Sunday, June 8 at 2 PM at the Newton Free Library: ELECTIONS! - and THE G & S STORY! Come take over the organization. Up for replacement this year are:
Fortunately, we do have a candidate - two, in fact, who hope to rule As One Individual - for the position of Program Chair. Give Steve Levine and Mark Woodruff a fight! - or come to oust Dick, Carl, Don or Shel if you can (they have all expressed willingness to remain in their positions if need be, but everyone would do better for a rest!). Or oust the Bray Editor: This is a non-elected post, but perhaps it's time for someone new to take over this exciting, sensitive and highly influential position. (We daily expect death threats as a result of Our editorial policies.) Pitch yourself to the new president, or form a slate to oppose the current team, and start writing up your revolutionary copy.
And then sit back and enjoy that videotape of which we were deprived by Fate back in January. Our current President (perhaps in a bid for re-election) has purchased a copy, which will be donated to the Colson Memorial Archive at the Newton Library after the meeting. THE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN STORY is a 1953 film classic, a fine biography of the great team, starring Robert Morley, Peter Finch, Maurice Evans, Wilfred Hyde White, and Dinah Sheridan. The film includes many staged scenes from the operas performed by members of the old D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including Thomas Round and Martyn Green. Music is by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
HOW TO GET THERE: The Newton Free Library is located at 330 Homer Street, Newton Center, across from City Hall. (There's a nice big parking lot belonging to the library!) From Route 128, take Rt. 30 (Commonwealth Ave) to the central Newton intersection of Commonwealth Ave., Lowell St., North St. and Homer, which angles off Comm. Ave to the right. By T: Steve Levine tells Us: Since it's Sunday, the #59 bus that runs directly to the library won't be in service. You'd have to take the Green Line D-Riverside Car to Newton Highlands, exit the station at Walnut Street, turn right and walk up Walnut Street a little over one mile. The library will be on your left. [It's worth calling a board member (see the masthead for numbers) if you'd like a ride.]
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YEOMEN RETROSPECTIVE AT SUDBURY: Those who spent a lovely May 18 Sunday Spring day indoors at Sudbury's United Methodist Church were amply rewarded for their sacrifice. The Sudbury Savoyards' retrospective of this year's YEOMEN was everything this traditional NEGASS event ought to be. Never mind that a couple of the leads could not attend; the substitutions and improvisations contrived by Director Bruce Miller and company to cover the situation were more than satisfactory.
If you have read Don Smith's review of the regular performance in April's Bray, you can -- making reasonable allowances -- simply apply the glowing aura he described to this concert version (no dialogue, no staging). Did I say "no staging"? Not entirely so; Peter Stark and Kathy Lague as Jack Point and Elsie gave us generous portions of their acting and "business" from the full production, and what a treat it was! And Amy Allen's Phoebe did likewise with her seduction-of-Shadbolt scene, well-supported by Eric Ruben, normally Lieutenant of the Tower but pressed into service this day as a most susceptible Lord High Substitute for Wilfred. (Traditionalist though I am, I rejoice that the dead hand of Victorian public sensibilities did not inhibit Ms. Allen's Carmenesque conception of this scene.)
Add to the list of too much happiness Bruce Miller's one-man-band performance: Even as his baton kept the proceedings moving as they should, he sang a wicked baritone filling in as Shadbolt and Sergeant Meryll, suggesting that the world of performance lost something when he ascended to the executive realm. [Inside information: Bruce's fine bass/baritone performance was all the more remarkable given that he is, in real life, a tenor! - mlc] And speaking of one-man bands -- two, actually -- the Orchestra of Eric Schwartz on piano and new NEGASS member Stephen Malionek on clarinet excelled as surrogate for a full orchestra pit. As for others unnamed here, read Don Smith's review again. All were as good this second time around.
I understand that this annual retrospective for NEGASS is ordained in Sudbury's bylaws. If that be so, Oh Heaven's Blessing on Their Solicitor.
