No 41 -- Spring 1994 Edited by Michael Walters
I could describe the production merely as "adequate". The orchestra - my own special department of interest - was good, with a nice full sound. The aesthetic maidens made their appearance at the beginning of Act 1 by coming from a side door and meandering across the front of the audience behind the orchestra pit, and then winding up on to the stage by a side staircase. The curtain went up to reveal some rather silly scenery. The G&S Society of Victoria is usually extremely "traditional": and so it was a surprise to see, not some rustic setting with the exterior of Castle Bunthorne, but what looked like a stylised version of Regent Street, London! A porthole or circular skylight over the front door of the nearest house popped open a couple of times for Bunthorne and Lady Jane respectively to utter some dialogue before emerging from the front dooor to continue what they had to say; the Solicitor (Richard Burman) made his appearance from the front door of the same house. Admittedly the crescent sweep of Regent Street did make a quite magnificent setting for the Dragoons to march in for their first appearance: but really, I couldn't see the slightest relevance of it at all. The friend with me suggested that it might be a vague London reference to "walking down Piccadilly, etc.," - but we both agreed this was so tenuous as to be irrelevant. In the sky above there hovered a strange sort of winged sun - actually, I think, a stylised version of the sun and some clouds. At various times the sky turned orange and then brightened again, to emphasize something in the dialogue. The centre right of the stage was occupied by a sort of "folly" - in Act 1 with a monstrous kind of abstract orchid in the middle of it, and strange arty wrought brass balls in a semi-circle, suspended over it. In Act 2, the scenery was the same except that the orchid and spheres were gone and replaced by crystal dingle-dangles like a sort of avant-garde chandelier - no doubt symbolising arty pretentiousness of some sort. Lady Jane sang her solo at the commencement of Act 2, without her traditional 'cello, which seemed merely perverseness on the part of the producer. After all the funny 'cello and double-bass remarks in the orchestra which punctuate her recitative - riotously reminiscent of the recitative in the final movement of Beethoven's Choral Symphony - can be one of the highlights of this opera if synchronized with Lady Jane's sawings and posturings on stage. However, Act 2 opened to reveal the aesthetic ladies all grouped around Grosvenor, who was posing on the folly, while they sketched him. Lady Jane worked vigorously at the left of the stage on her own canvas, occasionally standing back to assess her work: I suppose her long brush-strokes took the place of the more usual - and far more acceptable - sweeps of the bow across the 'cello.
The singing was acceptable in a general sense - but my old grievance remains about the diction in the spoken dialogue. I am not losing sight of the fact that the G&S Society is an amateur body: but this should be no excuse for slovenliness of speech. All the principals spoke with pleasant inflexion and nicely rounded vowels, but there was no clarity, and the performance was marred by (as always) gabbled words. Lady Jane (Barbara Amatnieks) seems to base her style of voice and delivery on Hattie Jacques, and all we heard was a series of bosomy hoots and turkey-gobbler noises. Most of her spoken dialogue was quite unintelligible - annoying even when most of us in the audience know the text off by heart anyway. Patience (Deborah Tueno) was pleasant and refined, but didn't project too convincingly. The Colonel (Geoff Skews), Major (Ken Jones) and Duke (Graeme Berryman) were adequate, and their aesthetic trio and following encounter with the ladies went off quite well. However, dialogue was again poor, and the Duke in fact was very bad. Bunthorne (Robin Halls) was quite good in an unflambuoyant way. Made up to look like Whistler, he looked more like Jesus Christ. Grosvenor (Edward Burger) - an artiste of dazzling good looks, was nevertheless so tall and thin that his line to Patience, "I am much taller and much stouter than I was" had to be altered to "I am much takker and much thinner than I was". There were no other changes in the text, except that the references to Sewell and Cross and Howell and James were replaced by references to two Melbourne mercantile emporia. A sudden violent thunderstorm during the performance was a little distracting, but all went smoothly.
DAVID THOMAS
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