Tag Archives: Gilbert & Sullivan

Scottish Opera: Trial by Jury / A Matter of Misconduct!

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Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Not so very long ago, the activities of Scottish Opera were siloed so that the most a young musician recruited to the Emerging Artist programme might expect beyond the perennial four-singers-and-a-piano touring show was a step-out role from the chorus in a mainstage production.

Perhaps hastened by the strictures of the pandemic, that is no longer the case, and this double-bill, which goes on to play the summer season of London’s Opera Holland Park after its Glasgow and Edinburgh dates, gives the current cohort of young singers an excellent opportunity to strut their stuff.

The pathway is clearest in the world premiere after the interval, because composer Toby Hession – who also conducts the whole evening – and librettist Emma Jenkins honed their partnership for those Opera Highlights tours. Their shorter pieces, Told By An Idiot and In Flagrante, were the best of an initiative to include new works, and the latter was very much a stepping stone to A Matter of Misconduct!

Sharing more than an exclamation mark with Jonathan Dove’s Marx in London!, the pair’s interest in creating contemporary comic opera is nonetheless a far from over-populated field, and A Matter of Misconduct! pulls no punches in getting its laughs. The explicit vocabulary in Jenkins’ text is rare on the opera stage, and in baritone Ross Cumming, as ambitious MP Roger Penistone, they have a singer whose performance skills are already well-established.

The scandal that threatens his Parliamentary progress involves his wife Cherry (mezzo Chloe Harris) and her own ambitions to be a wellness guru, and their “allies” in trying to bury it are press secretary Hugo Cheeseman (bass-baritone Edward Jowle), lawyer Sylvia Lawless (soprano Kiri Kaplan) and special advisor Sandy Hogg (tenor Jamie MacDougall). Filled with barbs at both Westminster and Holyrood (a motorhome predictably figures), the script is confident enough of its terrain to make a serious point at the end and Hession’s score is as assured, with particularly good, and challenging, arias for Kaplan and MacDougall and a memorable duet for Harris and Cumming.

It says a great deal for the new piece, directed by Laura Attridge, that it can follow a brilliant revival of Gilbert & Sullivan’s first hit, marking the work’s 150th anniversary. John Savournin’s Trial by Jury is set in a 1980s television studio and Jowle, as studio floor manager rather than court usher, sets the scene before a note of music is heard.

The directorial device works a treat, and the young cast have MacDougall as Edwin, the Defendant, and veteran G&S man Richard Suart as the Judge leading the way with the campest performances. Even they are outdone by the Bridesmaids, brilliantly choreographed by Kally Lloyd-Jones, fronting a chorus in fine voice (as is the smaller one in A Matter of Misconduct!).

Whether from 40 years ago, or just a few months ago, the cultural references in both shows are absolutely spot on, and the singing onstage and playing from the pit as precise. The fact that these shows, alongside The Merry Widow, are going to London in their entirety, orchestra, chorus and all, should be a matter of no small Scottish pride.

Keith Bruce

Production shot of A Matter of Misconduct! by Mhaela Bodlovic

OPERA: Utopia, Limited

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Theatre Royal, Glasgow

If added value is what you were after this week with Scottish Opera, it was there in spades with Wednesday’s minimally-staged performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Utopia, Limited, inserted as a one-off addition to the current Glasgow run of The Gondoliers (reviewed separately in VoxCarnyx).  

It’s a work usually confined to historical reference books – even then it can be hard to find – given that it never quite grabbed the attention of opera companies generally more tempted by mainstream G&S favourites. Scottish Opera wanted to make a case for its worth, and did so with considerable conviction by editing its notorious prolixity down to an acceptable two-and-a-half hours and utilising the lively cast that was already in town for The Gondoliers.

Economical creativity even saw Dick Bird’s picture-book set for the mythical Barataria scenes in The Gondoliers reutilised as the permanent backdrop for the equally mythical island of Utopia. Yet there was nothing remotely static about his performance, Stuart Maunder’s shrewdly imaginative direction giving his cast plenty scope for expression without embracing a full theatrical presentation.

As such, the focus on the music was intensified. Sullivan clearly took the opportunity in this late collaboration with Gilbert to expand his stylistic fingerprint. Yes, lighter-weight tra-la-las are aplenty, but so too are moments where the composer effuses with a depth and glow that is almost, if not quite, Wagnerian. The juxtaposition is, paradoxically, both strength and weakness, as are the whimsical snatches of popular reference – a recurring Rule Britannia motif, for instance – that colour the score.

