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Yo ho ho and a barrel-load of run
pirates steal the show
King's Theatre, Edinburgh 
Thursday 15th March
2007
If all amateur
productions of the Savoy operas were as good as this, professional companies
would be required once again to raise their standards. Edinburgh's Gilbert
and Sullivan Society, of course, is a famously dedicated and experienced outfit,
with lofty standards of its own, as demonstrated by its expert, exhilarating,
genuinely funny and handsomely designed treatment of what is surely the most
perfect of all these works.
With plenty of singers
adept enough to participate, it's also cleverly cast and genuinely musical -
which means that Sullivan's deft tributes to, or burlesques of, Verdi, Schubert
and Gounod really make their point.
To hear the heroines
waltz song so sparklingly sung by Fiona Main is one of the evening's assets, but
the drollery of Ian Lawson's pirate king, the sublime fruitiness of
Simon Boothroyd's sergeant of police, the bouncy vivacity of
Karen Richmond's Edith,
the stalwart lyricism of Darren Coutts's tenor hero and the nice dryness of
Scott Thomson's major-general in his doggy slippers all contribute to the good
cheer of Alan Borthwick's racily choreographed production.
Conducting his small
orchestra with the lightest of touch, David Lyle draws the best from his
responsive players, phrasing and colouring the music with finesse.
Far from being the
customary embarrassment, the accompaniments are among the evening's strengths.
The big ensembles - chattering women (in merry anticipation of Verdi's Falstaff)
merging with the love duet in act one, male chorus intruding comically upon the
major-general's song in act two - go with a swing. It is all the very model of
what is wanted, and you can see it till Saturday.
CONRAD WILSON
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