No 3 -- January 1976 Edited by Michael Walters
[As I explained I was forced to miss these performances, but specifically asked various friends to comment, and I print a selection of their comments below. (These would have been included in the last issue but for lack of space)]
PAUL OVERTON: I thought that D'Oyly Carte's production of Utopia Ltd. was excellent. Kenneth Sandford made an excellent King Paramount. John Reed was dreadful but otherwise it is difficult to criticise the performance too severely. "A tenor all singers above" received an unrehearsed encore, surely the only unrehearsed encore that D'Oyly Carte have done in years, and the patter song of King Paramount and the Flowers of Progress was excellently done and received. I hope DOC. do Utopia again in the near future. GRAND DUKE was OK. but even the soloists had scores. I'm afraid that the music did not particularly inspire me, except the entry of the Herald and the Prince's Song. However, some of it was not unpleasant to listen to and I would like to become a deal more familiar with the music before I pass my final judgement.
SARAH LENTON: Some of GD was taken at a ridiculous pace (have you noticed how Nash tends to speed things up at the moment?). However the music was pretty fair, apart from the celebrated DOC strings, and some rather obvious sight-reading. Act 2 was very well received. The main trouble was that Heyland had obviously nothing to do with it i.e. there was no production. The Co. were plainly embarrassed by the Oratorio setting, so we didn't get any by-play till the second act. Julia Goss was a glorious exception to all this. UTOPIA was much better than any of us anticipated. The only bits that dragged were bits of redundant dialogue, mainly in Act 1. The bits that V. Mason had staged stood out like a sore thumb - Heyland's bits were very static. Some incredible butchery was done to "Bold faced ranger". All the principals were very good; Lyndsie did marvels with Sophy, a sort of Edith Evans; Sandford was the star of the evening, of course. The 2 wise men were actually differentiated - Ayldon being Reed's stooge. One of the performances that impressed me most was Wright's Bailey Barre, his timing etc. in the banjo song couldn't have been bettered; but then I've always thought him a good character actor. The choreography was uniformly good, much better than "Sorcerer".
CHARLES HAYTER: I enjoyed the production of UTOPIA LTD, and thought it was nothing less than a master stroke to transfer the Utopians to the Orient rather than the fantasy-South Sea setting specified in the text. This new design concept really brought the opera down to earth and gave it a terrific satiric punch in that it depicted exactly what Britain did during its colonial days. Gilbert was really throwing a punch at imperialism and what it meant to the natives of civilised countries. The individual performances left something to be desired. John Reed played Scaphio in his usual bored, fatigued way - his performance itself would have led one to believe the Co. had performed the opera 3,000 times, rather than the supposedly refreshing first performance. Field was a bland Zara. The real stars were Sandford as Paramount, and (surprisingly) Rayner as Goldbury. The latter was delightful as a rich smug-bellied capitalist. I found GD rather boring by comparison. The music does not sound like Sullivan at all, and sounds like his attempt to be "European"... With the exception of the "Sausage Roll" song and the Prince's "Gambling Song", lyrics are not W.S G's best. This was my first encounter with the opera, and perhaps time will temper my initial unfavourable response.
SELWYN TILLETT: You may have seen from the "Times" report that Michael Heyland has been up to his old tricks and has transported UTOPIA from the South Seas to the Middle East (necessitating some word changes). The only possible excuse for this, as far as I am aware, is the sheer delight of John Reed in a pink and gold lamé fez. As you might expect, everyone forgot his or her words in the course of the evening - the worst offender being Lyndsie Holland, who lost the whole of her Act 1 duet with Ken Sandford - he ended up singing it for her under his breath ... her delivery however, was one of the best performances I have seen her give. The Act 1 finale was incredibly dull, though there were some nice touches - Mr. Goldbury's song lost its second verse - Mike Rayner was got up like D'Oyly Carte in the Spy cartoon. ... Meston Reid's opening to Act II was so bad that he had to sing it again, but personally I found it colourless. He was hampered by a very bad tape of cicadas chirping in the background and Zara hidden behind an enormous Welsh harp that she didn't attempt to play. Their duet was beautifully, if inaccurately sung. Naturally the septette stopped the show (two encores). Ken Sandford started the first of these in an Al Jolson accent and then dropped it when he realised it wasn't going to work. The plot trio was surprisingly good, though at one point I thought John Ayldon was going to wreck it. Ken Sandford was unmistakably the best of the cast, and makes Paramount a quiet, easy-going, humorous man. John Reed's wrathful Scaphio was a revelation, and not as fussy as I thought he would make it - John Ayldon's humour lay chiefly in the appalling pointed false nose he was given. [In fact, the photo in Wilson and Lloyd indicates that it was Reed, not Ayldon, who had the pointed false nose. Ed]. Nekaya and Kalyba were both far too full-voiced and matronly. Miss Merri's tendency to sing flat was much in evidence. The concert performance of GRAND DUKE was also a very mixed affair (the Company were possibly thrown by Fred Lloyd following the score in the Royal Box). Most of the usual cuts were in, though John Ayldon was allowed the Roulette Song and well deserved his encore. Julia Goss showed why the Act II Mad Scene should be included, and made me able to listen to "All is darksome" which no one else has done. Once again however, the performance was Ken Sandford as Ludwig. Judi Merri was again much too rich for Liza. Colin Wright was subdued as his voice had practically gone and he had to save the rest for TRIAL, so in concerted pieces he was quite inaudible. Mike Rayner showed what can be done with Tannhauser if you give your whole mind to it. John Reed's one and only solo was a disaster though in TRIAL he was at last word and note perfect and became the best D'OC Judge I have seen.
IAN BOND: I must admit that I have always considered UTOPIA LIMITED to be over long and rather boring, but I must say that the D'Oyly Carte production has completely reversed this view as far as I am concerned. The costumes and sets were magnificent. As to the accusation by Selwyn Tillett of no one knowing their words, I would challenge this as being completely false. Knowing the script as well as I do I must admit I did pick up a few minor mistakes but these were so minor that most of the audience would not have realised. The only serious error was that made by Lyndsie Holland and this I feel was not her fault. It occurred in "Bold faced Ranger". Obviously she had learned all three verses. The producer decided to take elements from all three verses and merge them as one... however, Lyndsie lost her way for a moment, but it was only a couple of bars and nothing to grouse about ... No, I'm sorry I cannot agree with Mr. Tillett, it was a superb production and I'm sure most of the audience would agree with me. I feel that, considering it was only a concert performance, THE GRAND DUKE was given a very good reception also, though Nash took some of the tempi much too slowly. The overture, for instance, was not nearly so exciting as under Harding in the Cheam recording. Julia Goss was fantastic in the Mad Scene and John Ayldon scored a great success with "Take my advice".
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