No 42 -- Summer 1994 Edited by Michael Walters
Concert performances of G&S are a rare breed; this performance perhaps showed why. It is a shame, since the music and lyrics deserve to be promoted onto the concert platform; however, for various reasons, this was not the right platform. After three changes of soloists, the final line-up was not exactly "star-studded", and although all the soloists had many operatic credits in their biographies, only 2 references were made to previous G&S works! They may have been fine singers, but as the evening wore on (and it really wore at times!) it was evident that they were given a score, shown a few tempi, and off they go!
From the very start, none of the soloists was able to approach anything like interaction with the audience, since they were all stuck on a low plinth behind the orchestra. The RFH acoustic has never been very sympathetic to a speaking voice, so most of the dialogue was a strain to hear, and much of it was lost. As soon as the band struck up, unless you had some idea of what characters were saying/singing, comprehension went out of the window. Soloists, in evening dress, stood, and stepped forward to speak and sing; all used scores, and placed them on assorted music stands in front of them, depending on the nature of the scene. The most obvious absence was that of a dialogue coach/director. Had anyone sat in on a rehearsal? (Was there anything other than the briefest of rehearsals?). Apparently not, or else surely they would have dropped the dialogue, since on the whole it was so poorly delivered.
The orchestral playing on the whole was very fine, but it was very tiring to watch Mr. Norrington in his aerobic flailings, and he had the very annoying habit of winding the orchestra up to a clockwork frenzy towards the end of each musical number, so that the coda of each song was rattled out at breakneck speed, forsaking accuracy and musicality. The choir sounded like they were performing fifteenth century vespers, or some such religious chorus; decidedly "churchy".
Marilyn Hill Smith replaced the indisposed Lesley Garrett as Josephine (thank goodness!?), and although starting a little tentatively, was perhaps the only performer who seemed to take herself seriously, and valued the role for its own worth, and not for any of her own additions or distortions. Neil Jenkins replaced Robert Tear as Ralph, and David Thomas replaced Richard van Allen as Dick. While the Ralph was certainly no more than adequate, it was as if David Thomas was trying to compensate in his characterisation for the lack of costume and scenery. Deadeye became simple parody, predictable and very unoriginal; his delivery of dialogue was so distorted as to make it even more inaudible than simply because of bad staging. David Wilson-Johnson's Corcoran made very little impression, which at least means that it wasn't awful!
Benjamin Luxon appeared very dapper as Sir Joseph, and it was probably his performance I most looked forward to; this led me to be sorely disappointed. His accent was very plummy and hard to understand, many of his best lines thrown away through poor enunciation. His singing was very quiet, and although Norrington was not particularly helpful in this, there were moments when, although he should have been, I couldn't even tell if he were singing! He seemed rather oblivious to those around him, and his dialogue when conversing with others was very stilted, he seemed to be simply repeating his lines on cue. Sarah Walker tried to give us a little fun for our money, and of the whole cast probably came off the best. Her dialogue was given with just the right amount of punch, a rounded country accent (although she tended to lose it a little during her more vocal moments), and her singing voice managed to project a little more successfully than others. I was curious to read in one national journal's review that she was appropriately dressed - she was wearing an ample flowing yellow number, not very practical for climbing aboard ship!
But I question the decision for any professional body nowadays to give concert performances of PINAFORE. What a missed opportunity to give a concert of one of the rarely performed works, Say GRAND DUKE or UTOPIA, or even one at least not so common as PINAFORE, such as RUDDIGORE or SORCERER. Performances of PINAFORE are not exactly scarce, and the merits of this one were few and far between. More of a Titanic then, than a Pinafore, which should never, ever, have gone to sea.
JEREMY FIELDING
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