My Soul Hath Elbow Room!

If opera is the disapproving grandfather of the modern musical then operetta is its batty elderly aunt, the one who sits in the corner at parties alternating between being violently racist and telling the dirtiest jokes you've ever heard.

She also has the weirdest stories to tell, if you have the time to listen. There's the one about the pirates, the one about the fairies marrying the Lords... and the one about the revenge of the bat.

But she can only tell that one in German, so someone has to translate it. And when the translator is the family's chavvy teenage cousin, who's smashed off his head and rather free with the details, well, then you might come close to what I've just seen.

( What a gorgeous, ah-ha-ha, situation, ah-ha-ha... )

It was... bizarre, especially at first. But somehow, it worked. The actors were all excellent; the translation was mostly very good, save for a couple of rhyming/scansion problems, and of course the music was wonderful and the plot, being a farce, can happen anywhere, at any time. Perhaps most importantly, it was still funny.

Because really, that's the most important thing about Auntie Operetta, isn't it?

/\/\/\

"The spirit of your husband is here... in this room. He's standing right next to you..."
"No I'm not! I'm over here!"

I always forget how good the original Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) is. Then it comes back on ITV4...

"But not all of the Apocrypha are entirely without merit. In fact, one of them, Troilus and Cressida, is hardly crap at all." - The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Play

Ah, Reduced Shakespeare Company, why don't I listen to you more often?

Oh, yes - it's because the last time I listened to your summary of a Shakespeare play before going to see it, I spent the whole of Hamlet hearing your voices adding jokes to the ends of perfectly serious lines, which kind of ruined it for me. But still.

Anyway, aleas_iacta and I went to see Troilus and Cressida at the Globe on Saturday. I am... confused.

( Sing, bard, of the suck of Achilles... )

I'm going to have to get hold of The Myth Makers on audio. It's probable that running Troilus and Cressida through the Doctor Who filter - especially the Hartnell filter - made it into a genuinely enjoyable story at last.

(Also, I finished my dissertation. Go me!)