The Gondoliers, Gilbert and Sullivan’s last big hit, came hot on the heels of their infamous quarrel over the cost of a carpet at the Savoy theatre. There is no hint of acrimony, however, in what must rank as Sullivan’s sunniest, most sophisticated score wedded to some of Gilbert’s most brilliantly barbed lyrics. What could be shrewder than, “When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody”?
A sharply pointed satire on the pitfalls of egalitarianism, the plot features babies swapped at birth and a pair of gondoliers, one of whom may or may not be the son of the recently deceased King of Barataria. English Touring Opera’s period production locates the action in the late 17th century, but contemporary resonances abound: the cash-for-endorsements antics of the money-grubbing Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro are but one step removed from the Andrews and Fergies of today.
