith was not a racist. She was a symbol of all that is good about my country. Her song makes me proud to be an American, even today when racism and intolerance reside in our White House.

God Bless Kate Smith!
God Bless America!
 
"MOLDAU"





Czech composer

[SUP]Bed[/SUP][SUP]řich Smetana [/SUP]



"MOLDAU"
(circa 1874)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4NKzmfC-Q


One of the most exquisite, soaring and world beloved
renown masterworks ever composed
in the genre
of
symphonic poems

 
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The Moldau has been a favorite since I was a teen. It isn't performed nearly enough but fortunately, I got to hear it played by the San Francisco Symphony two years ago.
 
"BATTLE HYMN of the REPUBLIC"






Totally stirring rendition
of the
"BATTLE HYMN of the REPUBLIC"
performed by the United States Army Field Band.



Lyrics written in November 1861 by Julia Ward Howe
to the tune of slave-hater, American abolitionist
"John Brown's Body Lies a Moldering in the GRAVE."

IT was beloved by tens of thousands of Yankee Union soldiers
as they charged into manly BATTLE
and many to their untimely DEATHS
against the rebellious, Southern Confederate Rebs.

A total on both sides
of
between 618,000 to 750,000 manly MEN
died from being purposely combat killed.


MORE manly MEN died in the American Civil War
than any other American war before or since.


President Abraham Lincoln also loved this song ...
... as has every American President since.

Next to the USA's National Anthem
"STAR SPANGLED BANNER"

and
"THE STARS and STRIPES FOREVER"
... it remains one of the TOP,
most beloved tunes and songs to all patriotic, loyal Americans.
And to FREE PEOPLE everywhere
as well as
those yearning to be FREE
throughout this entire huge
so often dictator-ridden, oppressive WORLD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6AOGRsR80



 
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