'If there is an institution in Great Britain which is not susceptible of any improvement at all, it is the … stage manager!,' improvised baritone Ben McAteer, who wins this year’s Culture Whisper trophy for quick thinking. The show briefly came to a standstill while a technical problem was resolved, and then cranked back into action.
But because Cal McCrystal’s production of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera is shot through with anarchy and anachronism, it took us all a few moments to realise that this was not part of the show. Live performance: you can’t beat it, especially when it goes wrong, which reminds you what a miracle of moving parts the whole undertaking is.
Ruairi Bowen as Earl Tolloller. Photo: Craig Fuller
This revival of the 2018 smash hit brings light relief after the profound Peter Grimes which opened ENO’s season. When first performed, McCrystal promised that the audience would 'bang their heads on the seat in front with laughter'. He threw everything at the comedy of the piece, and he does so again, with some tweaks to the production and new lines, added by the director and Toby Davies. But librettist WS Gilbert had his own way with words, so the audience is somewhat jolted by this crashing through the comedy gears.
Daft from the start, Iolanthe is rendered even more ludicrous with exceptionally fey fairies ultimately in love with supremely fat-headed peers. Iolanthe herself has overstepped a line by marrying a mortal and bearing a son, half-human, half-fairy. It's time for a change to fairy law…
Marcus Farnsworth returns to the role of son Strephon, with soprano Ellie Laugharne also back as his (completely mortal) beloved, Phyllis. The couple’s unexpected clog dance is a joy.
John Savournin as the Lord Chancellor. Photo: Craig Fuller
There is mischief aplenty. The Peers have their own idiotic Rees-Mogg and stumbling Johnson, a Nadine Dorries look-alike scrabbles desperately at the door of the Lords, and bass-baritone Keel Watson as a Guardsman is undisguised in his contempt for the latter when he sings of Liberals and Con-serv-a-tives. Mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers is a Wagnerian fairy queen.
Above all, bass-baritone John Savournin, unquestionably our finest exponent of Gilbert and Sullivan, both as performer and, elsewhere, director, is magnificent as the Lord Chancellor, whose famous nightmare song flies faster than any spright.
There is a tendency for the music to be sacrificed to the gags, with distracting business that upstages the soloists. But tenor Ruairi Bowen as a lordly suitor of Phyllis cuts through the nonsense to sing just beautifully. He also pulls off a terrific backwards topple from the Lords’ preposterous transport (no spoilers – its arrival is a great moment).
Powerful fairies in Iolanthe. Photo: Craig Fuller
Conductor Chris Hopkins steers the Orchestra and Chorus of English National Opera through the mayhem, but the whole thing is slow to kick off, with a long warm-up act by fireman Captain Shaw (Clive Mantle), and the dialogue is laboured. Paul Brown’s eye-popping designs and Lizzi Gee’s choreography put colour and movement into every moment.
This Iolanthe is more pantomime than satire, but in tough times its heart is absolutely in the right place.
Iolanthe is sung in English with English surtitles. Further performances are on Tuesday 10, Friday 13, Saturday 14 (matinee and evening), Thursday 19, Saturday 21 (matinee and evening), Tuesday 24, Wednesday 25 (matinee and evening)
| What | Iolanthe, English National Opera review |
| Where | English National Opera, London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Embankment (underground) |
| When |
05 Oct 23 – 25 Oct 23, 13 performances, start times vary. Running time c3hr |
| Price | £10-£160 |
| Website | Click here for details and booking |