{"id":4999,"date":"2019-03-06T14:33:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T14:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4999"},"modified":"2019-03-06T14:38:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T14:38:19","slug":"merry-opera-company-pirates-of-penzance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4999","title":{"rendered":"Merry Opera Company: Pirates of Penzance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hazlitt Theatre Maidstone and touring<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Musically, for me, the success (or not) of any production of The Pirates of Penzance <\/em>hangs on \u201cHail Poetry\u201d. It\u2019s a wonderful moment when everything stops, the cast becomes a choir and Sullivan indulges himself in a splendid four line anthem (complete with exasperatedly daft Gilbertian words \u2013 you can almost hear WSG\u2019s irritation) in homage to Mendelssohn. And in the hands of Merry Opera Company under their MD Gabriel Chernick it rings out magnificently \u2013 every member of the cast of 14 singing with warm commitment. I could have done without the distracting stage business, though. It takes less than a minute and I think there\u2019s a strong argument for letting the audience listen to it properly in all its loveliness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Merry Opera is a Kent-based bijoux company which tours scaled down versions of operas and semi-dramatised, immersive versions of works such as Messiah<\/em> and Verdi\u2019s Requiem. It works with fine young singers and almost always delivers the goods. And The<\/em> Pirates of Penzance<\/em>, their first foray into Gilbert and Sullivan, is no exception. Every single person on stage is a talented singer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the quality of the music which really makes this production work. Gabriel Chernick, on keyboard, has arranged the score very imaginatively for a trio with Eloise Macdonald on violin and Georgina van Hien playing wind and brass \u2013 sitting downstage right where they almost become part of the action. I really love the way he has woven in continuos and sympathetic counter melodies. I\u2019m sure Sir Arthur would have approved. And it supports the singing immaculately.<\/p>\n

Mimi Doulton, as Mabel for instance is a fine coloratura soprano hitting every one of those absurdly high notes with sparky panache as she smiles through the music at her Frederic, an excellent tenor, although I wish he hadn\u2019t been directed to use that \u00a0gratingly strangled heightened RP voice in the dialogue. It isn\u2019t funny. \u00a0Samuel Pantcheff sings the Pirate King (bass) with lots of arresting richness, Phil Wilcox is a skilled and very nimble Major General \u2013 the presto encore in his famous number is good fun \u2013 and Matthew Quirk is a delightful, rubber kneed, gor-blimey Sergeant of Police.<\/p>\n

On the music front then, this is a good production. Dramatically, however, I found it tiresomely fussy. Of course G&S cries out to be camped up and some of it is so absurd that only witty over acting makes it work but director John Ramster over-eggs it here. \u00a0There is no need for the Pirates to keep making stereotypical \u201cpiratical\u201d noises like something out of a strip cartoon, for example. And, for me, the \u201cduty\u201d joke (whenever the word is mentioned, attention is drawn to it \u2013 I\u2019ll spare you the spoilers) wears thin after half an hour or so. It all gives the impression of trying just a bit too hard. The material is very strong and there\u2019s a case for allowing it to work its magic without quite so much embellishment.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hazlitt Theatre Maidstone and touring Musically, for me, the success (or not) of any production of The Pirates of Penzance hangs on \u201cHail Poetry\u201d. It\u2019s a wonderful moment when everything stops, the cast becomes a choir and Sullivan indulges himself … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5002,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4999\/revisions\/5002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}