Patience

Like buses, antipodean productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas seem to come in threes. It has been my sad duty to rubbish the last two Australian G&S productions to be shown on British TV. I am a kind person and an opera-lover so it gives me great pleasure to say that this is one of the best G&S production that I have ever seen.

If you were to compile a list of the best operas ever written, Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience would not be battling it out along with Così Fan Tutte or Gotterdamerung for the first three places. It would struggle to make the top 100. In fact, it would struggle to make the top 10 G&S operas. But sometimes, a director and a designer can seize an operatic ugly duckling and turn it into a dazzling white swan. So take a bow John Cox, who was the stage director for The Australian Opera Company and John Stoddart, who was the designer.

If you look at my byline, you will see that I live in Birmingham, England. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery just happens to own one of the most impressive collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the world. Don't all rush over at once. The last time I took an American friend to see them they were not available because the roof of the art gallery had collapsed. The reason I mention this is because the only comparable collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings that I have seen is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It seems that Victorian Burghers of Birmingham, in common with their Sydney brothers, may not have known much about art but they did like paintings of flame-haired young women in long dresses.

John Stoddart captures this beautifully. The entire opera is a Pre-Raphaelite fantasy. You could watch it with the sound turned down and still be left breathless. There is a painting by Edward Burne-Jones called The Golden Staircase which depicts the most beautiful wives and daughters of Burne-Jones's friends descending a spiral staircase with flowing robes and resplendent hair. Stoddart brings this picture to life, with the most devastating effect.

The opera is a satire on the aesthetic movement. The main character, Reginald Bunthorne is a, thinly disguised, Oscar Wilde character. The twenty ladies of the chorus are all in love with him, spurning their former fiancés in the Heavy Dragoon regiment. Only Patience, the dairy maid is resistant to his charms.

This is an opera and, so far, I have not even mentioned the music. I have watched this film three times. The first time, because it was so unfamiliar, I found it pleasant. The second time, I found it interesting. The third time, I found it wonderful. The highlights for me were in Act II. A wonderfully comic Heather Begg as The Lady Jane sings Sad is that woman's lot, accompanying herself on double bass. Gilbert specified a violoncello but the larger instrument brings even greater enjoyment. Then there is the duet So go to him and say to him between Jane and Bunthorne, sung by the brilliant Dennis Olsen. The climax of the piece is the duet When I go out of door sung and manically danced by Bunthorne and Anthony Warlow's Archibald. This gets a well-deserved encore. The only slight problem with this production is that Christine Douglas seems to have acquired her English milk maid's accent by listening to Cilla Black. Still, that is a small quibble in a brilliant production.

From the very beginning, when the Twenty Lovesick Maidens appear, clad in brilliantly styled period costumes evocative of the Byrne-Jones Pre-Raphaelite period washed in muted tones and characteristic drapery, to the zippy contrasts of the Military Men in their bright red jackets set off against sparkling helmets, this production of one of Gilbert and Sullivan's more subtle creations never flags; it features four brilliant leads, and in Dennis Olsen's Reginald Bunthorne, establishes a perfect performance for the ages, all Oscar Wilde languish and "stained-glass attitudes." Not as easy to like as The Mikado or as familiar as Pinafore, Patience rewards one better if one reads a wee bit of background first, and, if possible, finds a libretto, as the originally made-for-Australian-TV-video does not feature subtitles. Even so, this is classic Gilbert and Sullivan done with robust good humor, leaving the unnecessary modern topicality behind, the updating in the dust, and reveling in the tuneful romp that Gilbert and Sullivan so cleverly devised. It would have been nice to have it on widescreen, but it would have been nice to have Toscanini broadcast in color, too. Great fun for the aficionado!

Patience was never one of my favourite G & S productions, but that was before I saw this version. The sets may be stylised and austere but the costumes are superb. The main characters give a lively and often very funny interpretation, after all it is meant to be a comic opera, which has been sadly lacking when I have seen it in the past. The singing is as good as it gets, and the set piece duets had me in stitches. Heather Begg, as Lady Jane was imposing but comic, and even survived a severe bout of corpsing towards the end when she accidentally knocked Bunthorn off his feet. Bunthorn, played by Dennis Olsen looks so delicate he is the very embodiment of an aesthete poet. Anthony Warlow plays his poetic competitor, Archibald Grosvenor, and their duet / dance fully warrants the encore. Christine Douglas, as Patience, has a lovely soprano voice when singing, and an intriguing accent in the spoken passages. The chorus do not just stand waiting for their turn to sing but look as if they listening and involved in the action.

Patience is not one of my favourite Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, but is still worth hearing or seeing. This Opera Australia performance is wonderful, and as much as I consider the 1982 D'Oyly Carte production one of the better entries of that hit-and-miss series I consider this one the better performance. The costumes are wonderfully exotic, both with the chorus and the principals, and the sets are just as excellent. The picture quality is clear and doesn't elude the handsome production values at all, while the video direction is unobtrusive. The sound is at times suppressed, but mostly solid. It is even better musically, with energetic orchestral playing, a beautifully balanced and enunciated chorus and conducting that never feels as though it's rushing or dragging(in fact it is all very swift).

The comedy aspects are also done wonderfully. There is one bit that doesn't work, which was the feebly broken up "your conversation must henceforth be perfectly matter-of-fact" between Bunthorne and Grosvenor, which always did amuse me but left me stone-faced here. Other than that, the lyrics and dialogue are fun and witty and maintain the G&S spirit. The stage direction and choreography is always moving and energetic, that doesn't suffer at all from pointless updatings, tasteless gags, additions/omissions that make one wonder why they were added/left out in the first place. I especially loved the Bunthorne/Grosvenor duet, and the dance routine was fun and well-choreographed. Lady Jane knocking Bunthorne over was also a riot.

And you can't go wrong with great performances either. That is exactly the case here. Graeme Ewer is good as the Duke with a nice timbre to his voice, but I preferred his performance in The Gondoliers which gives him more to work from. Christine Douglas sings and characterises wonderfully as Patience, the only problem being her inconsistent and sometimes overdone accent. Heather Begg is an ever characterful Lady Jane, while Anthony Warlow's Grosvenor is one of my favourite Gilbert and Sullivan performances on DVD and Dennis Olsen is wonderfully supple as Bunthorne. Overall, this Patience is wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox