Inkle and Yarico (1787), music by Samuel Arnold, play by George Colman the Younger.

Inkle     Andrew Robert Thody
Trudge    Stephen Matthews
Yarico    Maureen Braithwaite
Wowski    Tameka Empson
Curry     Jonathan Newth
Narcissa  Tiffany Edwards
Patty     Madeleine Worrall
Campley   Gus Brown
Medium    Mike Shannon
Sailors, Planters
          David Forest, Jonathan Dryden Taylor

Director  Simon Godwin
Conductor Peter Tregear

Straydogs

Inkle and Yarico was a substantial success in London and other English-speaking 
cities in from its first appearance in 1787 until the early years of the 
ninteenth century. It is a combination of ballad opera and sentimental comedy, 
based on an older story of a merchant who falls in love with the American 
Indian princess who saves his life but is then tempted to sell her into 
slavery for profit. 

This version is an explicit statement against slavery: the merchant Inkle 
is shown as a money-grabbing scumbag, while the princess Yarico is entirely 
noble. Both Inkle's manservant Trudge, who falls unshakably in love with 
Yarico's maid Wowski, and Sir Christopher Curry, the governor of Barbados, 
comment forcefully on the evils of slavery, and Inkle is converted in the 
end by Yarico's love (as well as the loss of his intended, Curry's daughter, 
to a much more honorable man). It has something in common in theme and decor 
with Gay's Polly, which also has noble savages, mercenary planters and country 
dances. I found it a fascinating play, both for its committed position on 
slavery and for the way it interweaves operatic conventions and comic drama. 
This production, part of the BAC Opera season, gave it a fair presentation 
with limited resources.

The programme is a bit defensive about performing the text unadapted. 
(A production in Barbados last year had Yarico ditch Inkle and marry a 
Barbadian soldier.) It's true that there are some "hottypot" and cannibal 
jokes, and Wowski in particular is a crude parody, speaking semi-gibberish 
English. 

But the performers brought it off in style, taking full advantage of the 
fact that the only evil people are Inkle and the slave-dealing planters. 
Maureen Braithwaite was naughty but dignified as Yarico, making the most 
of her sentimental arias in the Italian style. Tameka Empson was positively 
wicked as Wowski, delivering a comic tour-de-force that made the character 
extroverted and affectionate. 

Stephen Matthews as her partner Trudge also created a totally sympathetic 
character from a stereotype Cockney with some good lines ("Don't let 
anyone steal your pineapple, Wows, you're among Christians now."), and 
did a couple of fine song-and-dance numbers. Jonathan Newth in the mainly 
speaking role of Curry was good and peppery, and also made him more than 
a stereotype.

The real problem in producing Inkle and Yarico is that it goes on far too 
long, and doesn't have a high enough proportion of music for the words. 
The "operatic" characters, Inkle, Yarico, Narcissa, who is Inkle's intended, 
and Campley, the man she really loves, all have formal arias that require 
moderately substantial singers, and far too many sententious words which 
they can't do much with as the comic characters can. Except for Yarico, 
whose suffering and nobility is the focus of the play, it's difficult to 
care much about them or find much interest in them. Both Andrew Robert 
Thody as Inkle and Gus Brown as Campley (the name is meant to evoke military 
valour) had decent baritone voices but were otherwise wooden, to the extent 
that Inkle's appalling litany of financial calculation didn't have any 
impact at all. You couldn't even be bothered to hiss him. Similarly with 
Madeleine Worrall as Patty Prink, Narcissa's comic Irish maid, who has a 
couple of arias but not much point.

The music, reconstructed by Peter Tregear from a piano score which is all that 
survives of the original, came off about as well as the singers who sang it. 
The small orchestra was often ragged, and the jolly dances fared the best. 
The production was basic, using curtains for Yarico's cave, and the odd 
chair, but the characters were well thought out and the action moved 
smoothly if not swiftly.