JEFF Clarke has quite a reputation among opera lovers in the south west, nourished by his many memorable and hilarious productions performed in the Harold Peto cloister at Iford Manor. Now that that venue is no longer available, fans are delighted to be able to follow his Opera della Luna shows at Bath’s Theatre Royal, and this week they are invited to test out the newest venture, a staging of a Victorian operatic melodrama based on the story of the infamous Sweeney Todd.

I guess that many seeing the word “opera” and the title Sweeney Todd expected to see Stephen Sondheim’s version of the story, but this is something very different. The original script of Sweeney Todd or The String of Pearls was written by George Dibdin Pitt in 1847. Music was contributed by Michael William Balfe, Julius Benedict and Henry Bishop. In Bath it was played by an 11-strong orchestra conducted by Michael Waldron. Jeff Clarke is credited with adapting and editing the script, and his amendments were very, and welcomely, obvious.

This story is a bit different from the familiar Sondheim version, all about the murderous barber of Fleet Street and his victims – but with no explanatory back story he’s just the villain. Melodrama was all about the audience hissing the villain and cheering the hero, and that’s where this production stumbles … it is not until the second half that the audience knows it has to hiss and boo and cheer – perhaps placards might help them along, on the reverse of the “Please turn off your mobile phones” signs?

There is a great deal of spoken dialogue, but on the opening night at Bath the orchestra was often so loud that the words were lost, and you really can’t have singers shouting their lines … hell for the voices!

As always, Opera della Luna’s fine singers are also consummate comic actors, and the seven on stage for Sweeney Todd threw themselves into the conventions of Victorian melodrama with gusto, complete with extravagant gestures, knowing looks to the audience, colourful costumes and incredible speed at changing them. Nick Dwyer makes a gruesomely dashing barber, with Madeline Robinson as the lovely heroine.

But it is Paul Featherstone’s cringingly hypocritical Rev Lupin, Lynsey Docherty’s achingly funny Cecily and Caroline Kennedy’s Tobias and Mrs Oakley who bring the show to life. Paul Featherstone also plays Col Jefferies and Jonas Fogg, with Lynsey Docherty doubling as Mrs Lovett (a much smaller role than in the Sondheim.) Peter van Hulle is the heroic Thornhill, a jeweller, a French chef and a robber, and Will Kenning is Ben the Beefeater and three more tall characters.

By the denouement, all the characters are on stage (well, Mrs L has done a runner) to bid farewell and the audience is at full whoop, cheer, boo, hiss and halloo. If you are reading this, and have a ticket for later in the week, be brave and start the noise early. You’ll be glad you did.

GP-W

Photographs by NathanPhoto