The Pinafore Picture Book: the Story of H.M.S. Pinafore

The Pinafore Picture Book: the Story of H.M.S. Pinafore

Transcribers Note: Links in the List of Illustrations are to the illustrations, not the pages listed. Lyrics in the music notation have been omitted where they are repeated in the main text. Click on the [Listen] link to hear or download the music in mp3 format and on the [MusicXML] link to download the music notation. It would be difficult to imagine anything more dainty. The pictures are exquisitely beautiful, and to follow the story in Mr. Daniel OConnors version is almost as fascinating as it was to see Mr. Barries quaint creation on the stage.Glasgow Herald. I HAVE been asked to explain to you how it comes to pass that this, the story of a well-known Play, is now placed before you in the form of a Tale. In the first place, many very young ladies and gentlemen are never taken to the Theatre at all. It is supposed by certain careful Papas and Mamas that very young ladies and gentlemen should go to bed at an early hour, and that it is very bad for them to sit up as late as half past eleven or twelve oclock at night. Of course, this difficulty could be overcome by taking them to Morning Performances, which are so called because they invariably take place in the afternoon; but there are drawbacks even to Morning Performances. Unless you are seated in the front row of the stalls (where the band is sure to be too loud), or in the front row of the dress circle (which is a long way off), the enjoyment of very young ladies and gentle-viii-men is pretty nearly sure to be interfered with by the gigantic cart-wheel hats, decorated with huge bunches of wobbling feathers that ill-bred and selfish ladies clap upon their heads, nowadays, whenever they go to a theatre in the daytime. A third reason (and perhaps the best of them all) is that very young ladies and gentlemen find it rather difficult to follow the story of a play, much of which is told in songs set to beautiful music, and all of which is written in language which is better suited to their Papas and Mamas than to themselves. A fourth reason (but this is not such a good one as the other three) is that the Opera upon which this book is founded is, unhappily, not played in every town every night of the year. It should be, of course, but it is not, and it may very well happen that some poor people have to go so long as two or three years without having any opportunity of improving their minds by seeing it performed. When we get a National Theatre, at which all the best plays will be produced at the expense of the Public (who will also enjoy the privilege of paying to see the Plays after they have defrayed the cost of pro-ix-ducing them), Her Majestys Ship Pinafore will, no doubt, be played once or twice in every fortnight for ever; but as some years must elapse before this happy state of things can come to pass, and as those who are very young ladies and gentlemen now may be very middle-aged ladies and gentlemen then, it was thought that it would be a kind and considerate action to supply them at once with a story of the Play, so as not to subject them to the tantalizing annoyance of having to wait (possibly) many years before they have an opportunity of learning what it is all about. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65291
Author: Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck)
Release Date: May 9, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Woodward, Alice B., 1862-1951