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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 More info Like most G&S, Pinafore is rather outdated and needs a good director to introduce some twists that appeal to a modern audience and on past performance, Cal McCrystal had all the right credentials.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.

This production is by the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists, a programme that supports the development of young professional artists. It’s directed by Noa Naamat and Edmund Whitehead conducts the Southbank Sinfonia. The performance opens on a dimly lit stage. The set is minimal – just two curved staircases and a rotating platform. We’re confronted with the dying Minotaur and a four-strong chorus setting the scene. The Minotaur maintains a brooding, malevolent presence throughout. Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu is excellent as Phaedra. Her darkly sensual voice is perfect for the role and her fine acting conveys the character’s rage and desire for revenge. She dominates whenever she is on stage. Wu brings power and agency to the role. Phaedra may be a pawn in Aphrodite’s scheming, but she’s no victim. This contrasts with New Zealand tenor Filipe Manu’s Hippolyt, who is touchingly innocent and somewhat at the mercy of the three women in his life. American countertenor Patrick Terry adds a welcome light touch of humour to his Artemis in Act Two’s resurrection scene.

Complementing this score, both rich and compact, is the showtime set by takis and simply glamorous costumes, sapphire blue in the first half, fiery orange in the aftermath. In the title role, as the woman taken over by an obsessive and destructive infatuation with her stepson Hippolytus is the vocally and physically agile Chinese-born mezzo- soprano Hongni Wu. The New Zealander-Tongan tenor Filipe Manu as the object of her unfortunate desires is already impressive, The Southbank Sinfonia is one of London's niftiest orchestras, and a perfect fit for this sometimes jazzy, sometimes filmic, always kaleidoscopic score, conductor Edmund Whitehead impressively spinning all these plates at once. Jette Parker Young Artist Noa Naamat has that rare quality among opera directors today: she knows that less is more, and never meddles when the music, libretto, lighting designer (Lee Curran) and artists are getting on with their job. That restraint bodes very well for the flourishing of other works on her watch. Lots to look forward to from the Jette Parker alumni, in short. Catch this remarkable work, and you will see what I mean.