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| Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers – Kelli-Ann Masterson, Phil Wilcox, Matthew Siveter, Lauren Younger, George Robarts – English Touring Opera (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith) |
Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers; Phil Wilcox, Lauren Younger, Matthew Siveter, Robin Bailey, Samuel Pantcheff, Natasha Agarwal, Beth Moxon, director: Liam Metal, conductor: Jack Ridley, English Touring Opera; Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
Reviewed 20 March 2026
An all-singing, all-dancing efficiency filled with an exquisite pleasure and sheer engagement from all performances, brings out the verve and vitality of the piece with out dropping the satirical edge
Coming because it did after The Yeomen of the Guard, Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers might sound a return to their earlier, frothier type. However the piece is misleading. In The Gondoliers Sullivan was working with a bigger orchestra and far more consideration is paid to orchestral element. Not simply that, the work’s first twenty minutes or so are completely with out dialogue, while the variety of important characters is positively operatic. When it comes to plot, the gadgets that Gilbert makes use of to create his topsy-turvey-dom are her moderately much less fantastical than ordinary.
After all, there are weaknesses. Sullivan has written fewer show-stopping tunes for a begin and Gilbert’s plot appears to encompass two completely separate plots, solely in mid-Act Two does the Duke of Plaza-Toro work together with the 2 Gondoliers.
It’s maybe the work’s musical richness that makes it widespread with opera corporations. [Scottish Opera performed it in 2022, see my review, whilst ENO performed it in 2006, see my review]. English Touring Opera opened their Spring 2026 season with a brand new manufacturing directed by Liam Metal. The corporate is transferring its base of operations to Sheffield and for the primary time the tour opened there on the metropolis’s historic Lyceum Theatre on 20 March 2026.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers – Kelli-Ann Masterson, Samuel Pantcheff, Robin Bailey – English Touring Opera (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith) |
The Lyceum was inbuilt 1897, and designed by W.G.R. Sprague, designer of many West Finish theatres together with Wyndham’s, Aldwych and Ambassadors. In the course of the post-Struggle interval it narrowly prevented demolition and went by vicissitudes till it was handsomely renovated and reopened in 1990.
The Gondoliers was directed by Liam Metal whose 2017 manufacturing of Persistence was ETO’s first ever Gilbert & Sullivan operetta [see my review]. Robin Bailey and Samuel Pantcheff have been the Gondoliers with Natasha Agarwal and Beth Moxon as their sweethearts. Phil Wilcox and Lauren Younger have been the Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro, with Kelli-Ann Masterson as their daughter, Casilda, and George Robarts as Luiz. Matthew Siveter was Don Alhambra del Bolero. Units have been designed by Michael Pavelka with costumes by Laura Jane Stanfield, lighting by Zeynep Kepekli.
Liam Metal took a conventional view of the operetta, there was even a pink velvet drop curtain, and Laura Jane Stanfield’s costumes have been largely in maintaining. However there have been sly satirical components within the manufacturing, although Metal didn’t make the error of over-egging issues.
Above all this was a dancing manufacturing. Metal, a choreographer and director, had his entire forged dancing. If there was music then there was motion. And when carried out with such vivacity, engagement and sheer pleasure, this introduced actual motion to the piece.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers – Robin Bailey, Natasha Agarwal, Beth Moxon, Samuel Pantcheff – English Touring Opera (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith) |
There have been sly comedian digs. One of many younger girls within the refrain (Judy Louie Brown) repeatedly discovered all of the dancing an excessive amount of. While the Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro (Phil Wilcox and Lauren Younger) have been historically (over) dressed as befitted Castilian aristocracy, their daughter Casilda (Kelli-Ann Masterson) wore a form of mini-dress model in alarming colors. The grand inquisitor, Don Alhambra del Bolero was in pink and black clerical garb however there was a lot glitter that, mixed with Siveter’s excessive, cape-twirling method, made Don Alhambra extra like Mephistopheles.
When the curtain opened for Act Two, it revealed Robin Bailey (as Marco) carrying the highest half of a hussar’s uniform with tight white shorts, and Samuel Pantcheff (as Giuseppe) carrying the uniform trousers and an undervest. It appeared that while sharing the kingship, the 2 have been sharing all the things, together with a mattress and the royal pyjamas!
Bailey and Pantcheff made charming heroes, forming a pleasant double act. Bailey’s ‘Take a pair of glowing eyes’ was sleek certainly and Pantcheff introduced humour to his Act Two solo. Agarwal and Moxon made the a lot of the moderately underwritten position of the boys’s sweethearts. Definitely this pair have been gutsy and characterful.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers – Phil Wilcox, Lauren Younger, Kelli-Ann Masterson – English Touring Opera (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith) |
Phil Wilcox and Lauren Younger had a whale of a time because the Duke and Duchess. Wilcox won’t have the bombastic resonant voice, however he was splendidly self-important and overly grand. Each of his main numbers have been admirably pointed, in any case these are all concerning the phrases. And regardless of the historic anachronisms, the Duke’s turning his model right into a restricted firm, and his views on how if all people is any person then everyone seems to be no person are each alarmingly prescient.
Because the Duchess, Lauren Younger give a finely sung efficiency in order that this Duchess was not simply an outdated bag, and she or he mixed musicality with a pleasant line in puncturing her husband’s ego. Kelli-Ann Masterson was properly pert as Casilda, filled with fake naivety. And she or he flirted delightfully with George Robarts moderately uptight Luiz – even when we did get to see his chest. This appeared to be a manufacturing that emphasised male sexuality, not solely Marco’s shorts and Luiz’s chest, however the Act One set featured a set of nude male statues.
The grand inquisitor could be one thing of a nonentity, however Matthew Siveter’s flip as a Mephistophelian Don Alhambra made him the centre of each scene he was in. Siveter’s cape-twirling method, expressive eyes and eyebrows allied to his sheer relish for the workds and music made the character an actual pleasure.
The hard-working refrain of 11 not solely appeared to be in fixed movement however apparently drew actual pleasure from the very fact. Their contribution each musical and terpsichorean actually lifted the manufacturing and carried us away. And the soloists all entered into will too.
Within the pit, Jack Ridley drew a pacey account of the rating from the orchestra. Mild and incisive but with a pleasant ear for element; although I observe that we have been listening to Peter Murray’s orchestration, economics presumably which means barely fewer gamers than Sullivan desired.
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| Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers – English Touring Opera (Picture: © Richard Hubert Smith) |
The times when the D’Oyly Carte Firm toured the nation are lengthy gone. However the first evening of ETO’s manufacturing in Sheffield was successfully offered out and the corporate is giving ten additional performances across the nation. Catch one!
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