February 11, 2010
This is a colourful riot from start to finish. Ruddigore is one of the best of the operas, a happy spoof of the Victorian gothic genre, complete with Bad Baronets, a donnishly belligerent gallery of ghostly ancestors and a heroine who runs her life according to the book of etiquette with which she was abandoned on the parish as a baby.
The effect, when the cast is as high-spirited and polished as this one, is hilarious. Wisely, given the space, they've chosen to dispense with a set altogether, and instead to put all the effort into highly satisfactory costumes and inventive lighting and props. It's well-paced, pleasingly choreographed, elegantly costumed and delightfully sung.
In particular it was a joy to hear Thomas Wade back in his natural range as the baritone baronet; last time I heard him he was struggling a little with the high notes as the tenor Rackstraw in Pinafore. In his proper range, he has an unfairly rich and robust voice given his baby-faced good looks and powers of expression. Dame Hannah, on whose early performance of "Sir Rupert Murgatroyd" much of the audience's reaction is built, was splendidly portrayed by the charismatic Katherine Fairhurst.
Alexandra Coghlan was deliciously, appallingly twee as Rose Maybud, squeaky and wonderful in her lines and fluting in her singing. Kate O'Connor was immensely funny with an edge of seriously disturbing as Mad Margaret, and Samuel Swinnerton interpreted, quite reasonably, the part of Old Adam in a similarly loopy way, which actually worked rather well.
Sebastian Atay was utterly over the top as the sailor Richard Dauntless, but in a good way. His big song (a tale of naval battles with the French) is hard to put across to the modern audience, but through good timing and rampant energy he managed to get a lot of laughs with it. His accent travelled rather wildly but he was great entertainment regardless. Stephen McCarthy does a wonderfully vampiric Sir Despard Murgatroyd, carrying over a slight sinister wibble to his incarnation in the second act. I'd be scared to marry him.
The choruses were smallish but accomplished and thoroughly involved, which is much better than the other way round, and their smart choreography was perfectly suited to the space. The orchestra was admirable except for the violin, which is a very difficult instrument, QED.
If you only see one OU G&S at Oxford, and I think you should see at least one, I'd recommend this production. The Society has a rapid turnover and right now the cast, direction (visiting student Rory Pelsue) and staging are all at the top of their form. There's a youthful exuberance about student G&S that makes it much fresher and more delightful than any professional or AmDram production can be. This is Gilbert and Sullivan as it should be.
The effect, when the cast is as high-spirited and polished as this one, is hilarious. Wisely, given the space, they've chosen to dispense with a set altogether, and instead to put all the effort into highly satisfactory costumes and inventive lighting and props. It's well-paced, pleasingly choreographed, elegantly costumed and delightfully sung.
In particular it was a joy to hear Thomas Wade back in his natural range as the baritone baronet; last time I heard him he was struggling a little with the high notes as the tenor Rackstraw in Pinafore. In his proper range, he has an unfairly rich and robust voice given his baby-faced good looks and powers of expression. Dame Hannah, on whose early performance of "Sir Rupert Murgatroyd" much of the audience's reaction is built, was splendidly portrayed by the charismatic Katherine Fairhurst.
Alexandra Coghlan was deliciously, appallingly twee as Rose Maybud, squeaky and wonderful in her lines and fluting in her singing. Kate O'Connor was immensely funny with an edge of seriously disturbing as Mad Margaret, and Samuel Swinnerton interpreted, quite reasonably, the part of Old Adam in a similarly loopy way, which actually worked rather well.
Sebastian Atay was utterly over the top as the sailor Richard Dauntless, but in a good way. His big song (a tale of naval battles with the French) is hard to put across to the modern audience, but through good timing and rampant energy he managed to get a lot of laughs with it. His accent travelled rather wildly but he was great entertainment regardless. Stephen McCarthy does a wonderfully vampiric Sir Despard Murgatroyd, carrying over a slight sinister wibble to his incarnation in the second act. I'd be scared to marry him.
The choruses were smallish but accomplished and thoroughly involved, which is much better than the other way round, and their smart choreography was perfectly suited to the space. The orchestra was admirable except for the violin, which is a very difficult instrument, QED.
If you only see one OU G&S at Oxford, and I think you should see at least one, I'd recommend this production. The Society has a rapid turnover and right now the cast, direction (visiting student Rory Pelsue) and staging are all at the top of their form. There's a youthful exuberance about student G&S that makes it much fresher and more delightful than any professional or AmDram production can be. This is Gilbert and Sullivan as it should be.