The Gondoliers

With professional soloists and orchestra, Surrey Opera returned once again to The Harlequin to present a sparkling new production of, surely, Gilbert & Sullivan’s most exquisite and finely crafted comic opera, The Gondoliers. With Gilbert’s razor sharp wit satirizing period class distinction and the monarchy, plus Sullivan’s colourful score featuring a barcarolle, cachucha, gavotte and endless singable melodies, this was an evening to delight and enthrall.

Mistaken identity was at the heart of the plot, and the negligence of a drunken gondolier entrusted with the upbringing of an infant king, who muddled up the young monarch with his own son, meant that no one (well not quite) was sure who was the rightful heir to the throne of Barataria. What was more, the young queen, who had journeyed to Venice with her father and mother unaware of what was in store for her, was in love with quite a different person and not, as she surmised, the rightful king, whoever he may have been. A tangled skein indeed!