Wiltshire Times

FRIDAY, MAY,30 1997

Trowbridge Amateur Operatic Society

The Yeomen of the Guard Civic Hall, Trowbridge

FINE musicianship, imaginative staging, splendid costumes and the enduring magic of Gilbert and Sullivan contributed to another enormously successful production last week.

Director Paul Butler is fortunate indeed to have so much talent to draw on among the members of Trowbridge Amateur Operatic Society.

The orchestra, conducted by Johnny Bissell and led by Michael Oliver, were spot on: well-balanced, superbly paced, and never overpowering the singers.

The Civic Hall looked marvellous - an apron stage built into the auditorium represented Tower Green, and white banners decorated with silhouettes of the Tower of London's famous ravens were a sim­ple but effective backdrop.

The staging gave principals and chorus plenty of room to move, contributing to the energy and flow of the very professional performance. Although the stage was often filled with activity, the singers' style was never cramped.

There were some marvellous voices among the principals. Tina Foxon and Clive James sparkled as Phoebe Meryll and her unwelcome lover Wilfred Shadbolt. Sean Andrews (Colonel Fairfax) goes from strength to strength, and the quartet Strange Adventure, in which he was joined by Joan Francis, Glanville Davies and Annette Bister, was quite spine-tingling.

There was some sensitive acting too - particularly from Richard Rawlings and Viv Luckett as the jester Jack Point and his only love, Elsie Maynard. Their performance of the haunting I Have a Song to Sing, O was, for me, the high spot of a delightful evening.

It is more than ten years since the society performed Gilbert and Sullivan; I hope their enthusiastic audience won't have to wait as long for the next time.

Joceline Bury