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music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W.S. Gilbert, directed by John Savournin

Charles Court Opera, Wilton’s Music Hall, London, GBR

June 11-15, 2024

Alexis: “Oh, that the world would break down the artificial barriers of rank, wealth, education, age, beauty, habits, taste and temper”

The Sorcerer (1877), the third collaboration between W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, is one of the duo’s least produced comic operas. Received wisdom has it that it is the duo’s least interesting work. Yet, along comes a production from Charles Court Opera directed by John Savournin that is so popular at Wilton’s Music Hall that the company has had to add an extra performance to meet demand.

Wikipedia claims that the work’s lack or success is because “The satire in the piece concerns Victorian-era class distinctions and operatic conventions with which modern audiences are less familiar”. That’s nonsense. All G&S operettas concern class distinctions and make fun of operatic conventions. What Savournin has done is to look more closely at the work than any previous director. He has found that rather than the quaint story of miss-matched lovers that most people think it is, The Sorcerer turns out to be as thorough-going and as hilarious a critique of the British character as any of G&S’s better-known works. Savournin calls the operetta a “comic masterpiece” and in his hands and with his expert cast that’s exactly how the operetta comes off.

Set in the fictional village of Ploverleigh, the plot concerns the engagement of two scions of the local aristocracy – Alexis Pointdextre and Aline Sangazure. Before the celebration of the couple’s betrothal, we learn of general unhappiness in love among the villagers. Constance, daughter of Mrs. Partlet, a pew-opener, is hopelessly in love with the local vicar, Dr. Daly, but cannot bring herself to tell him since he seems to ignore her totally. Dr. Daly, meanwhile, fondly remembers his youth when swarms of young women would throw themselves at him. But, he assumes that those old days are now over. Alexis’s father, Sir Marmaduke, and Aline’s mother, Lady Sangazure, wish they could confess their adoration of each other but find that propriety prevents them from making such outbursts.

In a strangely prescient fashion Gilbert satirizes privileged young people who wish to force their notions of social justice on others. Here, Alexis wishes that the whole village could enjoy the happiness that love brings. As he says, “Oh, that the world would break down the artificial barriers of rank, wealth, education, age, beauty, habits, taste, and temper, and recognize the glorious principle, that in marriage alone is to be found the panacea for every ill!” Since Alexis does not think these barriers will break down on their own, he tells Aline that he has employed a most reputable sorcerer of the firm J. W. Wells & Co. to spike the tea with a love potion at the village fête in their honour. After a period of unconsciousness, the villagers will awaken and instantly fall in love with the first person they see (married people and people of the same sex excluded).

All goes well, Alexis and Aline think, when the young Constance falls in love with the ancient Notary. But other pairings are more troubling. Alexis’s father and Mrs. Partlet have joined up and Lady Sangazure has taken a shine to J.W. Wells himself, the sorcerer. Worst of all, after Alexis forces Aline to drink the potion to secure their own love, the first person she sees is Dr. Daly.

From a simple overview of the plot, it ought to be obvious that the main focus of Gilbert’s satire is not on differences of rank. This is clear from the very first pairing of a young girl with an aged man. Gilbert’s critique is that idealistic projects without a grounding in reality are doomed to fail. The same topic comes up again in Princess Ida (1884) and in Utopia, Limited (1893). The secondary focus of Gilbert’s satire is the British habit of emotional repression. Constance, Dr. Daly, Sir Marmaduke and Lady Sangazure all make excuses for not speaking out about their love and all would rather suffer in silence than risk embarrassing themselves. No other libretto by Gilbert examines this topic in such detail and shows it affects people of all ranks.

By emphasizing Gilbert’s real subjects of satire in The Sorcerer, director John Savournin’s production feels completely fresh and its jabs especially cutting and hilarious. Savournin also makes this Sorcerer stand out in other ways. This production is conceived to be on a small scale so Savournin has gotten rid of the chorus. Except for the Act 2 chorus, “Why, where be oi, and what be oi a doin’,” that Savournin has excised, only the eight main village residents sing the choruses, fewer if they are accompanying fellow villagers with a solo or duet. Strangely enough, the operetta works perfectly well without a separate chorus. The fact that soloists also do choral duty reinforces the feeling that Gilbert is portraying a community and the effects both good and bad that occur.

