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| Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Benjamin Hulett, Sophie Bevan, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale) |
Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida; Sophie Bevan, Benjamin Hulett, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Simon Butteriss, Robert Hayward, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, John Wilson; Queen Elizabeth Hall
Reviewed 7 June 2023
A near ideal cast having the time of their life and, with the historically informed performance, revealing the romantic (and comic) delights of this rarely performed gem
Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida is surprisingly little known considering that, in their output, it comes between Iolanthe and The Mikado. It was in the D'Oyly Carte company's canon and received occasional revivals, but since the company's demise the opera's appearances in the UK have been rare and English National Opera's ill-fated production in 1992, directed by Ken Russell, probably did not help the opera's reputation.
The opera satirises feminism, women's education and Darwinian evolution, though as Richard Bratby's article in the programme book for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's performance points out, Gilbert is really poking fun at idealism taken to extremes. The opera has some unusual features, in many ways it is an experimental departure, never to be repeated. For a start it is in three acts, not two, and the dialogue is in blank verse. This is because plot and a lot of dialogue were lifted from Gilbert's 1870 play The Princess which satirised Tennyson's narrative poem of the same name.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Morgan Pearse, Robert Davies, Jonathan Brown, John Wilson & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale) |
The soprano part of Ida requires a more dramatic voice than the usual G&S heroine; Ida is certainly no soubrette and has a couple of distinctly operatic numbers. And the music itself has a more serious cast than usual. The Topsy-Turvy-dom of the plot is far less farcical than in some G&S operas and Sullivan's music for Act Two, in particular, has a lyric vein rather more serious than usual. It makes you think of some of the late Offenbach operettas where the cast of the piece is veering closer to the romantic opera comique. After Princess Ida came The Mikado and Ruddygore, then Yeomen of the Guard, the most serious opera in the G&S canon.
On Wednesday 7 June 2023, I caught Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (the first of two performances). John Wilson conducted the Choir & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sophie Bevan as Ida and Benjamin Hulett as Hilarion. Robert Hayward was King Hildebrand (Hilarion's father), whilst Ruairi Bowen and Charles Rice were Cyril and Florian (Hilarion's friends). Simon Butteriss was King Gama (Ida's father), with Morgan Pearse, Robert Davies and Jonathan Brown were Arac, Guron and Scynthius (Ida's brothers). Catherine Wyn-Rogers was Lady Blanche, Bethany Horak-Hallett was Lady Psyche, Marlena Devoe was Melissa and Claire Ward was Sacharissa.
The opera was given with the dialogue replaced by a narrative written and delivered by Simon Butteriss, who directed the semi-staging. Everyone was off the book, and this really was a staging rather than simple entrances and exits. Where necessary, the cast acted out in mime the narrative that Butteriss was relating, which proved rather effective. And there were costumes too, created with three students from Acland Burghley School as part of the OAE's Dreamchasing Young Producers scheme, Sophia Vainshtok, Iremide Onibonoje and Ines Whitaker.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Catherine Wyn-Rogers, John Wilson & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale) |
It was clear from the overture, that this was to be a work of a Romantic cast and not a rip-roaring farce. John Wilson kept rhythms on a tight rein but the lyrical episodes were showcased beautifully. The historically informed style and period instruments did not bring a radical reassessment, but as with the music of Weber and Mendelssohn, a greater transparency and luminosity came across. Sullivan's use of wind solos to colour and ornament really told here, and I loved the sound of the 19th-century clarinets and oboes. Also, the significant array of brass (two horns, two cornets and two trombones) did not have such a dominant effect as usual. The result was a more subtle interplay and a sense that the voices gained more prominence. You began to understand how with such an orchestra hidden away in a pit, Sullivan and Gilbert could achieve the right balances with singing actors, some of whom we know had limited voices.
Here, there was no danger that. Everyone worked hard at the text, but not everything came across as easily as one could have wished. But what we did have was voices who were superbly apposite for the music. I don't think I could imagine the piece being better sung, and everyone entered into the staging with a will so there was humour and it was clear the cast were enjoying themselves, and this really came over.
The plot is simple, Ida and Hilarion have been betrothed since childhood, but when the time comes for their marriage, she is nowhere to be seen. Ida has founded a women's university, no men or no sense of the masculine allowed. Lady Blanche is Ida's deputy at the university, chafing at the bit to take over. Hilarion and his friends decide the best way to get Ida back is for him to win her over by getting into the university where, inevitably, they dress as women. There are plenty of shades of Rossini's Le comte Ory here; the work premiered in London in 1829, but I am not certain whether it was common in London by the 1880s.
