Princess Ida [DVD] [1982] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

This is a great production!

It's staged in a very entertaining format, set up as an amateur production at a charming English estate. It opens with the guests arriving at the house, the gentlemen drinking in the study, and the ladies arranging their hair and makeup. Lovely! Quite a nice way to open the performance and very effective for getting the audience into that G&S mode, while pushing the events at Castle Adamant further away from our fax and text-messaging present. On the whole it makes the place and time setting easy to absorb and the lively lyrics far more believable.

The performances are brilliant! Some particular highlights include the actor that plays King Gamma (particularly enjoyable as the vile and sneering father of the title character). His performances in 'If you give me your attention' and 'Whene'er I spoke' are laugh-out-loud funny. The actors protraying Prince Hilarion and Princess Ida also have some nice moments ranging from tenderness and longing to bitterness and defeat. (I apologise to the performers for not being able to credit their names at this time).

I do find it peculiar that there is a wide range of ages of men in the cast, including many young men in the chorus of soldiers. On the other hand, nearly all of the 'young maids' studying at Castle Adamant look to be over forty, with the exception of Melissa. Perhaps it is the video quality or the volume of makeup they are wearing for the film. Curious, all the same.

The staging and choreography are quite ambitious, but well-organized. The production is beautifully cast, and every performer is not only an accomplished singer, but also a genuine actor and well-trained dancer. As a triple-threat performer, I can't express how surprised I am to see so many talented tenors and basses that also possess professional dance training.

The dance sequences are smooth, uncontrived, and inspiring; not only are they entertaining to watch, but they fit in very smoothly with the music and humour of the play. Especially the courtly dances during "Now harken to my strict command" and the organized marching during "When anger spreads his wing". A true musical comedy. I challenge anyone who labels Gilbert & Sullivan as 'boring' and 'out of date' to watch this film. You can't tell me it isn't entertaining and brilliant. Trivial, perhaps, but certainly not boring.

In terms of short-comings: perhaps it's the decade in which this production was filmed, but the HOST is terribly pretentious and awkward. He is very believably a character from a Saturday Night Live skit; that's disappointing, as I don't believe the creators of the film intended him to be so cheesy. I feel his between-act appearances are mocking not only the characters and events, but also the audience for watching it at all. Very disappointing.

This DVD is also very difficult to navigate. There are not nearly enough scene selections for every song. One can do individual scene selections for some songs, but not all. For example, the opening scene with the overture is over six minutes long and there is a silent break between the overture and the beginning of the first number ('Search throughout the panorama...'), yet there is no separate scene issued for the first number. Peculiar. It's not a problem if you like to watch the entire film from beginning to end, but logically (and especially for a musical) the arrangement of this DVD doesn't make sense.

Despite its shortcomings, this really is a great DVD and the actual production is a very complementary interpretation of Gilbert & Sullivan's art. Princess Ida is a lovely show; this really is a staple not only for the DVD library of every G&S fan, but also for that of every musical theatre fan. I am disappointed that Princess Ida as a light operas hasn't survived as memorably with the general public as the more popular Pirates of Penzance and Mikado. Perhaps it is unpopular as a result of the ending *which I will not spoil here*. It was likely easy to swallow during Gilbert and Sullivan's lifetime, but it's much less appealing to individuals raised with very modern sensibilities. But alas, I think the ending is ideal, since even our highest principles are certainly not 'above the sway of love.'

I sincerely hope that Gilbert & Sullivan productions will continue to be performed for centuries to come, and that Princess Ida will stand in its own right. I hope that productions like this one will inspire more to be filmed for our home theatre enjoyment.