Here’s a Ruddi good caper from Gilbert & Sullivan to marvel at

A RARE chance to see Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore should not be missed. It has its faults, but Vivian J. Coates’s production, which gets the company hopping about in a mini-Busby Berkeley fantasia, makes the most of every moment.

Of the three dastardly Murgatroyd baronets, doomed by a witch’s curse to commit a daily foul deed, Matthew Siveter’s Sir Despard is the funniest and most sinister, guying every Hammer Horror cliche in all black with cloak and top hat.

Elder brother Ruthven has dodged the baronetcy by disguising himself as one Robin Oakapple. Once his cover is blown, the fun really starts. The ghost of forebear Sir Roderic steps down from his picture frame — the set cleverly gets over the lack of space for a full gallery of ancestors — to make sure wimpish Ruthven commits a truly heinous crime each day.

W.S. Gilbert’s ‘period’ dialogue is quaint and his satirising of complicated Italian opera plots results in confusions of his own. But the music sparkles and it is hilarious when village maiden Rose Maybud (Rosanna Harris) flits from one lover to another, then a third within a minute or two.

Mae Heydorn is a convincing Mad Margaret, David Menezes dances a mean hornpipe as Richard Dauntless and Gaynor Keeble sings beautifully as Dame Hannah. James Hendry’s ebullient tempi sometimes twist the singers’ tongues, but it is a fault in the right direction.

Meanwhile, an enjoyable Trial By Jury is paired with another rarity, The Sorcerer.

The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company is taking these productions, with Iolanthe and a fine Pirates Of Penzance, to the 25th International G&S Festival now running at another Frank Matcham-designed theatre, the Royal Hall, Harrogate. They are then going on tour.