United Kingdom The 29th International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival [2] – Sullivan’s Cox & Box, Trial by Jury, The Zoo: Soloists and Chorus of North West Productions, National Festival Orchestra / David Goulden (conductor). Opera House, Buxton, 3.8.2023. (RJW)
It is rare to have the opportunity to see three of Sullivan’s one-act operettas on the same evening. It is a further delight that two of them, normally abridged, were played in their full versions.
In Cox & Box (words by Francis Burnand) one never usually hears two verses for ‘Rataplan’ or ‘Hush a Bye Bacon’, nor a lost duet ‘Sixes’ and extra linking music. The full version plays for just over an hour. This was too long for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company to consider as a curtain raiser for their shorter Savoy operas. Their staff member, J M Gordon, pruned the piece down to a little over 30 minutes for their purpose and this used to be the only version heard before the 1970s. In the full version we not only hear of the delivery of a second letter from the betrothed, Penelope Ann, but she later comes knocking on the door to deliver a third letter to announce her engagement to a Mr Knox. This announcement is much to the relief of Cox and Box, as well as the audience. New to those only knowing the shortened D’Oyly Carte version are those short linking sections, some of which are quite tuneful and balletic in nature.
The trio of singers performing Box, Cox and Bouncer played their parts convincingly and were musically strong. It was good to find that their diction could carry to the rear of the stalls so that none of the extended plot was missed. An appropriate backcloth, an interior wall of a typical Victorian house, was complete with draped window and aspidistra, the stereotypic plant of Victorian England. Only a free-standing property stove looked somewhat out of place perhaps, yet it was a vital prop to cook a rasher of bacon and later a pork chop, though neither was eaten during the performance.
Despite slim rehearsal time there was much to enjoy about the antics of Bruce Graham’s Bouncer, as landlord, and the squabbling pair, Messrs Cox and Box. Russell Painter’s Box and Sam Snowden’s Cox made much of their parts and their agitated dealings with the invisible Penelope Ann. There might have been some advantage in taking the ‘Sixes’ duet faster, but its clarity was excellent.
Trial by Jury is a more bustling piece. In this first successful collaboration of Gilbert with Sullivan in 1875, Gilbert manages to turn a formal Law Court of the Exchequer (abolished in 1881) into a palace of disrespectful fun.
David Kay provided a dry mouthed, tongue-in-cheek Judge while Anthony Noden as Counsel sang his ‘With a sense of deep emotion’ aria to perfection. The men’s Jury was fairly well behaved in comparison to the scatterbrained, fidgety bridesmaids who painted an ideal picture of everyday Carnaby Street in London. The proceedings became somewhat different when a pop star defendant appeared, with forehead-mounted shades. He turned out to be a light tenor (Paul Bailey) who sang well and made his presence known by strutting about. Victoria Goulden as a scatty plaintiff with wild hair had a good voice, and her friends chewing gum brought understandable grimaces from a bewildered judge and refined Counsel.
A most delightful moment came with ‘A Nice Dilemma’ where the difficult syncopated counterpoint was superbly sung. The chorus supported the proceedings with much gusto and was quick to stamp on any nonsense.
The Zoo was perhaps the best of the trio of the evening’s one-act operas. The singing, groupings, costumes and scenic setting were all first class. Carboy struggled to push his way through the throng to reveal a noose round his neck for a forthcoming attempt to commit suicide by hanging himself over the bear pit railings. There are many distractions especially by the bloated Thomas Brown who had become sick by eating too many buns and drinking half a pound of Horniman tea! This he did to win the attention of a working-class tea kiosk girl, Eliza (Nicole Boardman). Her performance contrasted nicely with the refined Thomas Brown (Sam Snowden), who happened to be a Duke in disguise; their duet was superb. Carboy’s suicide fails because the bears happen to have been moved to another enclosure. It is just as well because Laetitia’s father, the irritable Mr Grinder, is leaned on by the duke to eventually consent to her marriage with Carboy so that all ends happily.
Although the full score of The Zoo was held by D’Oyly Carte, his company never used it in their productions, and it only did a round of performances between 1875-9. Its music was never printed until rediscovered in the 1970s. Sullivan never recycled any of its numbers yet it is interesting to note that Carboy’s solo has an almost identical accompaniment to ‘Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes’ used 16 years later for The Gondoliers. As a through-composed piece it might have been better not to break the flow for applause at end of numbers. A solo item, Lætitia’s aria was new to my ears and was well sung by Rebecca Goulden. It doesn’t appear in any of the extant recordings. A number of teenage and post-teen singers were introduced from North West Productions in Liverpool and Manchester.
The triple bill was ably produced by David Goulden, who both trained and conducted the evening’s entertainment. A long show it may have been, but the audience members were enthusiastic and showed their appreciation.
Raymond J Walker
Cox & Box cast:
Russell Painter – John Box
Sam Snowden – James Cox
Bruce Graham – Sergeant Bouncer
Trial by Jury cast:
David Kay – The Judge
Victoria Goulden – The Plaintiff
Paul Bailey – The Defendant
Anthony Noden – Counsel for the Plaintiff
Steven Brennan – Usher
Anthony Alman – Foreman of the Jury
The Zoo cast:
Russell Painter – Æsculapius Carboy
Sam Snowden – Thomas Brown
David Kay – Mr Grinder
Rebecca Goulden – Lætitia Grinder
Nicole Boardman – Eliza Smith