No 3 -- January 1976 Edited by Michael Walters
"At the outset, I may mention", that I thoroughly enjoyed the three performances of this opera which I attended, though inevitably there were criticisms. It was excusable, though a pity, that on no occasion were all the cast word-perfect. There were things to be said both pro and con the Arabian-nights setting. Charles Hayter's point that it underlined the satire on British imperialism was a good one, it was, however, contrary to the text in one or two places:- e.g. Paramount's line "the first kingdom in Christendom" (which it blatantly wasn't) - this point, however, I suspect would have escaped many, and I admit it escaped me till Bob Osborne pointed it out to me. I could not understand why James Conroy-Ward persisted in saying "Well what do you think of our first South Pacific drawing room?". If this was merely an oversight it was indefensible. The cuts in the text were clumsy, and in many cases ill advised. The telescoping of Lady Sophy's song into one verse was dramatically wrong. The point of the song is that it is meant to be a long and slightly tedious lecture. The cutting of a chunk of Zara's "government by party" speech meant that the joke simply didn't come across, and nobody laughed, simply because the point became incomprehensible. One was sorry to lose the "inorganic pink jelly" and the second verse of King Paramount's first song, though these cuts were certainly more defensible.
The sets and costumes were very pretty - the whole thing looked gorgeous (though surely Middle Eastern women would have been veiled at that period?). It was fun to do a "spot your operas" on where various costumes came from; thus the Life-Guards from PATIENCE; Capt. Cor. from Pinafore; Lord D. a Lord Chancellor costume (?); Sir Bailey had what looked to be a Judge's costume; some of the ladies seemed to have remade Princess Ida costumes and I guess that Paramount's red cloak may have been adapted from an old King Hildebrand costume. I found the camel [which caused a deal of controversy at the time] quite unobjectionable, as it was so obviously artificial that I could accept it simply as an artificial camel and believe that it was never intended to be real (though I fear it probably was.) I found the palm tree at the back more jarring - as this was obviously artificial, but equally obviously intended to be real, and I would have preferred not to have the psychedelic bath towels hanging from the flies in Act 1.
The performance was a bit dull on the first night but picked up at the two later evening ones. There can be no doubt that the first act is over long, but it is difficult to know what to cut. The second act was good on all three occasions and I think it is visually one of the most beautiful second acts of any D'Oyly Carte production. The production was, on the whole, good, though tending to be a bit over-fussy, with a number of details which were really unnecessary. It had obviously been designed for a smaller theatre and several points of business were too detailed to come across properly in an auditorium the size of the Festival Hall. The Drawing Room scene was a visual triumph, and made one realise that it can and does work, however irrelevant it may be from the point of view of the plot (even "Eagle High", that supremely pointless chorus, seemed to slot quite appropriately into place). The idea of having the Englishmen drink champagne while fobbing off the natives with tea was a glorious touch of British imperialism, and gave rise to a beautiful piece of business where Capt. Corcoran (John Broad) plied Salata (Beti Lloyd-Jones) with bubbly while her poor little Arabian boy-friend unsuccessfully tried, with tears in his eyes, to give her a cup of tea.
Histrionically, the performance was Kenneth Sandford's, so obviously enjoying himself. John Reed did not seem to understand the part of Scaphio, and oscillated between a sort of oriental King Gama and what appeared to be an attempt to play Alec Guinness to John Ayldon's Omar Sharif. Far from making much of very little (as Alan Blyth in "The Times" claimed) he realized only a small part of the incredible potential of this remarkable role. (I suspect that it would be impossible for any actor in a single production to realise all Scaphio's potentialities). It was played basically as Tarara ought to have been played, but wasn't. I could not help feeling that he was disappointed in having a role where he was only one of two, instead of having a star-spot to himself (Scaphio is the only patter baritone role which has no solo). Having said that, to be fair, his performance was well executed, even if it was a misconception of the role. He did act with John Ayldon, even if at times he tried to outshine him, but the latter acted so sincerely that it didn't really succeed. On the first two nights "Let all your doubts" was spoiled by Reed stubbornly singing half a beat ahead of the orchestra, but by the last night he was correct - though, alas, he had a bad throat and was almost inaudible. Jon Ellison spoke his lines as Tarara in a painfully "de-dum, de-dum" rhythm which is a characteristic of the very worst amateur performances. The contrast with the excellent way Michael Buchan spoke Calynx's lines was striking. As Fitzbattleaxe, Meston Reid had the best voice of the cast - and didn't stick out in the ensembles as he used to do. His two duets with Pamela Field were the musical high spots of the evening. Colin Wright's Sir Bailey Barre was a pure delight, and demonstrated what can be done with a tiny role - it also made me realise for the first time exactly why I have always disliked John Reed's acting (sorry to go on) - it is because everything Reed does is calculated to be funny, and therefore isn't. I think John Reed has no genuine sense of humour - and all his "funny" business is done with the air of "Oh look, isn't this funny" and therefore to me is unfunny. Colin Wright did nothing funny, he just was funny. James Conroy-Ward was a perfect casting for a stylish Lord Dramaleigh, though both he and Goldbury looked a bit too old to be pairing off with Nek & Kal. One felt that it ought to have been the young and debonair David Porter (Blushington) and John Broad, who should have been pairing off with them. Michael Rayner turned in one of his very best performances as Goldbury, but John Broad was a bit disappointing as Capt. Corcoran - the part seemed to lie wrong for his voice, and, particularly on the first night, he had no bottom notes at all. Lyndsie Holland's Lady S. was magnificent dramatically, her dialogue was truly superb, but she was not in good voice, alas. Julia Goss and Judi Merri were not ideally matched, but managed to get quite a lot out of the insipid and unrewarding roles of Nekaya & Kalyba.
MICHAEL WALTERS.
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