Someone, in the third act of “Les Cloches de Corneville”, remarks “What a diabolical plot!” I could not help echoing the sentiment at Saturday evening’s first night of Walmsley Operatic production of this old, but updated, French musical comedy at Walmsley School, Egerton.
One is inclined to think that rural communities lead simple lives. Not a bit of it. Not Normandy peasants anyway. Their day-to-day existence is so intermeshed with intrigue and carryings onthat it’s a wise enfant that knows his own pere before the final curtain.
This sort of thing leaves simple chaps like me wondering whether the simple life exists anywhere and whether, after all, there may not be some missing document in our own relatively straightforward existence which would prove our affinity with some long forgotten duke.
Fortunately, the Walmsley Society do not let it worry them. They have realised that what makes “Les Cloches de Corneville” so charming is the music, not the story.
Robert Planquette, who composed it, was widely popular in his day (1848-1903) and this was his best work – and the only one that has survived. Like his contemporaries Offenbach and Sullivan he knew how to conjure a good tune out of thin air and how to fit it into the mood and the tempo of the script. The result is charm.
Walmsley heroism is shared equally between the four principals Mina Hall, Stuart Hayes, Sue Daley and Bill Dixon. But tributes must be paid to some outstanding chorus singing which contributes in large measure to the success of this show.
Music is directed by Jessie Whittaker and production is by Audrey Raistrick. Costumes and scenery are well up to Walmsley’s acknowledged high standard.
