BWW Reviews: Gilbert and Sullivan's PATIENCE at Camp Hill Light Opera Experience

From June 13 through 16, composer Libby Moyer produced the Camp Hill Light Opera Experience (CHLOE) at Grace Milliman Pollock Performing Arts Center in Camp Hill, PA. The Experience consisted of two shows, Moyer's own NOT A TENOR and W.S. Gilbert's and Sir Arthur Sullivan's PATIENCE. The event was born of Moyer's desire to see her own work performed as she envisioned it being done, but she hoped to do more as well.

PATIENCE was directed not by Moyer, but was directed and conducted by Michael Blum, formerly Director of the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theatre and Director and Conductor of the Young Victorian Theatre Company. That Blum is a veteran of Gilbert and Sullivan was evident throughout the production, which was one of the most thoroughly and lavishly produced seen by this reviewer lately - though not quite as spectacular, or as large-scale, as the Connecticut Repertory Theatre PIRATES OF PENZANCE last season. Nonetheless, the seven or so rapturous maidens sufficed for the size of the stage, rather than the twenty alleged in the libretto - who, besides those of us who show up with the libretto in hand, bothers to think about that? In particular, the Lady Angela (Melissa Block) and the Lady Ella (Miranda Clash) are lovely would-be pre-Raphaelites with fine voices.

Lady Jane, played with verve by Lara C. Wilson, is the most ethereal of all the rapturous maidens pining over the poet (and poser) Bunthorne, tenor Paul Sigrist, long-experienced in Gilbert and Sullivan performance, particularly with the New YorK Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Lady Jane is beyond mere Aestheticism, having retreated to nature with unarranged clusters of wildflowers in her hair. She is the middle-aged comic female role in PATIENCE, much like Buttercup in HMS PINAFORE or Katisha in THE MIKADO - and though these characters end well, one can't help cringing a bit at the ageist/sexist philosophy of Victorian authors that makes these female characters into the butts of Savoyard humor.

Although Sigrist as Bunthorne lacks some of the great classic Gilbert and Sullivan comic actors' brilliance - but who among us is a second Martyn Green? - his declamation of Bunthorne's latest poem is riotous, and if his "If You're Anxious For To Shine" was a trace more lyrical than comic, one can hardly complain. These and Lady Jane's description of Early English aesthetics (trimmed with Venetiam leather and Florentine lace, and "something Japanese") are the moments of the greatest outright comedy in a fine comic piece.

Baritone Michael Hix is the delight of the show, however, as Archibald Grosvenor, a newer and perhaps more idyllic poet than Bunthorne, who despite his pose (the costume designer deserves kudos for the recreation of the classic Bunthorne costume, including Swinburne's velvet smoking jacket and Wilde's knee breeches) secretly wants not to be an Aesthete. Grosvenor, to prove his ethereality, arrives clad in nearly-medieval garb to the extent of looking like a piece of upholstery, proving his Aesthetic credentials, with an angelic face and lyrical baritone that mark the beginning of Bunthorne's and Grosvenor's competition for the literary souls of the rapturous maidens of the neighborhood.

PATIENCE is a show in which no one is what they seem, and in which no one loves his lot in life: Bunthorne is not an Aesthete, Grosvenor hates his looks which attract women like flies, and the Duke, who has run off to join the military as a poor soldier, is upset about his wealth. However, this is Gilbert and Sullivan, and all's well that ends well, with maidens and soldiers together, the titular Patience the dairy maid (and Grosvenor's childhood sweetheart, played charmingly by soprano Kimberly Christie) with her former poet, and Lady Jane, loyal to Bunthorne even in the midst of Grosvenor-madness, with her own beloved.

A number of audience members seemed surprised at the show's very existence - the lack of Gilbert and Sullivan productions in many areas results, commonly, in a non-awareness of anything beyond HMS PINAFORE, THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (certainly the best known of their works these days) and THE MIKADO, leaving a number of other operettas, particularly this one, IOLANTHE, and YEOMEN OF THE GUARD woefully under-performed. Moyer is to be saluted for bringing operetta to the area, and we may hope that she sees her way clear to further productions, whether through CHLOE or some other production venue.

For further information, see www.chloeopera.org.

Photo credits: CHLOE

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