Scottish Opera, 23/10/2021
Gilbert & Sullivan : The Gondoliers
Chorus of The Gondoliers
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Derek Clark
The Gondoliers was the last major success Gilbert and Sullivan had together. It is also, arguably, Gilbert's sunniest, most innocent libretto, in which his barbed wit has mellowed, though his penchant for ridiculous situations - his topsy-turviness - remains in full force. This is the piece Scottish Opera and D'Oyly Carte have chosen for their third collaboration, after very successful outings for The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.
Stuart Maunder's direction was a little more straightforwardly traditional than those two previous shows, with no attempt to take it out of its (already fairly loosely defined) period, or to cast an alternate light on it. The result was clear and entertaining, as light-hearted as one could wish. Dick Bird played fast and loose with the costumes, to amusing effect; when the curtain went up, the female chorus of contadine were charmingly powdered and garlanded like a cross between a Dresden porcelain shepherdess, and the 'pretend' shepherdesses of Marie Antoinette's court at the Petit Trianon. Casilda and Don Alhambra were very formal, 17th Century-inspired Spaniards, and Casilda was emulating Princess Eboli, but the Duke's uniform was firmly later 19th Century.
As for the Duchess, well, she was wearing enough costume for three, sideways. That said, it wasn't so much the wildly extravagant paniered dresses that caught my eye as her pompadour wig, decorated with a long gondola, that was not sitting on top of it (as indeed could have been seen at the time), but skewered through it. Maybe it was just the angle from which I viewed it, but when she appeared, I was startlingly reminded of the QAnon Shaman and his horned hat. I doubt that was the intention.
The decors were attractive enough - a nice Canaletto backdrop for Act 1 - but I thought the stage looked rather cramped, with a single, full stage-width step down near the front which I found slightly worrying (though there were no mishaps), and also that the lighting was somewhat crude, which was distracting.
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| The Company in "Dance a cachuca" The Gondoliers, Act 2 - Scottish Opera (© James Glossop, October 2021) |
What was less successful was the musical side. Individually, most of the singing was perfectly fine, with special mention for Ben McAteer's Don Alhambra, though Richard Suart (the Duke of Plaza-Toro) should perhaps be thinking about passing on the torch. Although he's still an engaging performer, the voice is getting very worn, and he was almost inaudible in the ensembles. However, the main problem, and it was a persistent one through most of the evening, was that orchestra and singers - soloists, mostly - were frequently just a little out of phase with each other.
The most persistent culprit here was Ellie Laugharne's Gianetta; in Act 1 in particular, she consistently wanted to go a little slower than the tempi Derek Clark was setting from the pit. Most of the time, I felt that I would have preferred Clark's choice, rather than Laugharne's slightly languishing delivery. However, she was not the only one, and to paraphrase (very loosely) Lady Bracknell, for it to happen once might be an accident, but for it to recur repeatedly looked like carelessness. It certainly dragged down the overall impact of the piece, muting its effervescence. When singers and orchestra really got their act together, in a substantial part of Act 2, from "Take a pair of sparkling eyes" through to the Gavotte, the uplift in atmosphere and energy was immediately apparent.
In conclusion, this is a fetching, diverting production, but in order to deliver everything The Gondoliers has to offer, it needs a little extra polish visually in the lighting, and much tighter musical execution.
[Next : 22rd October]