Review: Charles Court Opera’s IOLANTHE, Wilton’s Music Hall
Photo credit: Craig Fuller
Premiered in 2020, only to close due to Covid restrictions after four previews, this production of Iolanthe is a revival, but a first London run. Fittingly, it’s to be seen at Wilton’s Music Hall, a venue which fits Charles Court Opera like a glove. This enterprising and reliable boutique opera company are regulars at Wilton’s, and many in the audience were long-time supporters. And on this occasion, regular musical director David Eaton does not accompany all alone on the piano. Instead, he directs the CCO Chamber Orchestra, six players who add greatly to the performance.
CCO have a long and honourable tradition of combining familiar regular singers with new young discoveries, and doing so within a witty, entertaining and sometimes unexpected performance style. This is certainly the case with Iolanthe, one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s more outlandish plots, combining the House of Lords and a troupe of fairies: The Peer and the Peri, as the original sub-title had it in 1882.
The CCO production sets the whole action in the House of Lords library, where Willis is the elderly librarian rather than a guardsman. The fairies take on the library theme, with wings and costumes made from the pages of books, a clever touch. The fairies live for ever and so their costumes have a nineteenth century feel, while the peers are in modern dress – or as modern as the average elderly peer can manage. In a cast that has to double up, they are also of both genders, leading to some added satire which is wholly within a Gilbertian tradition.
Matthew Palmer combines his green-booted Strephon, gardener at the Palace of Westminster, with a nicely contrasting cameo as Willis, given more appearances than usual in this production. As Willis, he acts as something of a link with the audience, finding a suspected Conservative in the front row during his famous song. As Strephon, he is an engaging suitor and makes as much as possible from a relatively straight role as mayhem rages around him (inventive choreography from Merry Holden). Opposite him, Llio Evans is a hearty Sloane Ranger of a Phyllis, up from the country no doubt. The fairy chorus may number only two but Sarah Prestwidge and Martha Jones combine their solos as Celia and Leila with the chorus numbers enchantingly.
David Menezes is a well-played and traditional Tolloler, while Catrine Kirkman’s Mountararat is a fearsome Thatcher clone, and very funny with it. In the title role, Eleanor O’Driscoll is an appropriately youthful and sweetly sung Iolanthe. Meriel Cunningham gives a commanding performance as the Fairy Queen, powerfully sung and every word was heard clearly: a performance to savour. Her attraction to Captain Shaw, the Fireman, is amusingly signposted by a book on the shelves, and much more effectively than was his appearance as a character in the recent ENO production.
As leading man among the peers, CCO regular Matthew Kellett is an energetic, funny and always enjoyable Lord Chancellor. He is not only adept at the patter songs, he is also a very physical performer, at one point being apparently hurled across the stage by a wave of the Fairy Queen’s wand. His additions to the text are totally in character and, as throughout the evening, there are no tedious encores.
The production was originally directed by CCO Artistic Director John Savournin, who welcomed everyone to the performance in his inimitable manner. It’s an evening of delight for G&S aficionados with much to enjoy, although it would be good to get rid of the unshielded desk lamp that shines into the eyes of one section of the audience!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Chris Abbott
