Sara DeLong & Sara Mitnik- "Now wouldn't you like to rule the roast'" from Princess Ida

Sudbury Savoyards
sudburysavoyar...
View the whole production here: imd0mxanj2.exe...
Princess Ida by Gilbert & Sullivan
February 2024
Stage Direction by Rebecca Graber
Conducted by Stephanie Beatrice-González stephaniebeatr...
Sara DeLong as Lady Blanche www.sara-delon...
Sara Mitnik as Melissa saramitnik.wix...
Sound mixed by Bill Lopoulos & Bryce Denney
Videography by SudburyTV

[@wyleywilkin]

Wonderful! Your voices fit perfectly together on this number and the delivery was divine!

[@saradelongsoprano]

Thanks so much Wyley!

[@davidbennett9691]

"Rule the roast?" WTF is that supposed to mean? Is it a parody of the age-old expression "rule the roost" or does it refer to cooking Sunday dinner? Very confusing.

[@saradelongsoprano]

Good question, David! According to The Gilbert & Sullivan Lexicon (3rd ed) by Henry Benford (a book that helpfully defines some of the more antiquated or less used words or phrases that Gilbert wrote in his operettas) "Rule the roast" is a phrase that was most commonly used in the 15th century, and one that is also found in Shakespeare. It means essentially the same as "Rule the roost" as far as I can tell. They are used to indicate dominating and ordering others about. (Prefacing the following with the fact that I am by no means an expert on languages) It may be that the older spellings of the word "roast" were intended to be pronounced as "roost", but often in Gilbert & Sullivan, like in Shakespeare, words are intentionally mispronounced in order to play to a rhyme or for humor. So even if the phrase were meant to be pronounced "rule the roost" (the more recognizable and modern version of the phrase), to rhyme with the later word in the song here "coast" one would pronounce it like the meat regardless. :)