No 39 -- Winter 1992–3 Edited by Michael Walters
For the umpteenth time the posters advertised this opera as "The YeomAn of the Guard". To those of a fanciful turn of mind, this might have been symbolic of the production as a whole – it was so nearly right, but! It was, in fact, only nearly a Cambridge production; Dame Carruthers, Elsie, Phoebe and Fairfax were all soloists brought in from outside (Fairfax from the London Opera Centre, the others from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama), while the producer was an ex Cambridge man invited back specially from Kent Opera. The resulting relationships between undergraduates and semi–professionals were not on the whole successful, with the notable exception of Phoebe (Clare Rimmer) with Wilfred (Richard Wistreich, a choral scholar at King's College, with, perhaps significantly, the widest experience of stage singing of any of the Cambridge people, ranging from Mozart to Britten and Kurt Weill). Regrettably, the other three imports had, in the apt but unkind words of the Assistant Musical Director, "more voice than brain". Dame Carruthers, indeed (Judith Buckle) rising from her bed of 'flu, was deprived of even that.
Gillian Clench (Elsie) proved to possess a voice of some sweetness and considerable range and flexibility (she has sung Zerbinetta for the Guildhall, and it may have been this knowledge of her own capabilities that prompted her to introduce a florid and totally unsuitable cadenza of her own devising at the end of her final appeal to Fairfax). Her acting betrayed a certain degree of charm if no very great conviction. Fairfax (Harold Sharples) is not Radames or Don Jos and ought not to be treated as such. A better memory would have helped his dialogue, and greater sensibility his singing.
The Lieutenant (Dr. Richard Bainbridge, an elderly mathematics don and senior Treasurer of the Society) was a walking disaster. A fine comedy actor – I remember him with great affection as Sir Harcourt in Boucicault's LONDON ASSURANCE – his singing is notorious both outside and inside the G&S Society. Three years ago he played the Judge in TRIAL BY JURY and threatened to wreck the proceedings each night. This year he had marginally improved, but only some sympathetic assistance from the MD, well above and beyond the call of duty, papered over the cracks. He is, I am told, desperately upset if not given a part – thus the producer's pity results in severe audience discomfort. He might profitably be persuaded to resign. Meryll (Anthony Little) suffered from the very common failing of young actors, not appearing convincingly old even though heavily made up; indeed he looked more like an elder brother than a father. His performance was surprisingly dull and uncommitted for one who seemed to be awake all evening.
Phoebe and Wilfred I have already mentioned. These were far and away the best of the cast, she with a gentle caressing voice, impeccable and quite unaffected diction, and a splendid sense of comedy timing; he with just the right clumsiness of manner and "hooded" vocal tone – even Ken Sandford could scarcely do better. Their scenes together were the only ones where there was really any communication between stage and audience, with great laughter and applause afterwards. There was in fact no audience reaction of any kind otherwise till after "I have a song to sing O" rather cleverly done with Point and Elsie operating puppets whose actions they imitated at the end of Act 2. [Selwyn assures me that the puppets in the D'Oyly Carte production were done in almost exactly the same way as they had been here. Ed.] Point himself (Jeremy Thomas) seemed to believe that "an accepted wit has but to say ..." and that what had worked as Bunthorne would do just as well here. Well it didn't; he was only intelligible when he dropped his extraordinary vocal affectation (not a frequent occurrence) and achieved the remarkable feat of inducing in one spectator at least a sense of delight and relief at the final curtain.
Stephen Harrison (Musical Director) produced some surprising tempi. "Free from his fetters" was impossibly fast, while all the difficult choral music was very cautious. Sometimes it picked up when everyone had come in, and sometimes it didn't; and sometimes they didn't come in! Thanks to Alison Kennedy (Kate) the Madrigal was amusingly flat.
Andrew Wickes (Producer) had obviously thought very carefully, usually with intelligent and satisfying results, particularly the Act 1 finale, which was always visually very interesting and exciting, involving a multitude of entrances and platforms, and a good deal of bustle from the well–trained chorus. For the rest of the evening however, the set was intensely annoying, consisting of flats whisked on and off with great speed in full light, often while the action was still in progress. The designer (Alan Powers) claimed to have been "influenced" by Ben Nicholson, John Golding and David Hockney – personally I would prefer "the White Tower flapping on the backcloth". The Company's motto seemed to have been to "gloriously suceed or nobly fail". They achieved the latter, and are expected to be several hundred pounds in the red because of it.
[Footnote: The mention of Harold Sharples in the above review, calls for some comment. He of course joined the D'Oyly Carte a couple of years later for a season or two. He was not popular with the regular audiences, one person was heard to describe him as "not so much a tenor, more like a fiver". However, though lacking stage manner and charisma, I thought that he sang the music more intelligently and phrased more correctly than a good many other D'Oyly Carte tenors. I have been able to hear some tapes of him made in the theatre, and these bear out my original impressions. Does anybody know where he is now? Ed.]
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