The conception of the operetta on a small scale also means there is no orchestra but rather piano accompaniment, accomplished with great vivacity by David Eaton, who also conducts from the piano. Though I always prefer orchestral accompaniment, an unexpected benefit of piano accompaniment in The Sorcerer is that it emphasizes the similarity of so many of the solos Sullivan wrote to his parlour songs. Constance’s, Aline’s and Dr. Daly’s main solos and both of Alexis’s could easily be excerpted as independent songs. Together they present the operetta as a more intimate work than the later G&S comic operas. That is, perhaps, why Savournin’s small scale approach works so well.

To place the emphasis on repression as the main subject of Gilbert’s satire, Savournin has reset the action in the 1950s when conformism was a prominent topic. He has changed Mrs. Partlet from a “pew-opener” to the proprietor of a local food truck purveying tea and pastries which is catering the betrothal of Alexis and Aline.

Crucially, he has also changed the ending. When all the wrong people fall in love, Alexis demands that Wells break the spell. Wells says that the spell can only be broken if either he or Alexis dies. Since Wells is only the agent of Alexis’s plan, the community ought to blame him, not Wells. Yet, in Gilbert’s most cutting bit of satire, the community decides to scapegoat Wells for the misfortune. Traditionally, Wells falls on a trap door and during the village’s celebratory dance, “Mr. Wells sinks through the trap, amid red fire”. To end the show a more comic note, Savournin decides to give Wells the last laugh. Wells prepares to die, he snaps his fingers and stops time, escapes, snaps his fingers again and all assume because he has vanished that he is dead.

All of Savournin’s positive changes would have little effect if he did not have an excellent cast, but an excellent cast is exactly what he has. All are fine singers and all act in precisely the same slightly exaggerated style. In Richard Suart, Savournin has a living link to the revived D’Oyly Carte Opera Company which he joined in 1988. Clad as an avant-garde guru in a 1970s-style carpet coat and yellow shoes, Suart’s Wells had a louche aspect to him quite unlike the dapper Wells of Gilbert’s Bab illustration. Suart delivered Wells’s fiendishly difficult patter song with panache.

As the aristocratic lovers Alexis and Aline Robin Bailey and Ellie Neate are well matched. Bailey has a high Irish-style tenor and sings Alexis’s solos ardently but with a hint of fanaticism which is indeed part of Alexis’s nature. Neate has a lovely high soprano and well conveys Aline’s change from full trust in Alexis to her worry that he doubts the purity of their love.

Matthew Palmer and Catrine Kirkman are also well matched as Sir Marmaduke and Lady Sangazure. While both are fine singers, both are also very funny physical comedians. Palmer’s post-potion leap into the risqué is a hoot and Kirkman’s range of expressions after Lady Sangazure drinks the spiked tea is absolutely hilarious. Why in no previous production of The Sorcerer I have seen has any director mined the humour of the characters’ reactions to the potion they are drinking?

Savournin’s concept of Mrs. Partlet is not the dowdy old women one usually sees but a confident, vivacious middle-aged woman, well played by Rosie Strobel, who contrasts completely with her terribly repressed daughter Constance, played with many amusing facial gestures by Meriel Cunningham.

Constance’s object of unrequited love is Dr. Daly, sung with a rich, operatic baritone by Matthew Kellett. This was not the usual simpering curate of other productions but quite a virile middle-aged man whom one could easily imagine being mobbed by female parishioners.

Anyone who has thought of The Sorcerer as one of G&S’s lesser works should make every effort to see the Charles Court Opera production. It is extremely heartening to see that here in the 21st century a new generation is uncovering the genius of these classic comic operas of the 19th century. This production has made me an instant CCO fan. If only I could be in London in August for their co-production of G&S’s The Yeoman of the Guard with Opera Holland Park (operahollandpark.com).

Christopher Hoile

Tour:

• July 14: The Hub at St Mary’s Lichfield Festival

• August 2: Buxton Opera House (G&S Festival)

• August 18: The Festival Theatre at Hever Castle

Photos: (front row) Catrine Kirkman as Ladt Sangazure, Hugo Herman-Wilson as the Notary, Rosie Strobel as Mrs. Partlet, Matthew Kelley as Dr. Daly, Matthew Palmer as Sir Marmaduke and Meriel Cunningham as Constance, (second row) Robin Bailey as Alexis and Ellie Neate as Aline, Richard Suart as J.W. Wells in food truck; Ellie Neate as Aline and Robin Bailey as Alexis; Rosie Strobel as Mrs. Partlet and Matthew Palmer as Sir Marmaduke; Catrine Kirkman as Lady Sangazure and Richard Suart as J.W. Wells. © 2024 Bill Knight.

For tickets visit: www.charlescourtopera.com.