Wiltshire Times

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 1981

Gipsy Baron Acclaim well deserved

An appreciative audience at the Civil Hall on Tuesday evening greeted the large cast of the Trowbridge Amateur Operatic Society’s presentation of Johann Strauss’s The Gipsy Baron with the acclaim which this production deserved.

The few vacant seats in the hall were accounted for by the inability of some of the disabled guests of the Lions to be present.

Such a full and colourful cast as that of the TAOS deserved a much larger stage, proof of which is that a row of seats had been removed from the front of the house to avoid mishaps when the “soldiers” marched round between the orchestra pit and the stalls.

INANE PLOT

The inane plot was there to be ignored, as seems to be the case in many operas. This in no way detracted from the show as voices, instruments and colour made up for the absence of a story. The costumes and uniforms must have caused a lot of people a lot of work in the preparation. The singing was very well ordered, as was the choreography, especially in the small space mentioned above. The choral singing was superb. It was a treat not to see microphones being swallowed as seems to be the fashion today. The principals were a little longer than the choir in getting into their stride, but once started they soon made up for lost pitch.

Musically the very competent orchestra followed Mr. Jezzard’s beat perfectly, as did the singers on stage. This was all the more essential as the baton swept the piece on without hesitation but also without hurry. Slick conducting was necessary in view of the fact that there were no fewer than twenty-two numbers!

BASSIST

The double-bass, at one end of the pit, could be felt as well as heard at the other end, where the drums were. This was all the more remarkable because the bassist said he hadn’t heard a note! At the percussion end the very youthful timpanist worked hard and successfully, and is to be particularly commended as he had had only one hour’s rehearsal, sight-reading the score, he did not miss a cue, many cues being Otto’s falls, each of which had to have its “thud”.

Otto (John Clarke) had many of these falls, being almost literally everyone’s “fall guy”. His athletic ability allowed him to ride falls when struck and to back-somersault for a comic exit. Glan Davies as the Mayor, pig-farmer Zsupan, was in fine voice, helped, no doubt, by a Fallstaffian stomach. Saffi (Sue Blundell) the gipsy princess and later bride of The Baron of the title (Dennis Duro) looked lovely and sang as well, when she got going. Very dramatically she must have caused a tear or two among the audience as she ended Act II kneeling with head bent, unable in her sorrow at her lover’s departure, to finish her song. Her gipsy wedding dress and ball gown in the final scene complemented her looks. No-one else in the case is mentioned as, because of its size, it would be invidious to pick out a few when all were so uniformly good.

COSTUMES

As stated, dressing the show must have presented quite a headache, but the result justified the work. Not only the ladies’ dresses and the soldiers; uniforms but the men’s dress of the mid-18 th century conformed to period. The tall male principals wore their cut-away coats so gracefully as to make one wish for a return to grace in the fashion world.

Grand opera, mentioned above, seemed to inspire Strauss in no small measure. Faust (Gounod 1859) preceded the Gipsy Baron by sixteen years and in both there is free win, jewel caskets and soldiers’ choruses. The absence of daftness of a plot seem endemic to opera – grand or light. If music, singing, costume and colour cover this absence, so be it. This production did.

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