REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND PREMIERE OF 'UTOPIA LTD'
"Utopia Limited" is an unlimited cornucopia of satire set to music. It is claimed that this opera represents Gilbert at his best, with Sullivan following suit, and therefore the people of Wellington were curious to teat the accuracy of reports from foreign parts. They rallied in strength at the Opera House last night to weigh the Williamson Company and its piece in the scales, and found that both tipped the beam of expectation, though this was high enough. The artists were recalled again and again; the demand for duplication of titbits lengthened buy nearly an hour the course which the menu was appointed to run. Indeed, the opera is such a feast of colour and melody, such an orderly tangle of witty words spoken and sung, such a quintessence of widely-ranging satire, such an ella-podrida of quaint and subtle notions, that a critic, solemnly undertaking to analyse the compound, is bewildered; his knowledge of human chemistry is sorely tried.
"Utopia" is unlimited when the languorous action begins. The rise of the curtain discloses a glimpse of the island of Utopia - a land something like the Premier's conception of a South Sea Island of Love - with beauty of colour and form softly blended, and "all sweet sounds of earth and air" in harmony. Maidens, more rare and and radient than even Poe's Lenore, "lie and dream of nothingness," luxriously fanning themselves with palm branches snatched from a lovely grove. The sea breaks on a golden strand near them, and they sing of their primitive delights.
(There follows a lengthly (verbally inflated) description of the opera.)
The librettist's theme is a gentle gibing at ultra-Anglicism. He has reviewed the whole nation, and spares nothing in which common-sense has been lost in the garb of artificiality. The national anthem is not pricked by his pen, but it does not escape the pencil of his collaborator, Sullivan. The music is sometimes soft and subtle, it is weird, it is mocking, it is a harmonious babble, it is patter, it is tender, and in all these moods it was rightly interpreted by the orchestra.
A strong company, with luxuriant scenery and dressing which is as rich as it is varied, gives the opera all the opportunity that it needed to succeed; and it did succeed.
As King Paramount, Mr. Howard Vernon is as funny as he ever was. His vocalisation might have been improved, but any shortcoming in his singing was more than amended by his action of body and face, and his speaking, which raised emphatic peals of laughter.
Miss Olive Godwin, as the Princess Zara, and Miss Celia Ghiloni (Lady Sophie, the English gouvernante), were the bright stars in the constellation of femininity.
The king's younger daughters, the Princess Nekaya and Kalyba, impersonated by Miss Aggie Thorn and Miss Vinia de Loitte, in voice and manner. mixed their natural bent in very amusing proportions, making a pretty background for many a situation.
The roles of the judges of the Utopian Supreme Court, Scapio and Phantis, were borne by Messrs Arthur Crane and H.H. Wallace, and the writer liked these artists' performance, vocal and actional, better than anything else.
Mr. Charles Kenningham, as Captain of the Life guards, and Mr. Frank Wilson, as Mr. Goldbury, the company promoter, and also sufficient work. which they did well enough to make themselves popular. Mr. Ernest Fitts might have more vividly brought out more of the humour of the role of the role of Public Exploder, but he nevertheless went through the part meritoriously. The principals, in all manner of music, solo and concerted, and with dancing semi-serious and eccentric, and good assistance from artists in minor parts to bring the great opera's very agreeable career to a close.
"Utopia Limited" will again be presented to-night.
Wellington Evening Post. Friday April 20th, 1906.