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This is a film of a live performance, in 1997, in Auckland, New Zealand. Some of the cast, judging from the applause on their entry, seem to be better known for starring in Australian soap operas. The level of singing is what you would expect from a group of soap characters performing a Christmas pantomime. The performance is aggressively amplified and the orchestra consists of three synthesisers, two percussion and a bass. The entire opera is performed with a karaoke beat. There is a series of encores at the end where it becomes clear that this travesty is part of a trilogy. The cast performs excerpts from their productions of the Mikado and the Pirates of Penzance. This may have been good clean fun for any citizen of Auckland in 1997 who happened to be tone deaf but I wonder what possessed anyone to want to film this production. The problem with committing something to film is that it attains a life of its own. It has travelled round the world and eight years later it is being shown on a British arts channel and touted as a bona fide production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Avoid.
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