This
run represents ENO’s tenth revival of Jonathan
Miller’s production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s
The Mikado. It is easy to see how it
has lasted so well - this is a thoroughly
entertaining evening. The production is as
slick as can be. Set in a palm-court hotel
(not necessarily in Japan), bellboys and maids
dance as if their lives depend on it. So non-specific
is the location that, in the opening chorus,
the participants make ‘slanty-eye’ movements
as they sing, ‘We are gentlemen of Japan’-
just so we get the idea.
Lighting
is carefully considered. The Overture (neat,
springy rhythms) is performed with the house
lights down low, ensuring maximum contrast
with the predominantly brilliant white opening
scene. The staging is busy, but never overly
so, and frequently delightful (the bellboy
who struts across the stage during an ensemble
wielding a ‘NO FLIRTING’ sign is but one example).
Yet there is intimacy of emotion there, too:
Katisha’s aria (Act 2) was remarkably touching
(all credit to the singer, Frances McCafferty).
The
various stock-in-trades are all part of the
fun, from the token, general Northern accent
(i.e. somewhere North of Watford) to the introduction
of topical events into the text - here, ‘Tosh
(sic) and Becks’, and (the one that got the
biggest laugh), ‘George Bush’s poodle’. Amazing
what a really good guffaw does for healthy
endorphin release.
Our
stripey-jacketed, boatered Nanki-Poo, Mr Bonaventura
Bottone (as he appeared in the credits) was
by turns comic and tragicomic. His legato
was as smooth as his outfit. Another cast
member who seemed to live out his part was
the ‘Lord High Everything Else’, Pooh-Bah,
here the terribly English and very, very funny
Ian Caddy. Three brisk and clean-as-a-whistle
maids (from school were they) were the source
of pure delight. Victoria Simmonds and Fiona
Canfield took the parts of Pitti-Sing and
Peep-Bo respectively, and did so pertly and
prettily. Maid supremo Yum-Yum was a real
star of the show - Jeni Bern, giving her role
debut. She has received positive feedback
from these pages before, as Amor in Gluck’s
Orpheus, also at ENO:
although the press pack stated her ENO debut
had been as Sophie in Rosenkavalier
in Spring 2003). Deliciously coquettish, miraculously
sweet, her solos consistently brought great
pleasure.
Richard
Angas’ huge of girth Mikado projected well
(when Angas sang excerpts form Boris Godunov
with my old University orchestra, he sounded
much more muffled in tone). Richard Stuart’s
Ko-Ko was fully up to ensemble’s standard;
Frances McCafferty’s Katusha, already praised
above, was an imposing, almost Wagnerian assumption.
Despite
the individual excellences, it is important
to note that Mikado plays to all of
ENO’s strengths, from the choruses and dances,
to the ensembles (the madrigal was gorgeous).
Conductor Gareth Jones’ pacing was faultless,
so that the evening went without one even
noticing time passing. Eminently recommendable.
Colin
Clarke
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