FULL TOPSY TURVY Movie UK 1999 Gilbert& Sullivan
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Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Topsy Turvy
- Composer: Arthur Sullivan
- Libretto: Mike Leigh
- Venue & Opera Company: Studio and on location, UK
- Recorded: 1999
- Type: Movie
- Singers:
- Conductor:
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director: Mike Leigh
- Stage Designer: Eve Stewart, John Bush, Eve Stewart
- Costume Designer: Lindy Hemming
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Twentieth Century Fox
- Date Published: 2000
- Format: DVD
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs
- Video Recording from: AMAZON
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Topsy-Turvy is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert and Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. The film focuses on the creative conflict between playwright and composer, and their decision to continue their partnership, which led to their creation of several more Savoy operas.
The film received very favourable reviews, film festival awards and two Academy Awards for design. While it is considered an artistic success as an in-depth illustration of British life in the theatre during the Victorian era, the film did not recover its production costs. Leigh cast actors who did their own singing in the film, and the singing performances were faulted by some critics, while others lauded Leigh’s strategy.
Plot
On the opening night of Princess Ida at the Savoy Theatre in January 1884, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, ill from kidney disease, is barely able to make it to the theatre to conduct. He goes on a holiday to the continent hoping that the rest will improve his health. While he is away, ticket sales and audiences at the Savoy Theatre wilt in the hot summer weather. Producer Richard D’Oyly Carte has called on Sullivan and the dramatist W. S. Gilbert to create a new piece for the Savoy, but it is not ready when Ida closes. Until a new piece can be prepared, Carte revives an earlier Gilbert and Sullivan work, The Sorcerer.
Gilbert’s idea for their next opera features a transformative magic lozenge, which Sullivan feels is too similar to the magic potion and other magic talismans used in previous operas[a] and mechanical in its reliance on a supernatural device. Sullivan, under pressure from the British musical establishment to write more serious music, says he longs for something that is “probable”, involves “human interest”, and is not dependent on magic. Gilbert sees nothing wrong with his libretto and refuses to write a new one, resulting in a standoff. The impasse is resolved after Gilbert and his wife visit a popular exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts in Knightsbridge, London.[b] When the katana sword he purchases there noisily falls off the wall of his study, he is inspired to write a libretto set in exotic Japan. Sullivan likes the idea and agrees to compose the music for it.
Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte work to make The Mikado a success, and many glimpses of rehearsals and stressful backstage preparations for the show follow: cast members lunch together before attempting to negotiate their salaries. Gilbert brings in Japanese girls from the exhibition to teach the ladies’ chorus how to walk and use fans in the Japanese manner. The principal cast react to the fittings of their costumes designed by C. Wilhelm. The cast objects to Gilbert’s proposed cut of the title character’s Act Two solo, “A more humane Mikado,” persuading the playwright to restore it. The actors face first-night jitters in their dressing rooms. Finally The Mikado is ready to open. As usual, Gilbert is too nervous to watch the opening performance and paces the streets. Returning to the theatre, he finds that the new opera is a resounding success.