John Savournin / Anmeldelser

Movingly articulated at the close of this English-language performance by Grant Doyle’s big-hearted Forester, the inspiring final scene, showing him overwhelmed by the eternal beauty of the environment where he has spent his life, is underpinned by the soaring playing of the City of London Sinfonia in Jonathan Dove’s canny reduction of the composer’s original score under conductor Jessica Cottis.

Grant Doyle sings his noble epilogue about the passing of time and the meaning of life with total security, and seven years on from playing the Forester in Daniel Slater’s brilliant production for Garsington, he’s also won the right to meditate on ageing.

Mimi’s sickbed is the floor of her transit van. Rodolfo sits hunched against a wheel outside, the closest he dare get to his dying lover. Musetta makes her showy arrival in a convertible Merc, and an old ice-cream van serves as the Cafe Momus. Trailer-trash stagings are nothing new – many an old camper van has been rolled on to an operatic stage – but here we’re in a proper car park, this unparalleled season’s venue of choice for high art.

A feature of this La bohème is that some characters come up or down from the stage or roam around the parked cars and indeed Rodolfo’s first entrance is when he cycles back from his part-time job delivering takeaways. He hopes to be a playwright but earns additional money writing newspaper reviews. Home isn’t a Parisian garret but a Volkswagen campervan in a car park much the same as the opera was being performed in. It is surrounded by a couple of others and appears to be part of a commune of some sort peopled by those at the fringes of society.

PROUD TO SUPPORT UKRAINIANS FIND OUT HOW WE'RE HELPING Craft beer fans can get a box of 8 beers for £8 - and it comes with extra perks Hopsmore beer club Deborah James' romantic reconciliation with husband ahead of cancer diagnosis The Verbier Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary (I/II) Medici.tv EN Vicki Michelle: 'Weeing every 30 minutes' was sign of star's 'rugby ball' sized cyst Royal Family LIVE: Harry and Meghan poised for 'damage control' as William shows 'regret' by Taboola H.M.S. Pinafore REVIEW: A mix of Gilbert's witty lyrics and Sullivan's rollicking music 3 / 5 stars Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore Having celebrated the long-awaited return to their home at London's Coliseum Theatre with Philip Glass's esoteric Satyagraha, the English National Opera has gone to the other extreme with its first ever production of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. Jonathan Miller once contemptuously described G&S as "UKIP set to music" and there can hardly be a better example of what he meant than Pinafore. Set aboard a ship of the Royal Navy, it pokes merciless fun at the British class structure and the supposed merits of being an Englishman, but its simplicity is relieved by Gilbert's witty lyrics and Sullivan's rollicking music. By WILLIAM HARTSTON 17:30, Wed, Nov 3, 2021 | UPDATED: 17:30, Wed, Nov 3, 2021 0Comment sectionShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on PinterestCopy link HMS Pinafore John Savournin (Capt. Corcoran) and his 'midshipmite' (Rufus Bateman) (Image: Marc Brenner) Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top royal stories again Enter your email address here SUBSCRIBE We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Like most G&S, Pinafore is rather outdated and needs a good director to introduce some twists that appeal to a modern audience and on past performance, Cal McCrystal had all the right credentials. With two Paddington films and the stage hit One Man, Two Guvnors under his belt, as well as numerous other successes, he has repeatedly shown his ability to lift and sustain the comic level of a show.

In short, it’s a cracking night out, and ENO is running it into December. Take your kids, take your opera-sceptic friends; take your sisters and your cousins and your aunts. Definitely don’t take the kind of bore who can’t stand wisecracking cabin boys (they’ve added one, and in fairness he’s terrific) or poop-deck jokes (McCrystal and Toby Davies are credited with ‘additional material’); who prefers to hear Gilbert’s original dialogue savoured rather than sent up; or who’s liable to grumble that McCrystal can’t hear a quiet, reflective aria without an urge to blow it sky-high with yet more knockabout.