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fauxkloreThe last thing I did in England was go to a little bit of the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton. This is an event I’ve been aware of (and wanted to go to) for years. When I was planning my conference travel, I had the idea to look up when it was going to be and, when I saw it would work, it drove the planning of the rest of my trip.
Buxton is an old spa town at the edge of the Peak District, which was mostly developed in the 1700’s and 1800’s. It’s about two and a half hours from London by train. If you’re smarter than I was, you might have figured out that being in the Peak District means it is hilly. I recommend wearing good walking shoes. I stayed at the Palace Hotel, which is close to the train station and not very far from the opera house, but a bit of a climb getting back to, as you might be able to tell from this view of the town from the hotel.
The hotel was built in 1868 and I’d characterize it as shabby chic, with the emphasis on the shabby. However, it was also less expensive than the other hotels that were reasonably close tp the town center.
There’s also a surprisingly wide variety of places to eat in town. Pubs and tea shops are not surprising, but I didn’t really expect a reasonably good Thai restaurant in this sort of place. I didn’t try it, but there is also a Tex-mex place.
I do also recommend strolling around and looking at the architecture. The Opera House is fairly impressive itself.
And the Pavilion Gardens are a very pleasant place to stroll. By the way, you will see signs there for the River Wye. This is not the same River Wye as the one in Wales, where the town of Hay-on-Wye (known for its used bookstores) is located.
But I was there for Gilbert and Sullivan. One of my life list items had been to see all of the extant operas and I completed that several years ago. So I had chosen the dates for festival going entirely for convenience and just bought tickets for the ones that were on those days. That means that I ended up with five operettas in three days.
The first one I saw (on Tuesday night) was a production of Iolanthe by the Brussels Light Opera Company. This is my favorite G&S operetta overall (though I like the score of The Gondoliers a bit better, mostly because I am partial to dance music). A couple of the performers had trouble projecting their voices, especially the woman playing the Fairy Queen. And, since the fairies were wearing pointy ears (something I associate more with elves, personally), why didn’t anyone every notice that oddity about Strephon? Another annoying modernization was the Queen taking selfies with Strephon. Still, these are nits. The choreography was above average and, overall, I enjoyed it. If it weren’t for having seen some truly outstanding productions of it in the past, I’d have been completely satisfied.
On Wednesday afternoon, I saw the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company production of The Mikado. I have no particular issue with modernizing the lyrics to “I Have a Little List.” I can deal with modernizing the clothing, e.g. by having Ko-Ko wearing a suit. But why oh why would someone decide to dress the chorus in British school uniforms (with the girls carrying hockey sticks some of the time and fans the rest of the time) and dress Pooh-Bah and Katisha as their schoolmasters? Seeing blonde boys in ties and sweaters singing “we are gentleman of Japan” is a step too far for me. This is not one of my favorite operettas to begin with and, while the music was generally fine, the bizarre choice of setting and costuming was incredibly grating. Why? Why? Why/
Wednesday evening was again the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, this time doing The Yeoman of the Guard. I had no complaints about either the performances or the costumes for that one. It’s one I had only seen once before and had only vague memories of, so my knowledge of it was weaker than of most of the operettas. It’s also unusual in not having a happy ending for at least three of the characters. I felt that this production gave me a better appreciation of the operetta, so it was well worth going to.
Thursday afternoon’s production was by the Oxford Gilbert and Sullivan Society and was of Utopia, Ltd. I’d seen a very entertaining production of this done by the Blue Hill Troupe in New York, which was based on leveraging off the Citizens United decision. Well, obviously that wouldn’t make sense at Oxford. I am assuming their script hewed closely to the original. Let’s just say that there’s a reason this is a rarely performed operetta. I think I dozed off in the middle of the first Act. The second act was better and “Society has quite forsaken” was particularly successful, including an encore. But, overall, this is never going to be anyone’s favorite. If you’re at a festival and this is on the program, that might be a good time to take a long hike. Or a nap.
The final production I saw was Ruddigore on Thursday night and was performed by The Savoynet Performing Group. This is one of the operettas I admit to not knowing particularly well, but I thought they did an excellent job of it. It also has one of my favorite lyrics, sometimes referred to as “the matter patter,” in which Robin, Despard, and Mad Margaret sing “This particularly rapid unintelligible patter / Isn’t generally heard, and if it is it doesn’t matter.” All in all this was an excellent way of closing out the festival for me.
I should also mention that Simon Butteriss played both Ko-Ko in The Mikado and Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard. He was quite good, but I was raised on Martyn Green’s recordings for the D’Oyly Carte and nobody else ever really measures up to that standard.
Overall, I thought the festival was worth a visit. But I don’t feel any particular need to go to it again.
The next day, I took the train back to London. Since I was flying home early in the morning, I stayed overnight at an airport hotel. My trip home was pretty much glitch free, although I got screamed at by a guy at the airport (not a United Airlines employee) for using a check-in / baggage tag kiosk before 5 a.m. despite there being several other people doing likewise. (And, in fact, United opened the baggage drop at 4:45 a.m.) I even got upgraded to business class for the flight to IAD.
