Friday 7 August 2015

Manchester Evening News review 6 August 2015


THE GONDOLIERS

National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, Buxton Opera House

 

IAN and Neil Smith, founders of the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival that graced the stage of Buxton Opera House for 20 years, will be glad that their company’s return to its stage – albeit in a much smaller way – pulled a full house for this show.

Their week, which also includes The Mikado and HMS Pinafore, all of them directed by G&S man-of-the-moment John Savournin, is but a pale shadow of the festival in its heyday, and it has decamped to Harrogate last year and this.

But the professional company they create for it each summer is put on the road as well, and Buxton’s one of its stops.

Savournin could never be accused of blowing the budget on set construction. His set is semi-abstract and simple, providing a little shape to the stage, but not a lot of atmosphere to evoke Venice and its gondoliers. But the costumes and the music do the trick: Sullivan liked to visit the Lido and knew his Italian dance rhythms inside out. The show is one of his best creations and alive with dance tunes, and what it needs above all is pretty near non-stop choreography. Phillip Aiden has come up with the goods in that department and the cast dance their socks off. Stephen Holroyd’s lighting is effective, too.

The musical qualities were very high: crisp rhythms, gentle expressiveness, and exemplary blend, particularly in the principals’ quartets and quintets. Conductor David Steadman is an acknowledged master of the style, but I suspect credit should also go in large measure to the assistant MD and repetiteur, Royal Northern College of Music maestro James Hendry.

Two doughty veterans of British G&S, Bruce Graham and Richard Gauntlett (as the Grand Inquisitor and the Duke of Plaza-Toro) set a superb example of comic performance and clear diction, and the younger members of a well-cast troupe proved their worth in voice quality. I admired Robin Bailey’s Marco (tenor) and Claire Lees’ Gianetta (soprano) in particular – him for Take A Pair of Sparkling Eyes (always a hit song) and her for Kind Sir You Cannot Have The Heart, beautifully poised.

Kevin Greenlaw (Giuseppe), Una McMahon (Tessa), Elinor Jane Moran (Casilda) and Nick Sales (Luiz) provided excellent support, and the chorus were magnificent.

****

Robert Beale

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