The Gondoliers - Livewire Opera Company
MICHAEL DRAKE Queen's Hall, Watton
MICHAEL DRAKE
Queen's Hall, Watton
The objective of this enterprising little company is to bring entertaining opera and operetta to places which might not otherwise have the opportunity to see them and last evening, in the middle of the current run, they brought the show to Watton and an enthusiastic audience.
People seem to have been rather lax in bringing up their children in Gilbert and Sullivan's day and this Savoy Opera of 1889 was following a theme of child mix-up which Gilbert particularly enjoyed.
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Although there were only 18 in the cast they brought no little humour - much of it contemporary - from the arrival of the duke's “gondola” to the “happy ever after finale”.
It would be invidious to single out individual performances, although it must be said that the duke, the duchess (and their daughter) with “drummer” Luiz and the inquisitor were splendid in voice, demeanour and acting; and in large measure this was true of Marco and Giuseppe and their wives, despite them not entirely relaxing in their roles.
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The six-piece orchestra kept a lively pace under producer and artistic director Susan Booth.
t There are performances at Norwich Playhouse on July 13 and 14.
