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Charlie White Theatre
March 19, 2011
"The story of The Mikado does not amount to much, and the music, though sufficiently agreeable, contains no...gems of simple melody".
Perhaps surprisingly the quote is not from a review of the first run (all 672 nights) in 1885-6, but from the (anonymous) review in Times of the 1888 revival (a revival necessitated by the relative failure of their next production, Ruddigore).
Yes, admittedly the story is fairly slim - but is this not true of the overwhelming majority of oper(ett)as? And, one might remark parenthetically, the overwhelming majority of operas have librettos which are far (far) less literate than Gilbert's.
As for gems of simple melody: I offer in rebuttal "A wand'ring minstrel I", "Behold the Lord High Executioner" and "Three Little Maids from school" as three examples from act one alone. Sullivan may always have regretted that his "serious" music never achieved anything remotely approaching popularity - but this is surely akin to Buster Keaton complaining that his comedy films are more popular than his King Lear (not, of course, that Keaton ever, to my knowledge, attempted Shakespeare).
All of which is by way of prefixing this review of the opening night of The Mikado.
In the overture, George Corwin and his handpicked orchestra (a mere thirteen in number, I presume nobody in the G&S Society is superstitious) put the audience on notice that they were in for a real treat. The chamber-like quality of the playing brought out inner detail which is infrequently heard and the string quintet (one to a part) produced some exquisite textures.
The choral singing was also excellent: as I remarked in my review of the concert performance, this is a particularly fine chorus, well-balanced and clear of diction and they were on top form on Saturday.
All of the soloists were more than acceptable, although it must be admitted (this is, after all, not a professional production) that some acted better than they sung and vice-versa.
Gilbert's young romantic leads tend to the vapid and Nanki-Poo and his enamorata Yum-Yum (I wonder if that was quite so obvious in 1885) are no exceptions. Scott Crinson characterised the individual episodes of "A wand'ring minstrel" nicely, even if he was not quite as vocally secure as one might have wished in the main refrain. One could quite see, thought, why he should be so taken with Inge Illman's Yum-Yum, whose "The sun, whose rays are all ablaze" was enchanting.
The three little maids - Illman, Jennifer Hoener and Stephanie Mile - were, individually and collectively, also delightful.
Adrian Sly's Poo-Bah produced a dizzying variety of accents for each of his official roles and played the part of the totally untrustworthy public "servant" to perfection.
Katisha is another of those middle-aged female roles which Gilbert created (and which, generally are not very sympathetic and often slightly distasteful); in the capable hands (and more than capable voice) of Jennifer Lang she emerged, not only as a formidable presence (I just loved her constant interruptions as "his daughter-in-law elect") and even, in her final duet with Ko-Ko - and is "There is beauty in the bellow of the blast" the only patter duet in G&S? - rather a fetching character.
Dale Friesen's Mikado was commanding and possessed of a nice line in menacing joviality (or do I mean jovial menace?). His strong, resonant voice made the notion of making the punishment fit the crime seem more sinister than usual, even as it undoubtedly amused.
But if there is one part on which the Mikado surely stands or falls, it is the Lord High Executioner himself, Ko-Ko. Fortunately Lucas Corwin - clearly his casting was no example of nepotism - was superb: shifty and sly, craven and cowardly and, above all, hilariously funny. His "I've got a little list", complete with mandatory local references (no, I'm not giving them away) was particularly amusing.
There were some choice bits of "business" - Ko-Ko constantly having to turn his massively-padded shoulders sideways to get through doors, the "rock, paper scissors" game whenever there is an unpleasant decision to make; Susan Ferguson's costumes were very attractive (my wife Dorothy remarked upon them several times), the choreography - much striding around while spinning sticks or (heavens!) swords for the men, elegant twirling of fans for the women - was marvellous and performed with commendable precision.
Tony Gilsenan's sets were simple, elegant and effective. In fact every single element of the production contributed towards making the whole the success it indubitably was.
There were one or two (very) minor hiccups (most noticeably when the singers got slightly out of sync with the accompaniment) but, for an opening night, they were remarkably few and far between.
Just in case you haven't been paying attention, allow me to point out that I enjoyed the evening immensely, as indeed did Dorothy.
Not only that, there are still four more opportunities to see this terrific production: Saturday March 26 (8 p.m.) and Sunday March 27 (2 p.m.), once again in Sidney's Charlie White Theatre; Satruday April 2 (8 p.m.) and Sunday April 3 (2 p.m.) in the McPherson Playhouse.
If you are a G&S aficionado you will neet no further encouragement, if you are not (as yet) then this is definitely a more than merely good place to start.
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