Trial by Jury a triumph
The verdict on Crieff Choral Group’s take on take on Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury was that it was a great success.
The first half of Saturday’s concert in Crieff ’s St Andrew’s Hall saw the ladies dressed in jewel coloured blouses and the men smart as ever, opening the concert with two songs from HMS Pinafore – Let’s Give Three Cheers and Oh Joy, Oh Rapture Unforeseen.
Each song was introduced by effortless conductor Peter Rutterford – in his 18th year at the helm of Crieff Choral – who set the song in context with each opera.
Audience members were then treated to a beautiful solo by Alex Milne, whose flawless soprano voice soared across the hall.
A talented local musician, Alex had come back from Durham University to sing.
The fact her mother is a member of the choir was announced as the first of two family connections in the group on the night.
Next, the choir sang the Tudor- inspired lyrical madrigal from the Mikado, Brightly Dawns Our Wedding Day.
Then choir member Alison Martin moved to her concert harp, where she sang two Scottish airs and accompanied herself.
Both songs continued the concert’s theme of love and marriage, The Laird o’ Cockpen and The Spinning Wheel – the former having been written in the 1700s by the Jacobite Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, born at the local village of Gask.
After the choir’s delightful rendition of Leaves in Autumn Fall and Fade from Ruddigore, Craig Dennis sang a delightful and poignant Tit Willow tenor solo from Mikado.
Following Craig’s solo, the choir sang Strange Adventure from Yeoman of the Guard and, afterwards, those gathered were treated to Alex and Craig returning together to sing a duet from Iolanthe, None Shall Part Us.
The final song before the interval was the celebratory Dance A Cachucha from the wedding scene in The Gondoliers, with the choir swaying in time in alternate rows.
The conductor asked the audience to sway as well in a cheerful encore.
After the interval – where raffle tickets were sold for hampers – the audience watched the stage being reset for a court scene in Trial by Jury.
The choir emerged transformed, with period caps and hats, shawls and flowers and conversed agitatedly as they waited for the trial to start.
Mike Owens was magnificent as the usher, striding about and controlling the rabble with his sonorous voice booming.
The Defendant was sung by Barry Parkin, who showed all his emotions as the love sick defendant Edwin, who had once loved the plaintiff, Angelina, but was now tired of her and looking elsewhere to marry.
The choir sang the roles of the jurors with comedic effect, showing their supposed age and infirmity, singing about their past relationships but arguing that now they are respectable and beyond reproach.
Amid great pomp, the Judge – sung by John Drummond – made stately progress to the pulpit, bewigged and gowned with a large glass of whisky.
With a sonorous bass voice, he told the story of his rise to success, with the help of a rich attorney and his “elderly, ugly daughter”, whom he later threw over when his career was secure.
John’s comic timing was magnificent, and the choir members’ chorus reactions were hilarious as his tale of his rise to fame and fortune became ever more scurrilous!
Finally, the plaintiff, Angelina was called into court, first by the usher and then by her four bridesmaids – led by Diane Jack who, after two echoing calls for her to appear, sang her praises in their lyrical song, Comes The Broken Flower.
The Plaintiff was sung by Jennie Turnbull, whose husband Melvyn plays the piano weekly for choir rehearsals, while her son Jamie, studying astrophysics at Edinburgh, accompanied the whole concert on the piano.
Jennie, with her wedding veil and flowers, played the part of the wronged bride beautifully, her voice floating over the choir as she captured the hearts of the judge and jury.
Craig supported Angelina ably as the counsel for the plaintiff, wearing a splendid checked double-breasted waistcoat and suit.
His sonorous voice explained in a moving song how she had been betrayed by Edwin, causing Angelina to feel faint, almost into the arms of the Foreman of the Jury, sung by Tom Inglis.
After Edwin suggests he marries “one lady today ... and the other tomorrow”, the counsel declares this would be “burglary” – a comic misrepresentation of bigamy.
The choir and all the soloists sang the wonderful A Nice Dilemma, with different parts dovetailing in a joyful listen.
Angelina flung herself against Edwin, singing of bemoaning her loss so as to obtain large damages.
Edwin sang a reply that he was a drunkard, smoker and bully so the damages should be small.
The judge suggested making Edwin tipsy to see if he would “thrash and kick her”.
Barry, as the defendant, could not contain his glee at the thought of this outcome, but everyone else sang in shocked tones against the idea.
Finally, irritated by the lack of progress, the judge delivered justice from the pulpit by singing an offer to marry her himself.
After an outraged reaction from the choir, the judge descended from his dais as the whole company sang Joy Unbounded and he waltzed off with the plaintiff to a resounding three cheers from all.
This was a different type of musical concert for Crieff Choral, but it was clear from the full house, entranced audience and energised choir acting their roles superbly that the concert had been a huge success.
Huge tributes should be paid to choir members who took on solos, and especially to John Drummond and Jennie Turnbull as judge and plaintiff, who really took on the personas of their characters and sang with energy and conviction.
• Rehearsals begin from 7.30pm on Monday next week in Morrison’s Academy’s Ferntower Hall for the next concert, Mozart and Mendelssohn on March 29 accompanied by City of Perth Sinfonia.