The Gilbert and Sullivan Newsletter Archive

GILBERTIAN GOSSIP

No 42 -- Summer 1994     Edited by Michael Walters



SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN SOCIETY FESTIVAL, Hull, 23-25 October 1992.

This was the fifth in a series of biennial "Festivals" or conferences, held by this Society since 1984. As on previous occasions, the organisers did not quite resist the temptation to cram a quart into a pint pot, and, in particular, to programme almost 4 hours of events on Sunday afternoon without so much as a break for tea, ran the risk of afflicting those present with indigestion both literally and figuratively. That said, there was much to stimulate and give pleasure during the weekend. Perhaps the recital of organ music by Sullivan and contemporaries Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens given by Arthur Spedding of Beverley Minster, and maybe also Derek Scott's selection of drawing room ballads by Sullivan and some of his contemporaries, were of peripheral interest, and due to the late running of the time table I heard little of the final item, a concert, by the Yorkshire-based Voices in Concert, of vocal solos and ensembles by Sullivan. But Christopher Knowles' talk about the friendship of Sullivan with Frederic Clay, ballad writer and theatre musician, illustrated by recordings and live examples sung by himself and Kate Flowers with Keith Swallow at the piano, was authoritative and comprehensive (Mr. Knowles is writing a book about Clay); and the full-bodied singing of Sullivan's Schubert-inspired cycle THE WINDOW, by Peter Bingham, tenor of the Voices in Concert, went some way towards making us forget we were wanting our tea.

Two pre-existing events were visited in the course of Saturday: Hull University's exhibition of the costumes and costume drawings for THE BEAUTY STONE; and the matinee performance of HADDON HALL by Generally G&S, at the King Edward VI School, Retford, conducted and produced by Martin Yates, who had, in conjunction with David Eden, prepared a new edition of the piece aiming to tighten up action and dialogue and make the piece viable for production in the present age. After all, HADDON HALL contains much fine music, Sullivan at very nearly his best vintage (and this is my opinion, too), which it would be a pity to lose. Martin's company did their utmost to justify his faith in the piece. Chorus work, whether musically or in the matter of stage business, was lively and excellently rehearsed, showing the advantage of combining the roles of musical director and producer. The tension of Act 2 was well maintained, the reconciliation of Act 3 quite moving. Retford is not a large place but it has a considerable number of singers well-versed in the Sullivan idiom, and if one mentions Stephen Cave (Manners), Joan Self (Dorothy), Kevin Ogden (Rupert) and Brenda Smith (Lady Vernon) this is no reflection on the rest of the principals, and there was no serious weak link. Time will tell, however, whether others share Martin's enthusiasm for HADDON HALL. I cannot see it taking its place among the top eight, say, G&S operas in the forseeable future but I shall be glad to be proved wrong.

The major Festival event of the Saturday was a concert at Hull City Hall by the Hull Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny. The most popular item was the last, a concert performance of TRIAL BY JURY, which was well sung by the veteran Eric Shilling (Judge), Mark Richardson (Usher), Christopher Knowles (Counsel), Kate Flowers (Plaintiff), Hugh Hetherington (Defendant) and Julian Tovey (Foreman), and which served its purpose in bringing in a sizeable audience. The rest of the programme comprised items much less frequently heard in concert: In Memoriam, marred slightly by the first trumpet's propensity to play behind the beat, but featuring excellent woodwind playing; the Cello Concerto, a flawed piece, for which Raphael Wallfisch did his very considerable best; the recently reconstructed Thespis ballet music, rather French in style; and the Festival Te Deum of 1872 which saw Kate Flowers combine most pleasantly with the choir and orchestra. Sullivan brings in the well-known hymn-tune St. Anne to add power to his final climax here, and he does the same (except that the tune is St. Gertrude - or Onward Christian Soldiers) in his otherwise very different Boer War Te Deum which formed the centrepiece of Sunday morning's Matins at Hymes College and sung, impressively, by the school choir accompanied by a brass emsemble.

PHILIP SCOWCROFT

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