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The Gondoliers, Bournemouth Gilbert & Sullivan Operatic Society, Poole Lighthouse

BRING in an experienced, imaginative director, Craig Cowdroy, add a seasoned orchestra and musical director (Jean Holt), plus a talented company with great voices and you have – well, the recipe for perfect happiness.

In this glorious, brilliantly-lit production both Venice and Barataria are teeming with life, as tumblers, prostitutes, thieves, muggers and undertakers – of which more later – mingle with the contadine and gondoliers as they sing and dance in spirited fashion – so spirited, in fact, that the lovingly prepared laid-down bouquets for Marco and Giuseppe (Bruce Vyner and Tom Arnold-Haynes) are all-but trampled to pieces.
Their brides, selected by impartial fate, are just the ones they would run a mile from – myopic Gianetta (Charlotte Deverill) and huge, north-country accented Tessa (an almost show-stealing Cathy Murray).

And the Duke (John Gerken) and Duchess (Cherrill Ashford) are dead ringers for the Les Miserables’ Thenardiers. Jemma Truss as their daughter, Casilda, sings and acts beautifully, although if she really is in love with Ducal Attendant Luiz (Ian Metcalfe) she keeps her emotions well hidden.

Oh, and about those undertakers. The Mephistophelean-like Don Alhambra (Robin Lavies) travels around in a coffin, but even this harbinger of doom cannot suppress such bubbling, manzanilla-induced joyousness.

Linda Kirkman

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