But accepting Utopia, Limited for what it is – a satire on the pompous protectionism of the British Empire and hypocrisy of its political establishment, which rings an ironic bell today – there was  much to be enjoyed in this slick, refined version. 

The cast gelled magnificently, no doubt inspired by their current collegiate familiarity as the Scottish Opera Gondoliers team. Ben McAteer, now the main man, presented King Paramount of the mythical Pacific outpost that so desires “Anglification” as an endearingly hapless survivor. Elie Laugharne glowed brilliantly as his daughter Princess Zara, alongside the complementary charm of sisters Nekaya (Catriona Hewitson) and Kalyba (Sioned Gwen Davies). 

Yvonne Howard embraced the glowing sophistication of Lady Sophy with knowing composure. Arthur Bruce and Richard Suart were a dream double act as Utopian wise men Phantis and Scaphio, Suart’s snarling nonchalance neatly countered by Bruce’s winning, agile impatience.

Among the British advisory delegation, the so-called “Flowers of Progress”, the we-know-it-all mantle was gloatingly assumed, Mark Nathan as Mr Goldbury and William Morgan as Captain Battleaxe key among its numerous personnel. 

A solid chorus and a Scottish Opera Orchestra much enjoying the frequent opulence of Sullivan’s music under the baton of Derek Clark were equally at ease in this judiciously edited performance of an opera that may have undoubted flaws, but which, in time-honoured G&S spirit, sets out chiefly to entertain.

Ken Walton

Scottish Opera’s Utopia, Limited is repeated at Edinburgh Festival Theatre on 5 Nov. Full information at www.scottishopera.org.uk

SCOTTISH OPERA: Gondoliers

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Theatre Royal, Glasgow

While Scottish Opera’s decision to mark its return to full-scale live production with Gilbert and Sullivan will likely raise legitimate questions about the company’s artistic priorities, there’s no questioning the boldness of Stuart Maunder’s directorial approach in this brand new, all-guns-blazing version of The Gondoliers. 

The mirth and excitement oozing from the first night audience said it all: it’s just great to be back in a real opera theatre, guffawing at the sheer escapism of a ridiculously silly story hammed up amid colourfully extravagant sets and costumes, and in the case of one gentleman near me, humming to the tunes he knew, and some he clearly didn’t.

From the outset, Maunder’s unspoilt vision is laid unapologetically before us: a panoramic Venice (Dick Bird’s elaborate picture postcard sets) filled with frolicking maidens and on-heat Gondoliers, from which unfolds a typical Gilbertian tale of relational complexities, unwitting entanglements and a conveniently convoluted denouement that, in the blink of an eye, sorts everything out.

And here is a cast that enters fully into the spirit, tweely exaggerating its comical naivety, caressing its gentle satire, and proving Sullivan’s melodic invention to be so much more than musical doggerel. 

A gleeful Ellie Laugharne and mellower Sioned Gwen Davies bring complementary charm to the playful roles of Gianetta and Tessa, affectionate matches for the boyish exuberance of their respective Gondolier hubbies, the excitably delicate William Morgan as Marco and firm-footed Mark Nathan as Giuseppe. Dan Shelvey as Luiz and Catriona Hewitson as Casilda come late to the party, but make their presence firmly felt. 

There’s vintage G&S bluster from veteran D’Oyly Carter Richard Suart as the spluttering Duke of Plaza-Toro, and Yvonne Howard as his Duchess, splendidly regal, but dressed in so vast a panniered dress one assumes its extensive wingspan conceals wheels to facilitate accompanying its wearer. Ben McAteer, as the pompous Grand Inquisitor, Don Alhambra, completes the ‘establishment’ line-up.

But this is ultimately a triumph of team work, right down to many other incidental roles, the flamboyant choreography and vocal animation of the chorus, and an orchestral performance under music director Derek Clark that bristles with sunshine and character. There were minor hesitancies on opening night, but nothing that can’t sort itself out as this fine production beds in.

Ken Walton

The Gondoliers runs in Glasgow until 23 Oct; Edinburgh 28 Oct – 6 Nov; Inverness 10-13 Nov; London 30 Mar – 2 Apr. Full details at www.scottishopera.org.uk