Countess Ludmilla     Hillevi Martinpelto
Count Heribert        David Wilson-Johnson
Astolf                Jamie MacDougall
Helene                Lisa Larson
Udolin                Susan Bickley
Isella                Judith Howarth

Conductor             Nicholas McGegan

Choir of the Enlightenment
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The almost unknown comic opera by Schubert was a relevation. I discovered
that the irritating conventions of Gilbert and Sullivan when seen in their
original musical context of sixty odd years earlier were just as annoying
then.

Well, it only cost three pounds, for which I got:

-- some nice Mozart in the first half
-- Nicholas McGegen impersonating a hamster on speed
-- the orchestra, which was terrific as ever
-- the rare sight of cellists without spikes playing ripe
Victorian-sounding nonsense

And the oper(ett)a itself was at least painless. It's somewhere between
Lystistrata (explicit sex-strike and anti-war message) and Princess Ida
(dragged up spy, probably borrowed from Thesmo, boring spoken comic
business -- mercifully omitted here, though obviously dreadful from the
summary in the programme --, lots of paired off minor characters to-ing and
fro-ing) without the satirical bite of either.

And there wasn't much musical bite -- one attractive romance for Helene,
the young wife whose husband went to war the day after their wedding, was
about it. The rest was twiddly genre songs and limp "martial" music, with
one soi disant march so melodically and rhythmically limp that the
(excellent) choir and orchestra couldn't make it sound as it had finished.
And not even a decent Handel parody.

Still, the performances were far better than the material. The orchestra
was sparkling, as it was to less effect in the Mozart, and the singers
acted their socks off.

Hillevi Martinpelto, who also sang two Mozart arias, was grand and very
funny as the grand dame Ludmilla. (She was last seen at the Proms as
Leonora last year, looking much younger in an Oxfam shop man's suit, but
sounding impressive). David Wilson-Johnson was an impeccable operetta
buffoon, and Larsen and MacDougall were sweet as the younger couple. Susan
Bickley didn't really get into the swing of things in the double-travesty
role of Ugolin, which isn't exactly either Cherubino or Octavian.

They can wheel this one out again for Schubert's tercentenary. I don't
think it will be entering the repertoire.