$GFrom the two drag queens in the foyer to the extravaganza on the stage, it
was pantomime all the way at Ken Russell's production of Princess Ida
for English National Opera.
Once again on stage the royal family are held to ridicule, with
Richard Van Allan giving a brilliant impersonation of Prince Charles in
the part of King Hildebrand, with the lovelorn Hilarion and his
companions tricked out as comic polo players -- until they too assumed
female guise for the infiltration of Castle Adamant -- and a few
skateboards disguised not very effectively as corgi dogs.
There are cruelly outsized ears everywhere in Act One, even on James
Merifield's ingenious design for ''Buck 'n' Yen'' palace, and the
libretto has updated to take jokey account of such current topics as
U-turns and Maastricht. But too often the words are drowned by excessive
prancing and pounding on the stage, and it is not until later scenes
that Jane Glover's astute reading of the score comes into its own.
Some of Sullivan's most attractive music went into Princess Ida, and
in the present version, based on the autograph score at the Bodleian,
receives rewarding treatment from most of the Coliseum cast. Rosemary
Joshua looks as pretty as she sounds in the part of the man-hating
Princess of the title, and there is fine singing from Mark Curtis, John
Graham-Hall, and Geoffrey Dolton, as the three young men determined to
breach feminine defences.
Anne Collins and Anne-Marie Owens provide blatantly butch caricatures
of Lady Blanche and Lady Psyche, Nerys Jones gives a sharply observed
and very funny performance as Melissa, but sadly Nickolas Grace has not
sufficient vocal weight for the part of Gama.
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