Sophie Bevan was a radiant Ida, her two big solos, "Oh, goddess wise" in Act Two and "I built upon a rock" in Act Three were wonderful lyric romantic numbers that might have come from a far more serious work. Bevan gave Ida an underlying seriousness, she created her as the romantic heroine she is, not a hint of comedy. In a sense, Ida is the straight woman around which the action happens and the comedy is more cerebral than usual, satirising concepts rather than situations. It was clear, however, that Bevan had a nice sense of timing, and very expressive eyes so that she conveyed much. The moment in Act Three when she gave in to her father, clearly fond of this funny old man, was touching indeed, and Bevan made the character's change of heart, her development if your will, moving; Princess Ida is one of the few G&S characters who actually develop during the opera, rather than simply being a type.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Claire Ward, Bethany Horak-Hallett & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale) |
Benjamin Hulett's Hilarion was played similarly quite straight, this Hilarion was pure romantic hero (after all, at the end of Act Two he even dives into a lake to rescue Ida) and Hulett has the right sort of lyric tenor so that his solos were beautifully in character. But Hilarion is a real operatic tenor, i.e. definitely nice but dim, and the element of comedy comes from this, and Hulett took almost everything quite seriously, which brought the humour. The one moment where things got riotous was when the three friends, Hilarion, Cyril and Florian stripped off and dressed in gym slips and then performed their trio, "I am a maiden, cold and stately", complete with gay choreography.
But much of the music in Act Two is of a far less riotous cast, culminating in the profoundly beautiful "The world is but a broken toy" sung by Ida, Hilarion, Cyril and Florian. Yes, the style is akin to many other G&S quartets from across the canon, but here the music points no fun and Bevan, Hulett, Bowen and Rice brought out the touching Mendelssohnian element beautifully.
Ruairi Bowen and Charles Rice made terrific supports to Hulett, creating distinct characters for Cyril and Florian. Each got their moment in the sun, impressing with the command of the style and engaging us in the comedy, particularly Bowen's account of Cyril's drunken hymn to womanhood, which unfortunately 'outs' him and his companions as men!
Simon Butteriss, as King Gama, got the work's two best comic numbers, "If you give me your attention" in Act One and "Whene'er I spoke" in Act Three. Gama is a wonderful piece of work, he delights in telling the truth and putting people on the spot. His punishment, in Act Three, is of course to have nothing to complain about. Butteriss is a seasoned G&S performer and relished both text and music here. He slipped easily between narrator and Gama, and his narration, written in blank verse like Gilbert's dialogue, was informative and funny, with sly modern references that did not disrupt too much.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Charles Rice, Benjamin Hulett, Ruairi Bowen, John Wilson & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale) |
Robert Hayward's King Hildebrand built on the singer's reputation for singing dramatic villains in opera (we last saw him as Scarpia), and this Hildebrand was delightfully war-like. The other war-like beasts in the opera are Ida's brothers, a trio of dim-wits for whom fighting is the only thing. Wearing armour and acting the idiots they were Pearse, Davies and Brown had great fun indeed, and their two trios are some of the most memorable ones in the opera. Gilbert & Sullivan even give the characters as patter trio, and Pearse, Davies and Brown impressed in the way they so dextrously performed this.
Lady Blanche is trenchant (she wants to be head and resents Ida) but less problematic than many of Gilbert's contralto roles; for a start, Blanche isn't in love with anyone. Catherine Wyn-Rogers had great fun with the opportunities given her, striding up and down like a gym mistress out of St Trinian's, and delivered a trenchant account of her solo "Come, might Must". She was joined by three other women, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Marlena Devoe and Claire Ward who were delightful in their incarnation of the school girl type inhabitants of the university, with Horak-Hallett shining in her solo satirising Darwin's Origin of Species!
The chorus, static at the back of the stage, was exemplary with terrific diction, whilst imbuing the music with bounce and lyricism (and not a little enjoyment).
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida - Simon Butteriss, John Wilson, Choir & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Zen Grisdale) |
I last saw Princess Ida staged in the late 1970s and though I listened to Elizabeth Harwood's recording with D'Oyly Carte in the 1980s, I have heard it little since, yet was surprised at how much of the music stayed with me. There is much of G&S at their very best here, and the work's total neglect puzzles.
This was one of those evenings which made you look at a work in another way. We don't find the concepts satirised by Gilbert as essentially funny any more and I suspect that the work's dialogue might need a radical overhaul. But as performed here, with a knowing modern narration, what we got was far closer to a romantic opera comique, akin to late Offenbach. It also made me think how wonderful it would be to have a modern recorded G&S edition based on period performance. One can but wish!
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