Patience

Composers: Gilbert and Sullivan Director: Liam Steel Conductor: Timothy Burke English Touring Opera UK tour (www.englishtouringopera.org.uk) Until 3 June Running time: 2hrs 20mins (including interval)

This ETO production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, which opened at the Hackney Empire earlier this month and is now on a 17-venue tour of the country, is a “delight from beginning to end”, said David Mellor in The Mail on Sunday. Director Liam Steel has presented W.S. Gilbert’s witty assault on the Victorian “aesthetic movement”– effete young poets, swooning young maidens, posturing soldiers and all – just as its creators intended. And Steel’s “clever pastiche” of Victorian staging is assisted by Florence de Maré’s luxurious (by ETO’S standards) in-period sets. “Top-quality productions of G&S are a bit of a rarity these days,” and stagings of Patience even rarer. Catch this “evening of joy” if you can.

Patience’s score is one of Sullivan’s finest, said Mark Valencia on Whatsonstage.com – a “filigree of harmonic lyricism shot through with pungent, audience-pleasing earworms”. It is hard to care much, however, about the “frolicsome” plot. “So if it were done, then ‘twere well it were done slickly” – and here it very much is. This is a night of “tip-top” comedy “wrapped in musical splendour by a sparkling company of singers and ETO’S stylish orchestra” under Timothy Burke. “Dyed-in-the-wool Savoyards” like me may not find everything to their taste, said Rupert Christiansen in The Daily Telegraph. Although there is much to enjoy here, the wit and sophistication of the piece is too often larded over with “pointless prances, nudges and winks” that wouldn’t look out of place in The Benny Hill Show.

Still, there are many cracking performances, said George Hall in The Guardian. In the title role, Lauren Zolezzi suggests a posh, prim milkmaid and is “pinpoint accurate in her flights of soprano fancy”, while Valerie Reid finds “grandeur and pathos as well as humour” in the rapturous Lady Jane. Best of all are two expertly crafted comic performances from Bradley Travis – a joy as the “fleshly poet” Bunthorne – and Ross Ramgobin as “idyllic poet” Archibald Grosvenor, “his rich lyric baritone and flawless timing hinting at star potential”.