watching Sideshow Bob's peerless houseboat solo performance of Pinafore on the Simpsons last night made me come over all D'Oyly Carte, with bitter regrets for my non-existent career in light opera, further deepened this morning by the perusal of this very thorough Gilbert and Sullivan Homepage. My long-suppressed fondness for G&S much stoked a few years back by Mike Leigh's "Topsy-Turvy", as good a film about the process of artmaking as any I can think of. Lovely ending, with the wonderful Scottish actress Shirley Henderson playing Leonora Barham (above, with Sybil Grey and Jessie Bond) as Yum Yum in the original production The Mikado singing (to a mirror) one of my favorite songs--

"Yes, I am indeed beautiful! Sometimes I sit and
wonder, in my artless way, why it is that I am so much
more attractive than anybody else in the whole world. Can this
be vanity? No! Nature is lovely and rejoices in her loveliness.
I am a child of Nature, and take after my mother.



The sun, whose rays
Are all ablaze
With ever-living glory,
Does not deny
His majesty--
He scorns to tell a story!
He don't exclaim,
"I blush for shame,
So kindly be indulgent."
But, fierce and bold,
In fiery gold,
He glories all effulgent!

I mean to rule the earth,
As he the sky--
We really know our worth,
The sun and I!

Observe his flame,
That placid dame,
The moon's Celestial Highness;
There's not a trace
Upon her face
Of diffidence or shyness:
She borrows light
That, through the night,
Mankind may all acclaim her!
And, truth to tell,
She lights up well,
So I, for one, don't blame her!

Ah, pray make no mistake,
We are not shy;
We're very wide awake,
The moon and I!"