After Bizet, Sullivan; after Mérimée, Gilbert. After the sublime (Carmen at Glyndebourne), the faintly weird.
Wilton’s Music Hall sees the return, for a week, of The Charles Court Opera’s latest G&S foray – the rarely performed The Sorcerer, from a short story by W S Gilbert.
‘Gilbert and Sullivan’ has seen a plethora of new productions across the serious opera stage recently – but this, their first full-size comic opera – has not been one of them.
You can see seeds of greatness – a fine patter song, but without the character painting of later ones; a good ensemble closing chorus, but none, yet of the sparkling duets and trios – and nothing really memorable musically. The satire is beginning, but it isn’t yet quite as pointed and effective as it was to become. Dialogue is sung, not spoken. But it might just have well been.
So it took all of the Charles Court Opera’s players skills, in pin accurate singing, in fine comic acting, to make the operetta so thoroughly enjoyable. In particular Meriel Cunningham (Aline) and Matthew Kelly (Dr Daly) were particularly strong actors, and accurate singers, and all the cast have had notable opera bookings, in particular Richard Suart (The Sorcerer) who started at the D’Oyly Carte and the ENO in 1988 and is due back at the ENO this year in Pirates of Penzance. This is not, intrinsically, a great piece, but John Savournin’s Direction, and David Eaton’s Musical Direction (and piano playing as the sole instrumentalist) – together with a talented cast – brought us a memorable and enjoyable evening. 