EDGAS: The Gondoliers – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Some who might expect a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera to be about as exciting as watching paint dry, might well be persuaded otherwise, as I was, by this visual and musical treat, served up with exuberant brilliance by a company who clearly adore their craft. Undoubtedly one of G&S’s most joyful and brightest of light operas, The Gondoliers is crammed full with catchy toe-tapping songs, colourful characters and a farcical storyline which, to its credit, never takes itself too seriously.
The titular boat-pushing Palmieri brothers, played with carefree boyishness by Theo Rankine-Fourdraine and Sebastian Davidson have it all going for them. In the Piazzetta of Venice, the peasant girls are throwing themselves at the peerless pair. Alas the odds are not good, there are four and twenty maid...