Earlier in the semester, I posted about Savoynet in my personal blog. Savoynet is the online, world-wide Gilbert and Sullivan 'Society'. Although it is primarily a discussion forum, many of the members (myself included, consider it more of a society. We even go as far as having the 'Savoynet Performing Group'. However, more of this later.
Savoynet was begun in 1992 by Bill Venman. It was a response to the lack of information available online at that time about Gilbert and Sullivan. Originally housed at the University of Massachusetts, it soon moved to Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia. Ralph MacPhail, Jr., arguably the leading academic authority on Gilbert and Sullivan in North America, was the list master for several years. In 1998, that position passed to Marc Shepherd, who has managed the list ever since.[i]
THE MEMBERSHIP
Savoynet is a wonderful resource for the exploration and discussion of all things related to Gilbert, Sullivan, D’Oyly Carte, and their world. Membership numbers over 700, and ranges from those of small to moderate interest (the majority of the membership would comprise of these individuals, I believe) to die-hard enthusiasts and scholars. A message to the Savoynet list will reach college students, professors of all fields, professional performers, and most of the leading names in Gilbert and Sullivan scholarship.
Members are found from all over the world. We have Savoynetters from Australia, South Africa, Belgium, Canada, USA, and the UK, just for an example. This allows for easy dissemination of ideas from all corners of the world.
THE DISCUSSIONS
As previously mentioned, the primary purpose of Savoynet is the discussion of Gilbert and Sullivan, their lives, their works, and other related threads. The discussions can get very interesting, and sometimes even rather hotly debated. I will discuss a few of the most recent major threads to travel the list.
Many of the currently pre-eminent Gilbert and Sullivan authors are members of the list. Andrew Crowthers, a UK member, recently had a book published about Gilbert, entitled Gilbert of G. and S. The author attended and spoke at a recent meeting of The Gilbert and Sullivan Society in London, after which a number of Savoynetters purchased his book; the early reviews seem very favorable. Possibly the most-published Gilbert and Sullivan scholar in the world is Dr. Ian Bradley, a professor in multiple fields at the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Bradley this summer at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, and was delighted to find that he, too, is a member of Savoynet. Though not a frequent contributor, it is always quite enjoyable when he deigns to put in his oar.
A popular genre of thread on Savoynet is the discussion of obscure details of Gilbert’s lyrics. Sometimes these are references to actual issues / happenings of the Victorian society in which Gilbert lived. At other times, these are words devised by Gilbert himself. For example, last summer a discussion was had about a phrase in the Act 1 Finale of Iolanthe, in which the Fairy Queen states that Strephon “shall prick that annual blister; marriage with deceased wife’s sister!” This refers to an arcane legal issue, in which it was illegal for a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife. It seems that the House of Commons repeatedly passed a bill repealing this law, but each year it was voted down by the House of Lords. Of the other type of discussion, I reference a thread that has been occurring over the previous few days. In a discussion about the word ‘caravanserai’, which occurs in Iolanthe, one member posted that they had gone through the electronic version of the completed Oxford English Dictionary and were able to look up how many words contain citations to the Gilbert and Sullivan shows. This member listed the citations by show, and of the 14 operettas (there was even one citation for Thespis, the non-extant first collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan) there were a total of 172 citations.
Although these are examples of the most common threads found on Savoynet, the list goes on and on. Performances are reviewed, staging ideas are shared, and events are advertised. Discussions focus of course on the Savoy Operas, but often include SWOGs and GWOSs as well. (For the uninitiated, those acronyms stand for Sullivan WithOut Gilbert and Gilbert WithOut Sullivan shows, respectively). On occasion, more distantly related music / shows are discussed as well. Most recently, there has been a big discussion of The Mendelssohn Project, as one of the lists more frequent contributors, Robin Gordon-Powell, is a member of this project. Mendelssohn was one of Sullivan’s teachers, and much of Sullivan’s music can be seen to be influenced by his work. Thus, it has its place in discussion on Savoynet.
THE SAVOYNET PERFORMING GROUP
In 1993, the first International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was held in Buxton, England. Beginning in 1997, Savoynet began sending a production of their own to the Festival. The Savoynet Performing Group is an off-shoot from the discussion list, and provides a rather unique performing experience for its cast members. The group meets in Buxton at the Festival a week before the date of their performance. Principals and chorus are cast months in advance via taped auditions. While some people send in DVDs of themselves, the popular method for audition in recent years has been emailed recordings or posting their audition on Youtube. This summer will mark a major accomplishment for the Performing Group: with their upcoming production of The Mikado, they will have completed a full presentation of the canon. Last summer, the Performing group presented The Gondoliers. I was fortunate enough to be cast as Marco Palmieri, the principal tenor part, with this group. The experience of staging a show in a week and then performing / competing in an international venue was a real memory maker. The group has a history of success in this competition, and last year was no exception: we were nominated for several awards, winning two.
[i] Background information on SavoyNet was found on the SavoyNet homepage: http://savoynet.oakapplepress.com
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