The Brent Walker Princess Ida (1982)

Cast King Hildebrand Neil Howlett Hilarion Laurence Dale Cyril Bernard Dickerson Florian Richard Jackson King Gama Frank Gorshin Arac Tano Rea Guron Peter Savidge Scynthius Christopher Booth-Jones Princess Ida Nan Christie Lady Blanche Anne Collins Lady Psyche Josephine Gordon Melissa Claire Powell Sacharissa Jenny Wren Chloe Elise McDougall Ambrosian Opera Chorus London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Alexander Faris Camera Director: Dave Heather Stage Director: Terry Gilbert

Laurence Dale, Bernard Dickerson, Richard Jackson OperaWorld PRI10V

This video was made as part of the Brent Walker series that was shown in the U.S. on PBS in the mid-1980s. The casting of Frank Gorshin (Batman's Riddler) as Gama was clearly designed to enhance popularity for American audiences, and the role fits his abrasive television personality. He reprised the role in 2000 on stage for the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP).

The production is staged as a Victorian performance party, wherein an invited audience follows the performers through an English manor house. As a result of this conceit, Princess Ida's address to the Girl Graduates is witnessed by a gallery of guests dressed in Victorian costumes; the men are shown grimacing at Ida's attacks on the opposite sex. Later, when Hilarion and his friends enter, they sing their songs as audience members drift about the grounds, often coming to within a few feet of the action. At the end of Act I, the whole cast are shown sipping champagne served by tuxedo-clad waiters.

The overlaying of this extraneous concept seems to be the director's clear signal that he considered the material too weak to stand on its own, and this is the production's fatal flaw. The "invited guests" are a constant and irritating intrusion, detracting from, rather than adding to, what is already one of Gilbert's weaker operas.

Even ignoring the extraneous "guests," this Princess Ida, is not entirely satisfactory. For example, Hildebrand delivers much of his Act I dialogue on a horse, which makes a good initial impression but which makes the action dramatically stilted. In Act II, "A lady fair" is illustrated by a slide show — a more than slight anachronism — with all of the Girl Graduates, not just the three men, observing. "Now, wouldn't you like to rule the roast" is sung with all the other women present, as if the director hadn't noticed that this is supposed to be a private conversation between Blanche and Melissa. Superimposing a house party on top of already shaky dramatic legs simply ruins the production, making it one of the worst in the Walker series.

Although I liked Gorshin's Gama, Ben Elton had a contrary view:

Perhaps the greatest let down is Frank Gorshin's King Gama. There is parlando, and there is just ignoring the music. Gorshin's performance certainly comes into the latter category, ruining "If you give me your attention" and "When'er I spoke sarcastic joke." This is all the more regretable as his rendition of "P'raps if you address the lady," although not fully satisfactory, does show that he is capable of following a tune if he puts his mind to it.

The performance is complete, aside from miscellaneous dialogue cuts and "Come, mighty must."