Remember how easy it was to satirize the hippie/free love/flower power movement of the 1960s without any malice aforethought? Think George Carlin's Hippy Dippy weatherman.

		Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience" Where: Andrew Carnegie Free Library Music Hall, 300 Beechwood Ave., Carnegie. When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Performances run through March 21. Tickets: $6 to $15; 412-734-8476.

It was in that spirit that lyricist William S. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan made fun of the aesthetic movement popular in the 1870s and 1880s. The movement, a backlash to the ugliness of Victoriana, was simply meant to be an appreciation of beauty. But as Gilbert and Sullivan joked, sometimes those aesthetes, who included poet/playwright Oscar Wilde, became easy targets by getting a little carried away with themselves and their philosophy. Now, think velvet pantaloons and fistfuls of lilies, artificial postures and vacuous poetry.

In "Patience," those are the primary traits of the leading men, Reginald Bunthorne and Archibald Grosvenor, who vie for the love of the title character, the village milkmaid, with rib-splitting superciliousness. Officers of the Dragoon Guards, meanwhile, try to win back the village maidens, who all are smitten with aestheticism, first in the shape of Bunthorne and then in Johnny-come-lately Grosvenor. Unlike most Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, this one leaves one person without a lover at the end.

We have seen similar self-importance and vanity and silliness in our cultural and political movements and icons in virtually every decade since Wilde's salad days -- which explains why this delightful operetta has withstood the test of time.

So have the Pittsburgh Savoyards, who as the area's oldest theater troupe is in its 65th season. The troupe is mostly amateur but augmented with local professional musicians and members of the Pittsburgh Opera Chorus and Mendelssohn Choir. It is impossible to tell the difference.

Tom Porter, by day a pediatrician, is the star of the show, and not just because he plays the role of Bunthorne. From every arched eyebrow to every pointed toe, he is foppery at its very best. And his voice resonates over a big range in the beautiful Andrew Carnegie Free Library Music Hall. Though he is ruggedly handsome in his playbill photo, he is genuinely pretty in his Prince Valiant-style wig.

It's a tough act to follow, but Patrick Brannan, who directed the Savoyards' "H.M.S. Pinafore" last fall, holds his own as Grosvenor. He has tremendous power. Unfortunately, his role doesn't enter the light opera until late in the first act, and Sullivan's score doesn't provide enough time for him to show it off.

Melinda Fritz, a fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, has tremendous range and lots of music on which to use it. Unfortunately, early in the show, she sings much of it standing stiffly at center stage like a talent show contestant. Some added choreography -- at which she later showed herself quite capable -- would have been welcome.

The same holds true with the Dragoons early. They march and posture, but not nearly enough. They get livelier later, after they've all decided to get a little aesthetic.

The three highest-ranking officers, the Duke of Dunstable (Jack Mostow), Major Murgatroyd (David Svoboda) and Colonel Calverley (Corey Nile Wingard) have the funniest scene of the entire musical when they come out in velvet pajamas and attempt aesthetic poses while singing.

Also worthy of special mention are Meighan Lloyd as Lady Jane, Emily Lorini as Lady Angela, Melissa Milanak as Lady Saphir, Eva Yarsky as Lady Ella, and the orchestra, directed by Guy Russo.