The Curse of Tom Lehrer

This is kind of hard to explain well, but here goes.
School opera. End of school year, so we went along to support them and enjoy ourselves. Eldest had some involvement.

The Mikado. Now, I have been a G&S fan for a long time, and The Mikado was one of the first of the Savoy operas I ever heard or saw. (I have a peculiar memory of seeing it on telly with Eric Idle in the role of Lord High Executioner?). Watching the school production (which was very good), lots of the libretto came flooding back, including famous phrases such as 'Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative'. Trips off the tongue, really.

Anyway, a few days later we started off on Summer Hols, and embarrassingly I began to sing the finale song (or one of them) - about how he's 'gone and married Yum Yum,' of course. I suddenly found myself going wildly off-piste (according to eldest, who stuck to the correct chorus). I'd announced in my weak, off-key way that: '...I love she and she loves I...'. What was this? My memory of the operetta from way back had failed me.

Anyway, eldest fiddled around in the back of the car and solved it for me. He produced his shiny i-Pod thing, which tinnily blurted out:

To end on a happy note, one can always count on Gilbert and Sullivan for a rousing finale, full of words and music and signifying nothing.

That I missed her depressed her
young sister named Esther,
This mister to pester she tried.

Now her pestering sisters
a festering blister,
You're best to resist her, say I.

The mister resisted,
the sister persisted,
I kissed her, all loyalty slipped.

When she said I could have her,
her sisters cadaver
Must surely have turned in its crypt.

Yes, yes, yes, yes!

But I love she and she loves me.
Enraptured are the both of we.
Yes I love she and she loves I
And will through all eternity!

See what I mean?

So in my mind, I'd replaced the real lyrics from the finale of the Mikado with Tom Lehrer's (admittedly brilliant) pastiche. Which seemed to join perfectly with part of the real chorus.

I suspect the part that it superseded in my mind was:

Nanki-Poo:
- The threatened cloud has passed away,
Yum-Yum:
- And brightly shines the dawning day;
Nanki-Poo:
- What though the night may come too soon,
Yum-Yum:
- We've years and years of afternoon!

Sigh. What can you do about the man?


I think it's the combination of real musical skill and astonishing lyrical dexterity that gets me.

Some of the jokes may have dated slightly (who really remembers the 'Cool School'?) but so much of this is wonderfully fresh.