More of that later.

For a couple of weeks I had been hearing commercials on AllClassical for the University of Portland production of The Pirates of Penzance. I was tempted to attend as I have had much fun at previous Mock's Crest productions so when conductor Professor Roger O. Doyle left the customary bribe under a wine coaster at Jake's Grill I cleared the decks for Saturday evening ,called Elizabeth who is a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan and hot-footed it to the Mago Hunt Theater.

"Is G&S opera or...?" Elizabeth began a chat about our date. Don't get her wrong. She knows her opera in general and her G&S in particular. This was more a "So, under what particular operatic rubric does G&S fall?" -type question. Light opera? Operetta? Musical theater, perhaps? And how does one come to a proper conclusion?

In trying to answer Elizabeth's question in more than a knee-jerk fashion I went with the composer and librettists own terms, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and common usage. Let me begin with the latter. The works of Sir Arthur Sullivan and his librettist Sir William Schwenk Gilbert have been performed at the world's great opera houses including the Met, San Francisco, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and many others, which suggests that at the very least the managers of those houses consider G&S to be opera. You don't, let's face it, see the Royal Opera House doing Cats or Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Yes, they have produced Porgy and Bess and Sweeney Todd but that's a discussion for another time.The Savoy Theatre in London was built specifically to house the works of G&S and the company formed to perform them was called the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company not, you will note, the D'Oyly Carte Something-Very-Like-Opera Company or the D'Oyly Carte Musical Theater Bunch. So, it's starting to look pretty much like just “opera.”

Gilbert and Sullivan themselves referred to their pieces as “comic operas” supposedly to distinguish them from the plethora of “operettas” that were all the rage on Continental Europe at that time.

Throwing a spanner in the works, Grove's refers to them as operettas. So, take you pick.

What these products of jingoistic, colonialist England certainly are? Fun, that's what. Provided - and this is a big proviso - they are done right. Played too “straight,” by which I mean just as they would have been played in the 19th Century and they can appear dull and dated. At the other end of the scale, the director who pushes his production over the rim of cleverness into the chasm of parody does no favors for his piece or the audience.

The trick then is to get it “just right” which is very difficult to describe but unmistakable when you see it. And on Saturday night we saw it. The moment I noticed that the orchestra was placed behind some ocean wave-like scenery and that Maestro Doyle was dressed in pirate gear I settled back in my seat, a big smile settled about my lips. The very first sight of the pirate chorus left the matter in no doubt; this was going to be a rollicking good time. And so it was. Start to finish. If you were picky you might hum and haw a bit about wanting the voices of some of the principal characters to be stronger but I do not believe you could have asked for this production to be done with more gusto, love and attention to detail. The direction was a marvel! There were a myriad little touches which were delightful surprises. I shall not give them away because you're going to go see this production aren't you? Of course you are!

Corey Brunish struck just the right note as the Pirate King, manly but with a hint of the fop about him. Beth Madsen Bradford made a most sympathetic Ruth and was in splendid voice. Morgan Mallory and Tsipa Swan as Frederic and Mabel were as delightful a pair of lovers as you could have asked for. Ms. Swan somehow managed to find humor in her big Act 1 number “Poor Wandr'ing One.” I have never seen it before but it was there and she found it to nice effect. I wished that John Vergin could have been costumed more as a Major General. He looked a bit too much like an equatorial butterfly hunter for my liking but that wasn't his fault. Unfortunately his patter song, by which the part lives and dies, was disappointing. The orchestra being situated behind him meant he had no conductor to watch and he consistently lagged behind the beat and then had to rush to catch up. His later pieces worked rather better.

It is in his patter song that he states: "In fact when I know what is meant by mamelon and ravelin..." and hence the title to today's post. These are both archaic French terms for field works in military fortifications. A mamelon is a small rounded earthwork or hummock. A ravelin is a triangular embanked salient or strong-point outside the main ditch of a fortification, and is also a neat rhyme for javelin, which is a light spear, generally metal-tipped.

I cannot finish without saying a word about the chorus. I cannot remember the last time I saw such a chorus combine having such a good time with making sure they did their job correctly and efficiently. They were marvelous. Elizabeth left the theater singing "When a felon's not engaged" etc. She was the Sergeant and I a constable, thus enabling me to sing the "'pied in crime" bit. Of such silliness can a successful evening be made.

So there it is, gentle readers. It may seem I have been gushing but really I had such a very good time and I am not yet sufficiently jaded to just throw off a remark or two. If you love G&S you have probably already booked your seat to see this version of Pirates. If you don't know whether or not you love G&S this is the production to see. And if you think you don't like G&S this show might just make a convert of you.

Finally, for any geeks out there, here is what Tom Lehrer made of The Major General's Song. The man's a genius!