Musical Magic: Gilbert and Sullivan in Stratford

How do you "comment" on a documentary? The "magic" part of the title gives away some of the secrets in costuming and staging that appear to happen on their own on stage. The work is so intricate, the choreography is so perfectly timed, the sets are so brilliantly created that, as you are watching the performances, things happen that seem magical or unbelievable. It is all the work of hundreds, if not thousands of hours. Amazing, if not a little bit of showing the magician's tricks before you see the act.

I know Canadians are often ignored on the world stage of cinema, and there may be many reasons for this (Atom Egoyan for one) but we often do good work, you all just don't hear about it. This is one of those good works. Simply staged, fabulously performed, this Mikado is a brilliant performance of the work of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Perhaps its only minor flaw is that at several (rare) occurrences the singers depart from the song and act out the words.

I gather that the one complaint the critics have over this performance is that it places more emphasis on the comedy and not the singing. This may be true. Stick with Italian opera if truly great singing is what you're looking for, you are in the wrong place if you're here.