Buxton is an old spa town at the edge of the Peak District, which was mostly developed in the 1700’s and 1800’s. It’s about two and a half hours from London by train. If you’re smarter than I was, you might have figured out that being in the Peak District means it is hilly. I recommend wearing good walking shoes. I stayed at the Palace Hotel, which is close to the train station and not very far from the opera house, but a bit of a climb getting back to, as you might be able to tell from this view of the town from the hotel.
The hotel was built in 1868 and I’d characterize it as shabby chic, with the emphasis on the shabby. However, it was also less expensive than the other hotels that were reasonably close tp the town center.
There’s also a surprisingly wide variety of places to eat in town. Pubs and tea shops are not surprising, but I didn’t really expect a reasonably good Thai restaurant in this sort of place. I didn’t try it, but there is also a Tex-mex place.
I do also recommend strolling around and looking at the architecture. The Opera House is fairly impressive itself.
And the Pavilion Gardens are a very pleasant place to stroll. By the way, you will see signs there for the River Wye. This is not the same River Wye as the one in Wales, where the town of Hay-on-Wye (known for its used bookstores) is located.
But I was there for Gilbert and Sullivan. One of my life list items had been to see all of the extant operas and I completed that several years ago. So I had chosen the dates for festival going entirely for convenience and just bought tickets for the ones that were on those days. That means that I ended up with five operettas in three days.
The first one I saw (on Tuesday night) was a production of Iolanthe by the Brussels Light Opera Company. This is my favorite G&S operetta overall (though I like the score of The Gondoliers a bit better, mostly because I am partial to dance music). A couple of the performers had trouble projecting their voices, especially the woman playing the Fairy Queen. And, since the fairies were wearing pointy ears (something I associate more with elves, personally), why didn’t anyone every notice that oddity about Strephon? Another annoying modernization was the Queen taking selfies with Strephon. Still, these are nits. The choreography was above average and, overall, I enjoyed it. If it weren’t for having seen some truly outstanding productions of it in the past, I’d have been completely satisfied.
On Wednesday afternoon, I saw the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company production of The Mikado. I have no particular issue with modernizing the lyrics to “I Have a Little List.” I can deal with modernizing the clothing, e.g. by having Ko-Ko wearing a suit. But why oh why would someone decide to dress the chorus in British school uniforms (with the girls carrying hockey sticks some of the time and fans the rest of the time) and dress Pooh-Bah and Katisha as their schoolmasters? Seeing blonde boys in ties and sweaters singing “we are gentleman of Japan” is a step too far for me. This is not one of my favorite operettas to begin with and, while the music was generally fine, the bizarre choice of setting and costuming was incredibly grating. Why? Why? Why/
Wednesday evening was again the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, this time doing The Yeoman of the Guard. I had no complaints about either the performances or the costumes for that one. It’s one I had only seen once before and had only vague memories of, so my knowledge of it was weaker than of most of the operettas. It’s also unusual in not having a happy ending for at least three of the characters. I felt that this production gave me a better appreciation of the operetta, so it was well worth going to.
Thursday afternoon’s production was by the Oxford Gilbert and Sullivan Society and was of Utopia, Ltd. I’d seen a very entertaining production of this done by the Blue Hill Troupe in New York, which was based on leveraging off the Citizens United decision. Well, obviously that wouldn’t make sense at Oxford. I am assuming their script hewed closely to the original. Let’s just say that there’s a reason this is a rarely performed operetta. I think I dozed off in the middle of the first Act. The second act was better and “Society has quite forsaken” was particularly successful, including an encore. But, overall, this is never going to be anyone’s favorite. If you’re at a festival and this is on the program, that might be a good time to take a long hike. Or a nap.
The final production I saw was Ruddigore on Thursday night and was performed by The Savoynet Performing Group. This is one of the operettas I admit to not knowing particularly well, but I thought they did an excellent job of it. It also has one of my favorite lyrics, sometimes referred to as “the matter patter,” in which Robin, Despard, and Mad Margaret sing “This particularly rapid unintelligible patter / Isn’t generally heard, and if it is it doesn’t matter.” All in all this was an excellent way of closing out the festival for me.
I should also mention that Simon Butteriss played both Ko-Ko in The Mikado and Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard. He was quite good, but I was raised on Martyn Green’s recordings for the D’Oyly Carte and nobody else ever really measures up to that standard.
Overall, I thought the festival was worth a visit. But I don’t feel any particular need to go to it again.
The next day, I took the train back to London. Since I was flying home early in the morning, I stayed overnight at an airport hotel. My trip home was pretty much glitch free, although I got screamed at by a guy at the airport (not a United Airlines employee) for using a check-in / baggage tag kiosk before 5 a.m. despite there being several other people doing likewise. (And, in fact, United opened the baggage drop at 4:45 a.m.) I even got upgraded to business class for the flight to IAD.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 10:39 am (UTC)I’m only really familiar with their better known ones, but am quite fond of them.
I’ve read many of the other scripts, but not seen them done.
Thank you for posting about this! It’s very interesting to know!
no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 12:17 pm (UTC)I know MIT has a G&S Society (they didn't back in my day) and I think Harvard might also. I'm not sure if there's anything in Worcester. College and small local groups are more likely to produce the lesser known operettas.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 12:20 pm (UTC)But, I’ll keep my eye out!
no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 07:33 pm (UTC)