Gilbert and Sullivan’s first full-length operetta, The Sorcerer, was only modestly successful at its debut in 1877, never achieving the popularity of later works like The Mikado or H.M.S. Pinafore. It is rarely produced today (though it has been reinstated in the D’Oyly Carte repertory) and many G&S fans have never even heard of it.
Why on earth should this be so? The glorious production The Sorcerer received at Bard College’s Summerscape Festival this August reveals it as fully worthy to stand alongside Gilbert and Sullivan’s other confections. Notwithstanding the drubbing Bard received in the last issue of this magazine, the Summerscape Festival at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts has proved a blessing for the Hudson Valley, and the festival’s habit of presenting rarely seen works is especially welcome; along with The Sorcerer, this summer’s offerings included two remarkable one-act operas by Alexander Zemlinsky based on stories by Oscar Wilde and given great visual panache by the design team of McDermott and McGough.
Professional productions of Gilbert and Sullivan are usually mounted by directors who specialize in operetta. The Sorcerer’s Erica Schmidt, refreshingly, is no specialist: she has done a little of everything, including writing a stage adaptation of Debbie Does Dallas. A modern sensibility works well here, for Schmidt avoids the stale stage conventions that too often bring Gilbert and Sullivan’s lighter-than-air comedy crashing down to earth. The humor here even seems freshly minted, which is quite an achievement. The
