No 5 -- June 1976 Edited by Michael Walters
BARNES AND RICHMOND OPERATIC SOCIETY - The Mikado, Richmond Theatre, March 20th 1976.
[It is with relief that I turn now to a production which was memorable for a different reason. I attended the Saturday matinee (it was a busy week for me) and sat in the Gods. Unfortunately, I did not get my report finished at the time and when I came back to it after an interval, discovered, as often happens, that many of the details had faded a bit in my mind. However, there is still a goodly bit of report there!]
Surprisingly enough this was the first time I had seen this Society, though their reputation is high, and on this shewing, well-justified. It was a magnificent production of The Mikado, carefully and intelligently thought out. The Overture boded well: there were a few wrong notes, but the Conductor obviously knew exactly what he wanted even if he did not always get the players to do it exactly. The music had a lilt and variety of tempi which was very refreshing after being used to Royston Nash's matter-of-fact conducting. For me, the performance of the afternoon was Alan Titchmarsh's Ko-Ko. It was so refreshing to see a Ko-Ko who played the role as a real flesh-and-blood human being, something I have not seen for a long time, not since Ian Ellis in Exeter six years ago. Alan has a very good (though, perhaps, not outstanding) singing voice, but his acting had a depth rarely seen in G&S - an understanding of the mind of the character he was portraying. His Ko-Ko really was a common little working-class nobody suddenly elevated to the peerage and totally out of his depth in the etiquette of high society. It teemed with innuendoes and subtleties which were never overdone or ostentatious. True, there were a few moments when he became theatrical, as in the encores to "Here's a how-de-do" and "There is beauty in the bellow of the blast", but they never once struck me as being out of character. There were quite a lot of "new readings" to lines such as the suppressed glee of "How shall I break it to her?" or the sarcasm of "Oh certainly nothing easier, Pooh Bah, I appoint you Lord High Substitute" said as if knowing before he began that it was a waste of time. (Incidentally it was marvellous to hear the bassoon encore to "The Flowers that Bloom", which I have not heard for a long time). Alan transposed two lines in the Act 1 trio thus: "Now every man should plot and plan, to aid his clan, as best he can."
I did not like Mike Palette as the Mikado. I could not understand the purpose of his "buck-leaps" or peculiar walk. He lacked any sort of dignity necessary to an Emperor and the contortions into which he twisted his mouth became irritating after a while; it was overacted. He has a good voice, and sang his song well, but the exaggerated Mikado-laugh was not funny. Ron Sellers did not look quite right [too old] for Nanki-Poo, but sang and acted with charm and intelligence. David Armstrong as Pooh-Bah gave a performance in the traditional style. He has a good voice, but his dialogue, though well and authoritatively delivered, tended to be over-stylised and lacking in spontaneity. Nevertheless, his performance was suitably pompous. Richard Manuel was a young Pish-Tush who sang the part beautifully. The costumes were very pretty, though not all Japanese - the ladies' appeared to be Chinese, and some of the men's (particularly the Mikado's) appeared to have been left over from The King and I. But as The Mikado is Japanoiserie rather than Japanese, this is not an important point. The set was simple but elegant: a dovetailing jigsaw of rostra (some borrowed from the Richmond Shakespeare Society!) which gave scope for lots of variation in positionings of the chorus. In spite of the fact that the make-up department had worked hard, none of the men, with the possible exception of Pooh-Bah, managed to look really Japanese. The Society was founded in 1908, and Rutland Barrington was a Vice-President. MICHAEL WALTERS
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