AS the theatrical arts begin to emerge from the dark days of the pandemic, the latest offering from our national opera company might be considered something of a masterstroke. In a co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera Company (which, famously, was established in the late 1870s to perform the comic operas of the librettist WS Gilbert and the composer Albert Sullivan), Scottish Opera is presenting Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic The Gondoliers.
Coming towards the end of G&S’s extraordinary collaboration (it was the 12th of the 14 works they would create together for the great impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte), The Gondoliers was one of their most successful light operas. Set in Venice, its almost farcical plot revolves around the identity of the next king of the fictional nation of Barataria.
A tale of religion, class, an arranged marriage and a hidden identity, the opera focuses upon two handsome gondoliers, seemingly brothers, only one of whom is, unbeknownst to himself, heir to the throne of Barataria.
Meanwhile, in the higher echelons of Venetian society, the plot thickens. A duke and duchess arrive, with their young daughter in tow, to insist of the Grand Inquisitor of the Roman Catholic Church the whereabouts of the prince of Barataria (who is now one of the aforementioned gondoliers).
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The Inquisitor whisked the prince off to Venice as an infant, in order to save him from the recently declared Methodism of his father. When he did so, however, he was unaware that the baby prince had already been married to the six-month-old daughter of the duke and duchess. As a satire, the piece operates on numerous levels. Its location and its fictions allow Sullivan to send up aspects of Victorian England without being accused of disrespect or disloyalty.
I meet the director of the new production, the acclaimed Australian opera director Stuart Maunder, at Scottish Opera’s Glasgow studios. The director, who is currently artistic director of the State Opera of South Australia, based in Adelaide, is brimming with enthusiasm for the project.
The Gondoliers is, he says, “a joyous piece to do”. As “a gentle satire” it is quite distinct, for example, from the more biting comedies of someone like Molière.
“Everyone imagines now that Gilbert was this great satirist who was acerbic and would do anything to upset people,” Maunder comments. “The reality was completely the opposite.
“If anything offended, he expunged it after opening night. It’s interesting that this is one of the only [G&S operas] that had a Royal Command Performance at Windsor Castle.
“Apparently Queen Victoria loved the whole send-up of the republican sentiment; the idea of a king serving his people.”
There is socio-political observation in The Gondoliers, says the director, “but it’s such gentle satire. It’s not attempting to upset the applecart”.
For those interested in the trajectory of Sullivan’s satire, Maunder will also be presenting a few performances of a “semi-staged concert” version of Utopia, Limited. This opera, which G&S wrote immediately after The Gondoliers, concerns itself with some of the grand conceits of the British Empire.
Scottish Opera is doing its audience a great service in staging this lesser-known piece from the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire.
The Gondoliers, however, remains one of the most acclaimed of the so-called “Savoy Operas” (so named because they were written to be performed at Richard D’Oyly Carte’s Savoy Theatre in London). Although the piece is, says Maunder, “part of a family” with such famous G&S operas as The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance, “if you look at each one individually, they have a completely different feel”.
The Gondoliers is “much more burnished and elegiac” than the other big Savoy Operas. “It’s romantic and sentimental, in the real sense of the word.”
In writing the libretto Gilbert was, the director explains, “trying to keep Sullivan happy”, by giving him opportunities to be more expansive musically. A consequence of this is that the piece has, “a lot more ensembles, and a lot more joy in the music of it and the singing of it”.
One outcome of this is that Maunder, as director, requires a wealth of young operatic talent. Which is where Scottish Opera’s strong tradition of supporting emerging artists comes in.
The cast of The Gondoliers includes Catriona Hewitson, who was a Scottish Opera emerging artist for 2020/21. It also sees the return of Glen Cunningham and Lea Shaw, who are members of the current emerging artists programme, and performed in the company’s recent Opera Highlights tour.
“It’s great,” says the director, to see so many of the company’s young talents “all coming home and strutting their stuff.”
The Gondoliers is the perfect opera for these young stars. “Gilbert said he wanted to create an opera with no star roles,” Maunder notes. “I reckon he’s failed miserably, because he’s actually created a whole show full of them.”
MANY opera lovers’ primary experience of G&S’s work comes, the director supposes, through amateur productions. This can be problematic, he says.
He doesn’t wish to be in any way dismissive of amateur shows – he has, he jokes, “done millions” of am-dram productions of G&S. However, the notion that G&S’s works are “light opera” can lead to a misconception that they are easy to perform.
Nothing, the director insists, could be further from the truth. “The thing that I love about this company is that they are taking it so seriously.
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“By that I mean, they’re giving it its full weight,” says Maunder. What is true of the singers is, he continues, equally true of the musicians.
“Derek Clark [Scottish Opera’s Head of Music] and this glorious orchestra here are really extracting every bit of precision out of [Sullivan’s score].”
For his own part, the director hopes “to bring to the piece a theatricality and a truthfulness. There’s no point in sending up a send-up.”
What audiences are being promised, in other words, is The Gondoliers very much in the manner in which its creators intended.
The Gondoliers is touring Scotland until November 13: www.scottishopera.org.uk
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