Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta Prints

I first saw a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta on television in the 1980s, when the wonderful Clive Revill played Koko in a BBC production of The Mikado. I was floored over how ingenious the patter song lyrics were, and how truly funny the humor was for something written a hundred years earlier. And the music itself was utterly sumptuous! I listened to as many G&S records as I could find in our local library – but since this was in pre-internet days, that’s about as far as my Savoy education went.

About 12 years ago my husband (who had been in HMS Pinafore years back) and I heard a Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society was forming right here in our town, so we checked it out right away. Since then we’ve been involved in and entertained by many of these delightful musicals; and it is apparent many others in our area appreciate the madcap plots, colorful characters and buoyant music of these operettas too.

For the Bucks G&S Society I’ve created 8 illustrations so far of their productions, and now by request of a G&S fan I’ve made 8″ x 10″ color prints of each. These full color prints are on heavy, partially-recycled paper and printed in the USA. The prints are $8.00 each and may be ordered by emailing me on my Contact page for info on shipping and payment method. A discount price of $55.00 is available for a complete set of 8 prints.

If any G&S groups would like to lease my copyrighted images for their posters and promotional items, please send me a message on my Contact page for leasing information. The 8 images are shown on my new G&S page – click HERE – and all artworks are (c) Pat Achilles.

My Gilbert & Sullivan Artwork

I’ve just completed designing the show program for the Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s June production, Trial by Jury and More! This production is a melange of two comic operettas and some magnificent overtures and solos from Gilbert & Sullivan.

I’ve been pleased to paint the poster illustrations for a number of these G&S shows, which I then use on the program cover as well. It’s a pleasure to get to know the witty and comical characters in these operettas – and they are truly operettas, with some dialog but a lot of gloriously operatic sung music. I really recommend these shows for anyone who loves classical music and good theatrical humor.

My illustration for Trial by Jury and More includes the characters Mr. Cox, a hatter, and Mr. Box, a printer, who unwittingly occupy the same rented flat because one works all day and the other all night; they meet unexpectedly and both are furious with their landlord for double-dipping on the rent – until they discover they are, or were, also engaged to the same lady and neither wants to fulfill that contractual obligation! Also depicted in this cover are characters from Trial by Jury: Angelina, the tragicomically jilted bride, and the Judge, who is instantly smitten with her. Together these 1-act shows make up the operatic musical comedy Trial by Jury and More!  and it is set to open in two weeks, on Friday June 16 here in Doylestown – all info is on the website here.

With my art for HMS Pinafore I shoehorned the main characters into a tiny rowboat for comic effect: the gallant sailor Ralph Rackstraw kissing lovely Josephine and Captain Corcoran carrying his sunny Buttercup, with ornery Dick Deadeye paddling them through the waves and Sir Joseph admonishing them all to be quite polite. My husband played Sir Joseph in this show locally, and friends may see the resemblance in my rendering of him.

For Princess Ida I stood our stalwart princess front and center, and in the background her bastion for women, Castle Adamant. If you look closely you can see the brave fellows clumsily scaling the castle battlements – Hilarion, Cyril and Florian – who engage the theme of this battle-of-the-sexes play. For some elements of Castle Adamant I was inspired by the design of Marie Antoinette’s Hameau de la Reine, and you may notice I incorporated male-female symbols into the castle windows.

For the Patience illustration I painted sweet, sensible milkmaid Patience listening skeptically to the florid words of poet Bunthorne. (I enjoy that G&S often chose hilariously Dickensian character names.) Meanwhile the lovesick maidens of the village cling and swoon on Bunthorne, with even Lady Jane and her cello getting drawn into the undertow. There’s a lovely small magnolia tree in my neighborhood that I used for reference in the Patience art.

In all these illustrations I painted with acrylic paint on illustration board. If you’d like to see my sketches leading up to these paintings, I wrote about my process – Trial by Jury here, Pinafore here, Princess Ida here and Patience here. Leasing of my artwork for other productions is available, and inquiries can be made through my Contact page.

 

The Monday Cartoon, June 2, 2014

This week’s cartoon will be understood best by folks who sing.  To reproduce my copyrighted cartoon in any way, first request permission by contacting me through my Contact page, and explain the particulars of where you are considering publishing it.

