Word: fairyland
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...FIRST SIGHT, though, Iolanthe doesn't appear to be the high point of Gilbert and Sullivan's career. The first of the two plots concerns Fairyland, a stern Fairy Queen and a half-Fairy named Strephon, who is a Fairy from his head to his waist but whose legs are mortal. As in most G&S operas, there is a foolishly severe law that needs to be broken before happiness can be achieved--in The Mikado it is the prohibition of flirting, in H.M.S. Pinafore it is the prohibition of swearing, in Ruddigore it is the commission of one evil...
...course, the male chorus (the House of Lords) marries the female (the Fairies) and--sprouting hilarious mechanical wings--trips off to Fairyland. Along the way, though, are some of the finest scenes Gilbert and Sullivan ever produced, including the Lord Chancellor's nightmare, the best and most complicated patter song Gilbert ever wrote. The trio at the end of Ruddigore ("My eyes are fully open to my awful situation") is faster and perhaps more tongue-twisting; but the Lord Chancellor's song is the Moby Dick of patter songs, the masterpiece all the rest led up to or away from...
Cambodia is a ruined fairyland, with a government to match. Even foreign diplomats who privately hope that the present regime can pull through have been exasperated by the indolence and unrealistic attitudes of President Lon Nol, who sometimes acts as if the war were taking place in another country. Last week, for example, rumors circulated in Phnom-Penh for several days that he might resign, which could possibly pave the way toward some kind of negotiations with the Khmer Rouge insurgents. Instead, Lon Nol staged a modest Cabinet reshuffling and fired his arrogant commander in chief, Lieut. General Sosthene Fernandez...
...last seen vowing revenge against Face. Dol (Sarah Jane Lithgow) is particularly appealing in two scenes--at the very beginning, when she forces Face and Subtle to stop quarelling, and when she plays the role of fine ladies--like the potty sister of a baron or the Queen of Fairyland. Subtle (Philip Kilbourne) is craggy and lanky with high cheekbones and his facial mugging supplies an ironic commentary over and above the script. Face is short, dark, and particularly good when affecting the part of a shuffling menial...
DREAMS AND delusions have haunted Berryman from his very earliest writing. The Dream Songs are still his most laudable accomplishment. They are not, however, a celebration of any wondrous fairyland of the unconscious mind. Henry, its hero, has "suffered an irreversible loss," and experiences its intensity through his dreams. An earlier "The Ball Poem" reflects the same "epistemology of loss" in a young boy's missing ball. More than anything else, Berryman's dreams are real laments, laced with shattered hopes and withered ideals. Alan Severance too, has very little left to hang onto. His fight for some kind...