GILBERT AND SULLIVAN SEASON

Evening Post, Issue 98, 27 April 1936, Page 4

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN SEASON

"PATIENCE"

The performances of "Patience" at the Grand Opera House on Friday night took place 55 years and one day after the first production at the Opera Comique, London. Surely this is a proof of the enduring worth of the Gilbert and Sullivan work. "Patience," when .written, was topical in subject and treatment. Few. people now living have a personal and lively recollection of the craze for the higher aestheticism which Gilbert gently ridiculed. Yet even the topical theme has an interest still, for aestheticism has been succeeded by other.isms in .art, poetry, literature^ and drama, and others since Bunthorne have proved that in pseudoculture circles "the meaning doesn't matter if its only idle chatter of a transcendental kind." But even if Gilbert's shafts of wit missed their mark (which they do not) "Patience" would yet deserve revival , for the tuneful quality of its music and the beauty of its settings. "Prithee, Pretty Maiden" will always be a favourite air from Sullivan, and there are few compositions for comic opera which excel m beauty the sextette "I Hear the Soft Note of the Echoing Voice," and the chorus,' "Twenty Love-sick Maidens We " The company on Friday night did full justice to "Patience" in acting music, and humour. Miss Winifred Lawson was an idyllic dairymaid, with just the right measure of gaiety and naivete. Her singing of the ballad "Love is a Plaintive Song" received and deserved great applause. Mr. Ivan Menziess presentation of Bunthorne, the fleshy poet, showed a trace of pantomime, but this was controlled and it certainly delighted the house. Grosvenor, the idyllic poet, was played by Mr Gregory Stroud with a quiet restraint that lost none of the humour. The malevoice chorus (Dragoon Guards) was highly popular, and Mr. Richard Watson (Colonel Calverley) sang with Ireat effect "If You Want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery" and "When I First Put This Uniform On." Other parts were capably taken by Miss Eyolyn Gardiner (Lady Jane), Misses Helen Langton, Eileen Kelly, and Phyllis Dickinson (the Ladies Angela Saphir and Ella) and Messrs. Clifford Cowley (Major Murgatroyd-a clever ■bit of comedy), Vincent McMurray (the Duke) and Tommy Jay. t Orchestra mid chorus are. of such vital ■ importance in "Patience" that thej. complete success of the performance is in.itself full proof of the excellence of Mr. Leo H Packer's musical direction. The Gilbert and Sullivan season.is now drawing to a close By special request "The Gondoliers" will be. related tonight. On Tuesday and on Wednesday afternoon and night H.M.S. Pinafore" will be staged, preceaed by "Cox and Box. "The Mikado' on night will conclude the season. . ■' • .■".'