It was prompted by my attending a rehearsal for the show whose poster art took up my last few posts – ‘Princess Ida.’  The music at last night’s rehearsal, accompanied by members of the Bucks County Symphony Orchestra, was stunning.  Not just because of the tenors, mind you, although there were a few outstanding young fellas of that part, but the lyricism and lushness of Gilbert & Sullivan’s profusion of song in this production.  And not even just the vocal parts – the intros and counterpoints that the orchestra plays, almost incidentals, are over-the-top gorgeous.  I highly recommend the show, which runs only one weekend, June 13 and 14.  Most of the info is in the ad below, the rest is at the website of the Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society.

Painting Princess Ida, finished art

The finished art, painted in acrylic paints on illustration board, for Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan’s June production of ‘Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant’. The show runs Friday June 13 and Saturday June 14 and all the details can be viewed at the Bucks G&S website.

If you don’t know the story of Princess Ida, it’s a funny one about the battle of the sexes.  And it has an actual Battle of the Sexes, in Act III. .

It begins with King Hildebrand and his loyal subjects awaiting the arrival of rival King Gama and his daughter, Princess Ida, to marry Hildebrand’s son, the Prince Hilarion. Gama, however, arrives not with his daughter but with his three dull sons, and explains in his cantankerous way that Ida will not marry Hilarion.  She has instead devoted herself to ruling a woman’s university, where she instructs her pupils on the inferiority of man, among other subjects. Hildebrand sputters that Gama and his sons will be held captive until Ida appears and consents to marry Hilarion.

The story moves to Castle Adamant where Princess Ida and her learned ladies teach their students about the evils of man. Prince Hilarion and his friends Florian and Cyril sneak into the Woman’s University disguised as women (I think you need that bit at least once in every G&S show). Their ruse is uncovered when it’s shockingly observed that two of them are tenors and one a baritone. Ida promptly has the three men arrested, then King Hildebrand shows up to give Ida 24 hours before he demolishes Castle Adamant, if she does not marry Hilarion.

The women bring out the battle-axes to defend the castle but Hilarion and his friends easily win; Princess Ida yields to her prince, and with joy abiding, the opera concludes.

Painting Princess Ida, part 3

I’m starting to paint in some of the big components now – got the primary colors picked out.  Just last night I took a few photos of the actress playing Ida, so I’ll be able to get some bit of a likeness when I’m down to the details.

 

‘Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant’ will be performed by the Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society on June 13 at 8 PM and June 14 at 2 and 8 PM, at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown.  For more info, see the Bucks G&S website.

Painting Princess Ida, part 2

This is a tightened-up version of my initial pencil sketch for Gilbert & Sullivan’s Princess Ida in a previous post. Like many G&S operettas, Ida has a lot of battle-of-the sexes humor – as a matter of fact, there’s literally a battle of the sexes in Act 2, which is why I’m picturing Ida with her cuirass and longsword. Next step is to transfer it to the illustration board and work up a color sketch, which I’ll be posting very soon.

Painting Princess Ida, part 1

I’m starting the art for a new poster for the Bucks County GIlbert & Sullivan Society (you can see last year’s, ‘Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride’ starting here), so I will be posting the stages of the artwork as it progresses.

This year’s Gilbert & Sullivan comic operetta is ‘Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant,’ and concerns a princess who founds a women’s university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead – not a far cry from the opinion of some today, nor far from the aspirations of some Victorian women when the show opened in 1884.  Ida’s fiance since childhood, Prince Hilarion, would convince her to quit her bastion and marry him.  He and his friends, Cyril and Florian, scale the battlements and pursue Ida and other charming students they meet.  The three men, in keeping with some unwritten rule of British comedy, dress as women to infiltrate the castle.

My rough sketch for the image shows Ida in her battle gear – for battle is indeed pitched in the show – in front of Castle Adamant. I’ve indicated the three suitors in various poses scrambling over and around walls to catch their maids.  I’ll post more steps to the final art as I complete them.

 

The gents’ poses, scaling the castle: