A spirited attempt to fix a show that’s never really flown: Utopia, Limited reviewed

Utopia, Limited (1893) is a rare bird, and one that every Gilbert and Sullivan completist simply has to bag. The point of completism, of course, is to acquire an overview: if artists are truly original, everything they created should illuminate the whole. But what if a career tailed off, or ran to seed? It’s just going to be depressing, isn’t it? By the time they began their penultimate opera, Gilbert and Sullivan hadn’t collaborated for three years. In fact, they’d barely spoken. Goaded back into harness, they produced a comedy that really ought to have sparkled and yet somehow… well, put it this way: even the late D’Oyly Carte company waited until 1975 before attempting a revival.

Scottish Opera deserves only praise for this latest resuscitation effort. No dutiful completism here; this was a spirited attempt by a team of skilled professionals to fix a show that’s never really flown. And fair play to them: Bernard Shaw couldn’t praise Utopia, Limited highly enough and there are passages – some of them extensive – where both creators are demonstrably on peak form.