Women's voices: Filled to the brim with girlish glee

We’ve had opera; we’ve had blues; we’ve had rock, folk, disco, pop, country and what-not. Time for Gilbert and Sullivan.

My favorite collaboration by them is The Mikado; strictly for the songs. Yeah, “Pour Wand’ring One” from The Pirates of Penzance is lots of fun, but from “If you want to know where we are” to “For he’s gone and married Yum-Yum”, I love every single piece.

And I am known for muttering “I’ve got a little list” as the occasion requires. It’s a great resource, Mikado.

It has a couple of trios; I’m giving you “Three little maids from school”. In this case, the three little maids are Lesley Garrett, Patricia Hodge and Lily Savage. (Video quality isn’t great, but you get my drift.)

Okay—I suppose if you want to get technical, Lily Savage—being Paul O’Grady—might not count as a woman’s voice; but 1) I wouldn’t be the one arguing the point with a Scouser; 2) I like the way Savage blends with Hodge and Garrett (and not much liking Garrett, I really appreciate the counterpoint); and 3) They’re my Voices—why can’t at least one of them be a drag queen?

They do pretty well with the fan work, too.

If you’re some sort of tight-butted purist, you can watch the bit from Mike Leigh’s brilliant Topsy-Turvy. I love that movie, too, not least for the joy of realizing that all the actors are actually singing their parts. Plus, Jim Broadbent is stupendously good.