Rodgers and Hammerstein, South
Pacific: Grange Park Opera, 3rd July 2005 (H-T W)
Operettas border on triviality, kitsch and sentimentality.
They always have a happy ending, even if it comes right out
of the blue. The tunes are usually quite consumer friendly;
some are brilliant and captivate the ear, others are easily
forgotten the moment the curtain comes down. It is all entertainment
and, when done well, it can indeed be quite entertaining. The
musical, originally an American invention, is its successor.
By now, it has conquered more or less the entire world. In the
beginning, this light hearted mixture of songs, dance and spoken
word was preoccupied with American day to day life; nowadays
any story can be turned into a musical as long as it follows
certain clichés and trusted recipes.
The composer
Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and the librettist Oscar Hammerstein
II (1895-1960) were one of the first extremely successful teams
to turn the American way of life in to musicals. This season,
Grange Park Opera had a try with their musical “South Pacific”,
premiered in New York in 1949. It could not have been more successful.
This production by Craig Revel Horwood (also responsible for the effective choreography)
proved that a well-drafted musical does not need stage and lighting
effects to work. It only needs taste, a cast of highly efficient
singer-actors and a simple, but effective design (Francis O’Connor).
He created a second stage for the more intimate scenes, a boat-truck,
which moved forwards and backwards disappearing behind the back-drop,
while the entire stage could be used for the big ensemble scenes.
In the first act the stage is dominated by a huge palm tree
with the island Bali Ha’i in the distance;
in the turbulent second act the full moon takes centre stage
lighting the exuberant Thanksgiving Folies
as well as the sudden outbreak of war hostilities, the loss
of loved ones and an unexpected reunion – the Happy End.
The story
is simple. It all takes place on a South Pacific island during
the Second World War. The American Navy is waiting for the confrontation
with Japanese war ships. But as nothing is happening, everybody
is bored. The attractive navy nurse Ensign Nellie Forbush
(Eliza Lumley) visits the plantation owner Emile de Beque
for tea. They instantly fall in love with each other. Meanwhile,
a high ranking officer has the idea to send Lt.Joseph
Cable (Matt Rawle) and, if he agrees, Emile de Beque,
who knows all the islands well, to a close by Japanese island,
to watch for enemy ships and to convey this information to American
pilots. De Beque refuses having found the woman of his dreams. But when
Nellie learns that the two little boys, who are constantly around
Emile, are his children and that he was married before to a
local woman, who had died, she suddenly decides against Emile.
Together with Lt. Joseph Cable the desperate Emile finally takes
on the dangerous mission. It is successful, but they are discovered
and Cable dies, while nobody knows the whereabouts of Emile.
Nellie in the belief that she has thrown away her moment of
true love, goes to Emile’s house to care for the children, but
suddenly Emile appears and they fall in each other’s arms.
The success
of this production is based entirely on the ideal casting of
all parts, but in particular of Nellie and Emile, and also on
the incredible taste with which the ensemble scenes for all
the soldiers, nurses and locals were handled. They could have
easily gone over the top. Everything was directed with an eye
for detail leaving enough space for humour, temperament and
atmosphere. “The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting…..”,
the words of James A. Michener in his “Tales of the South
Pacific”, on which the musical is based, makes the whole story
not only possible, but also convincing. The pretty and so versatile
Eliza Lumley acted and sang the navy nurse from Little Rock
in Arkansas, who had only joined the Navy to see what the world
was like outside Little Rock, in a perfect American manner.
It was only natural for her to fall in love with this elegant
and warm French gentleman, whom Michael Cormick
impersonated with such perfection. Finally, I have to mention
the full-blooded Nicola Hughes as the local Tonkines
trafficker Bloody Mary. Having never come across “South Pacific”
before I was astonished how many of the songs I knew. The music
has indeed already become part of the Anglo-Saxon heritage and
it is thanks to the conductor Richard Balcombe
that it came across with so much delicacy and charm. Congratulations
to Grange Park Opera.
Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt
