O.C. OPERA REVIEW : New ‘Mikado’: Pretty but Took No Chances

The last time we saw the D’Oyly Carte Opera, at the Greek Theatre back in 1976, the once illustrious purveyors of a noble British tradition had fallen upon hard times. Sorry their lot.

The beloved inventions of Gilbert and Sullivan were becoming empty rituals. The

productions looked threadbare. With amplification adding sonic insult to vocal injury, the music sounded raucous.

The best singing actors had fled the poverty-stricken touring company. Their replacements seemed dutiful at best, somnolent at worst.

The passing years weighed heavily. Everyone was saddened, but no one was surprised when, in 1982, the D’Oyly Carte curtain came down for what threatened to be the last time.

Yet all was not lost. Six years later, a brighter, younger, more venturesome D’Oyly Carte rose like a cheery phoenix from the Savoyard ashes. Tuesday night, as part of the Festival of Britain at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the reconstituted troupe made its U.S. debut.

Modified rapture.

It may be worth noting that the first works mustered in England by the New D’Oyly Carte--”Iolanthe” and “Yeomen of the Guard”--were not selected from the Greatest Hit list. For festive Costa Mesa, however, the repertory choices--”Mikado” and “Pirates of Penzance”--turned out to be needlessly, embarrassingly conservative.

Why?

Because, according to a high-ranking, seemingly misguided company spokesman, “the repertoire is better known on the East Coast than on the West Coast.”

“This area,” he added, “has probably not got the same basic, intrinsic audience for the works. . . . Maybe if we’d gone to New York or the East Coast . . . we could be more adventurous.”

Our British benefactors evidently do not know that Sol Hurok used to bring the entire D’Oyly Carte repertory to Southern California, that the Music Center Opera imported Jonathan Miller’s perversion of “Mikado” not too long ago, that the Joseph Papp smear of “Pirates” had a long and successful run here, that Richard Sheldon’s enlightened Opera a la Carte plays up and down the state, and that high schools and summer camps even in deepest, darkest Orange County regularly stage their own “Mikados” and “Pirates.”

It would have been nice to get away from “Tit Willow” and the modern major-general for a change. Still, we must be grateful for familiar favors, so long as they are tasteful and charming.

The new “Mikado” certainly deserved those adjectives. It took no chances, dared make no original statements, shifted no perspectives. It played down the comedy, banished the most predictable routines, and neglected most opportunities for dancing. But it did play up the music, and it did look pretty.

Moreover, it did respect theatrical impulses that both the composer and the librettist might have recognized. Drastic updating was deemed inappropriate.

The 1989 staging, now attributed to Christopher Webber, strikes cautious poses. It avoids superfluous movement and distrusts caricature. It lets the text tell most of the jokes, and, luckily, the jokes are still good. This is a valid, timidly effective approach.

Eileen Diss’ pastel sets depict neatly stylized mock-Japanese vistas. Jessica Gwynne’s costumes second the muted scenic motions.

John Pryce-Jones conducts with reasonable finesse. He favors brisk tempos for just about everything except the patter songs--in which he obviously values intelligibility over frenzy.

The cast is more notable for teamwork than for star turns. Eric Roberts, the spry but hardly elfin Ko-Ko, wears a funny hat, mugs endearingly, savors the text and sings--really sings--the music. John Ayldon, who succeeded the unforgettable Donald Adams as the Mikado during the final seasons of the old D’Oyly Carte, turns up here as a crisp, properly haughty if hardly overwhelming Pooh-Bah.

The Mikado, in turn, becomes the property of a dour, booming-basso giant named Michael Ducarel. Incidentally, he eschews the usual blood-curdling laugh. Susan Gorton--a real, British-oratorio contralto--complements him as a generous, matronly Katisha capable of gallon-jug chest tones.

The silly young lovers are nicely sketched, though not very sensuously sung. David Fieldsend plays a mildly impetuous Nanki-Poo to the moderately coy Yum-Yum of Sandra Dugdale.

The supporting cast is deft. Paul Parfitt introduces a Pish-Tush who emulates Pooh-Bah (a bizarre program note informs us, by the way, that he also sings “Pere Germont in ‘Rigoletto’ ”!). Thora Ker as Pitti-Sing and Yvonne Patrick (Peep-Bo) are bright not-so-little girls from school.

Incidental intelligence:

Words and music projected easily in the 2,994-seat house, even though the management turned off the microphones. If the acoustics are good enough for “Mikado,” the acoustics must be good enough for “Fledermaus.”

In his catalogue aria, Ko-Ko griped about yuppies, car phones and various industrial imports from Japan.

When Nanki-Poo went abroad, his reported destination turned out to be Balboa Island.

According to the Lord High Executioner, the citizens of the town of Titipu share at least one problem with their hapless American counterparts: a so-called budget crisis.

Encores are outlawed by the New D’Oyly Carte. The custom of interpolating topical references, however, lives on.