Vancouver Symphony - “Gilbert and Sullivan”

The Orpheum
March 2 & 3 8pm

Bramwell Tovey - Conductor
Elektra Women's Choir
Chor Leoni Men's Choir
Larry Raiken - Tenor
Robyn Driedger-Klassen - soprano
Paul Ouellette - Tenor
Myrna Paris - Contralto

Bramwell Tovey, Conductor

Reviewed by: Elsa Bressinger + Guest

Ah, silliness! In the tradition of old Music Hall entertainment, Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra accompanied by the Elektra Women's Choir, the Chor Leoni Men's Choir and four soloists played to a packed house Friday night with an evening of Gilbert and Sullivan tunes.

Immediately following the overture, conductor Bramwell Tovey launched into a light banter highlighting the background of the songs and the nature of musical theatre of the time. With quips to the audience and general silly asides ranging from past and present political pokes to Victorian cultural quirks, Maestro Tovey told us this was an evening of light satire - the upper classes, their moral mindset and politicians being the brunt of the joke.

The Elektra Women's choir in straw hats and fans and the Chor Leoni Men's Choir wearing bowler hats and trilbys swayed and bounced with animated gestures, emphasizing the melodramatic and melodious and often maudlin tunes.

With appropriately exaggerated performances, Larry Raiken - a dramatic tenor who sounds like a baritone -was the top entertainer of the evening. His background in Broadway musical theatre, a rich expressive voice and an absence of bones in his entire body kept the delightful goofiness of the evening going.

Elektra Women's Choir

Robyn Driedger-Klassen, a bright soprano, gave a large dose of class and sweetness in her various roles of the young, innocent and ditzy female characters, along with a very lovely rendition of the song "The Sun Whose Rays" in the second half of the show.

The other soloists were Paul Ouellette, lyric tenor, with very pretty pipes and a character suited to the music, along with Myrna Paris, contralto and character mezzo playing Gilbert and Sullivan's ubiquitous "woman of later years whom marriage has passed by" who had an almost garish voice adding a grotesque flavour to the songs. In the second half as “Katisha” from The Mikado she comes out in a large red wig and something that looked like a cross between a muu-muu and a poncho and came off like man in drag.

A definite highlight of the evening was when Bramwell Tovey joined in the "Three Little Maids" trio sporting a kimono, wig and falsetto.

But as inane as much of the music is, the atmosphere was distinctly of another time; the evening could have taken place a hundred years ago save for the updated lyrics in one number which gave this old-fashioned style of satire a refreshingly relevant feel. Three cheers!

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