"It was what you could call a boutique staging, with a cast of nine, no chorus, and a piano duo with percussion subsituting for orchestra...
Charles Court Opera turned out to be a spunky little troupe, punching above its weight with strong voices and high-impact delivery. The pace was fast (thank goodness: nothing worse than G&S that sags), the diction clear...
it caught very nicely the cultural ambivalence of a piece that may be set in Japan but is really (as Jonathan Miller's classic ENO staging insisted) about Edwardian gentry playing oriental games.
Accordingly, the costumes hovered somewhere between Pall Mall and Liberty's Eastern Bazaar.
And those who wore them were in spiffing form: Sebastian Valentine a portly, booming Pooh-Bah, John Colyn Gyeantey a cherubically endearing Nanki-poo, and the veteran Peter Knapp a positively chilling psychopath Mikado. Michael Webborn... plenty of laughs, and just a touch of Thora Hird for pathos.
And there was an original take on Katisha, done in drag by bass-baritione John Savournin who presented himself as something neither ugly nor grotesque but glamourously amazon: a sort of homage a Joanna Lumley with a lot of leg (he's tall) and an unusual degree of dignity.
Savournin was also the director.
And the multi-tasking in the show extended to the excellent piano duo, David Eaton and James Young, who got dragged into the action and managed to be funny in the process. According to their biographies, when they're not playing G&S they're touring Boulez and working with contemporary music projects. So they're versatile..."
MICHEAL WHITE
Opera Now review
A Japtastic cast includes:
Liz Menezes, John Colyn Gyeantey, David Menezes, Michael Webborn, Rosie Bell, Sebastian Valentine,
and
John Savournin as Katisha.
With
A special guest artist in the title role.
"...One of the most accessible versions of this classic opera ever..."
Mary Couzens, editor of EXTRA! EXTRA!
23rd May 2007 All Saints' Church, Oystermouth, Mumbles, Swansea 7:30pm
Box Office: 01792 406 026
23rd November 2007 Vera Fletcher Hall, Thames Ditton - details TBA
Forthcoming performances
"The Mikado is one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operas. When one sees Charles Court Opera perform it, in conjunction with the Eaton-Young Piano Duo, it's easy to see why. Their interpretation has all of the Gilbert and Sullivan frivolity and social witticisms in place, without the updating that is common to modern interpretations, ...easily leaving the sumptuous, but uneven, 2002 West End production in a cloud of colourful dust."
Review by Mary Couzens, editor of EXTRA! EXTRA
Press Quotes
"He plays Katisha with hauteur and dignity, and reveals aspects of the role usually fudged... a warm, expressive voice...."
Metro on John Savournin as Katisha.
"One of the most truly enjoyable and intensely musical performances of Gilbert and Sullivan I have seen in a long time."
