The 19th-century English writer/composer partnership of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan created fourteen "comic operas," which appeared over a twenty-five-year collaboration from 1871 to 1896 and have enjoyed a lengthy popularity since then, both for Sullivan's music and Gilbert's witty lyrics. The operas, which are very much in the style of more traditional Italian operas except for being in English and humorous in content, have been produced on many stages and have been filmed several times.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Favorites Collection brings together five of the duo's most well-known operas, all produced in 1982 as part of a BBC television series that brought a total of ten of the operas to the small screen. In this set are The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, The Gondoliers, and Patience. The individual operas share a common musical style, with the scores performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, though they range over a wide variety of settings, from the British seagoing setting of H.M.S. Pinafore to Italy in The Gondoliers and Japan in The Mikado.

The productions themselves, not surprisingly, show a generally theatrical appearance, with a few basic sets supporting the action and simple, colorful costumes the norm. The general visual appearance falls on a middle ground between naturalistic and stylized; it's clearly not a fully realistic setting like we get in musicals such as My Fair Lady, but it's slightly more fleshed-out than we might see on stage.

The main fault I'd find with the various performances is that they seem a little bit hastily put together; in the "making of" featurette for The Pirates of Penzance, in fact, we learn that the programs were indeed made on a tight schedule, with one week for rehearsal and one week for shooting. Everything about the productions is reasonably well done but also very conventional, from the staging of scenes to the dance choreography to the cinematography and sets. The actors themselves are very enthusiastic, and to my untrained ear seem to have good voices, but as with the other elements of the production, their performances are very conventional; it didn't seem that they really engaged with their roles to bring any more depth or life to the characters.

The music is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Opera Chorus, along with the solos by the various actor/singers in the lead roles. The lyrics are absurdly humorous, often using exaggeration of character "types" or reversals of those types (like the rather tender-hearted pirates in The Pirates of Penzance). The music is indeed operatic, imitating the styles of classical composers like Mozart and Strauss, which makes for a rather peculiar mix with the "low-brow" content. I suspect that Gilbert and Sullivan are an acquired taste; for myself, I found myself thinking that I'd rather listen to either the traditional serious operas of someone like Mozart, or the more varied musical numbers in something like Oliver! rather than the hybrid of classical and comedic that we get in these comic operas. Given the long-lasting popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan, though, it's clearly a matter of tastes varying.

The DVD

Video

All five of the operas are presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, having been created for television broadcast. There is a certain amount of variation in the image quality of the programs, but two aspects are in common for all of them. On the good side, all of them are extremely clean: I didn't spot so much as a speckle of noise or a single scratch in any of the prints. On the bad side, all of the programs are very heavily edge-enhanced, to the point that not only do the edges of objects have the typical light-colored haloes, but many sport black edging as well.

The Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore are the best-looking of the set, with strong, clean colors and reasonably good contrast. The Mikado suffers from a general brownish tinge, and a problem with greenish haloes appearing at some points in the image, in addition to the usual edge enhancement. The Gondoliers shares the brownish tinge, and has also slightly muted colors and worse contrast than the other productions, with the darker areas being much too dark. Patience is as bright as The Pirates of Penzance, with accurate skin tones and colors, but it also has the green haloes popping up along with some odd color bleeding in some of the brightly-colored scenes. All in all, it's a watchable transfer.

Audio

All the productions are presented in Dolby 2.0 stereo. The soundtrack is solid, offering clear, full sound for both music and dialogue. There's no harshness or distortion in the track, and no background noise, making it possible to appreciate the music and songs quite well; the singing voices come across with a pleasing richness. The one problem I had with the tracks is that I found it a bit difficult to distinguish individual voices or follow the lyrics in pieces with a large chorus, though this is likely due to the group's performance rather than the audio track on the DVD.

Extras

Acorn Media has done a nice job with this set for fans of Gilbert and Sullivan, with each opera having supporting materials that will help viewers appreciate the piece. Most impressive in my opinion is the fact that each DVD contains a 24-page insert booklet with the full libretto of the opera on that disc. Each opera also has a short, interesting video introduction from Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., which touches on some of the historical background to that particular opera, or illuminates some aspect of Gilbert and Sullivan's work.

The Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore both have "making-of" featurettes, running seventeen and twenty minutes, respectively; they're reasonably interesting looks at the creation of the BBC performances, with interview clips from producer Judith DePaul and assorted actors. An informational text piece on Gilbert and Sullivan is included as well; it appears on all five DVDs, but the content is the same in each.

The Favorites set is nicely packaged, with each opera in its own keepcase and the five DVDs enclosed in a glossy paper slipcase. The menus are straightforward and easy to use, and are themed to the same design as the packaging. The menu provides a "song index" which effectively serves as a scene selection option as well.

Final thoughts

The Gilbert and Sullivan Favorites Collection is likely to please those who are already familiar with the operas, though the content may not be polished enough to create new fans from those totally unfamiliar with Gilbert and Sullivan. The DVD quality is reasonably good, with the image quality ranging from very good in The Pirates of Penzance or H.M.S. Pinafore to a bit below average in The Mikado and The Gondoliers; the 2.0 soundtrack is well done and should satisfy fans. The set might be a good purchase for Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts, but those who are unfamiliar with these comic operas should rent first.