I saw a disastrous rehearsal of this about a fortnight before the production, and I approached the show with great trepidation. It was poorly attended, but this was only to be expected in view of the fact that the Society did not bother to advertise the production in The Savoyard. Visually it was excellent, John Roebuck's set and the costumes from Mary Payne were beautiful, and Peggy Tierney's production was gentle, refined, and traditional in style and mood without being done by the book, or making one feel "I've seen all this before". The main trouble was the music. Bernard Farenden's tempi were lethargic to the point of dullness, and he experienced the greatest difficulty in keeping orchestra and singers together; there were numerous occasions when they were jarringly out of time. Not all the members of the orchestra knew the music. It was an interesting touch to have Luiz enter with the Ducal party in Act 2, still with the drum; but the Don's appearance, breaking up the revels of the cachucha was a non-event because he was invisible until the crowd cleared. It made a very pretty picture to have the Ducal Party joining hands across the Don on "hands across and down the riddle" and the way of doing "replying we sing" with Marco's head poking out from various positions behind Giuseppe was a nice idea but it didn't work, because it looked too haphazard and seemed insufficiently rehearsed. John Roebuck's Duke was one of the finest I have seen (Roger Thompson commented to me that the only person he had seen do it better was Eric Shilling), the pointing and timing of his dialogue was perfection itself and he is a master of the throwaway line. In a part like the Duke his vocal limitations are not apparent. Barbara Nicholls gave a delightfully original interpretation of the Duchess, warm and affectionate - and physically a still very attractive woman - no old battleaxe this. I listened very carefully to see if this interpretation would run contrary to Gilbert's text at any point - but in the way the text was played (obviously very carefully worked out by John, Barbara and Peggy together) it did not do so. Meriel Beeden was in her element as Casilda with the right austere dignity mixed with warmth. Her voice was at its most ravishing. Unfortunately she was hampered by her Luiz. Archie Alexander was trying very hard, but was quite unsuitable for this sort of part, and moreover, was jarringly flat. Michael James was no great shakes as Marco, he has a high thin voice, a nondescript stage presence, and an infuriating habit of bobbing his head about like a yo-yo. Ron Pocock as Giuseppe was able to dominate the duo entirely, and is gaining more voice and confidence than he used to have. He did not know his lines, as usual, but he is getting better at covering it up. The trouble with Jerry March's Don Alhambra was that his whole style of acting was very obviously un-English and was out of step with the rest of the production. It would probably have worked very well in an American production, and for an American audience. Veronica Kearsley sang and acted with charm as Gianetta, and Francis Gatward was entrancing as Tessa, not pert or vivacious, but with a gentle and captivating sweetness. Peter Rose (Antonio) combined a lack of acting ability with a very strident and unbeautiful voice which cut through all the choruses and was audible above everybody else. Marie Whitebread sang the small but very important role of Inez with exceptional clarity and power - such a refreshing change to see a strong performer in this role which usually gets left to a weak one with the result that the important narration becomes all but unintelligible. The only trouble was that Marie looked far too young and charming, and was in no way "old and crusted". It is Geoids great tragedy at the moment that it boasts two fine altos as two of its leading performers, and few operas have more than one alto part, and many none at all. MICHAEL WALTERS

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