-- GAMMA, REX
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| Tentative Meeting Schedule, 1997: | |
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| June 8 | Election meeting at the Newton Library, featuring The Gilbert & Sullivan Story video. |
| August 24 | Annual picnic meeting/OSLO trip (IDA) |
Next Bray-Stuffing: Sunday, August 10 at 3 PM in Our slightly beautified home: 111 Fairmont St., Arlington. Call Us at (617) 646-9115,or send e-mail to mlcar@mit.edu, for directions. -- mlc
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G&S FOR YOUNG READERS. Ted Koban asked last month about G&S coloring books - and several alert NEGASSers reminded Us that the desired books were created by the San Francisco performing group, the Lamplighters. As their Web site (http://www.lamplighters.org) exclaims:
Exclusive! Each coloring book contains one story with ten pages of characters to color, featuring our own show designs. Currently available are the first six in our series. Printed on heavy paper, suitable for crayon, marker, even watercolors!
Coloring books currently available include:
And - due in September '97: YEOMEN
Books are available from:
The Lamplighters
630 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Phone: (415) 227-4797
FAX: (415) 227-0332
E-mail: lampliters@aol.com
Each book - $5.00 plus $2.00 each for postage. (Check or credit card)
G&S RECORDING SOURCES
In response to Ted Koban's request for a source of G&S recordings containing dialog, Frank Behrens sent Us an article he published in Art Times in July '96, from which We excerpt this list:
Frank's article critiqued the different CD performances, and pointed out at the end that more CDs were appearing in shops every day. In a future Bray We hope to have room for Frank's critiques.
\\ AND MORE CD INFO: \\
To add to our enjoyment, Wallace Mason sent photocopies taken from the Penguin Guide to Compact Disks and Cassettes - New Edition, and from something else he identifies only as "The Canadian Catalog" It should be easy to find the Penguin volume - any music store would probably have it as a reference at its sales desk! As for the "Canadian Catalog" - each page footer lists a title (CD Plus Compact Disk Catalogue), a Web site (http://www.cd-plus.com), and a toll-free order number (1-800-263-4020). So happy CD hunting!
Wallace wrote recently concerning Frank Behrens' articles about G&S recordings, which, he felt, "implied that the old "20's and 30's" versions of the operas were no longer available... a few years ago I bought, from a catalog (whose, I know not) two CDs, advertised as reissues of the "20's and 30's" versions. This they did turn out to be. One was IOLANTHE in the '29 version, with Baker, Fancourt, Oldham, Briercliffe, et al. The other was GONDOLIERS, the '27 version, with Lytton, Hosking, Sheffield, Lewis et al. They were each one CD, almost complete... The sound was not the greatest and there are some pops, clicks and scratches, but even so, it was good to have them available." (He further guesses, "these may have been transferred from the Arabesques, as the Arabesques that I have are not examples of cleaned-up transfers. There are, as on these, clicks, pops and scratches.")
After reading Frank's article, Wally wrote to the distributor,
Intersound Inc., 11810 Wills Road, PO Box 1724, Roswell, GA 30077, 1-800-727-4960 to see if these or any other releases were available. He learned that PINAFORE (CD # 598), PIRATES (CD # 597), MIKADO (CD # 3416), YEOMEN (CD # 3417, IOLANTHE (CD # 3451) and GONDOLIERS (CD # 34452) were all released by Intersound in 1992 and '93, and that there might still be a few in record store remainder bins or in their stockroom, but that the company was not pushing them. When Wally asked if a slew of orders set off by this article might result in new releases, he was told that that might in fact happen. So pull out your pens and paper, and write to Intersound requesting a CD!&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Wally Mason also urged Us to puff two recent publications, available from the Books on Music Catalogue of the Oxford U. Press:
The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan -- Ed. by Ian Bradley, 1996 1216pp. Line drawings. Item #230 813503x $32.00 + S&H
W. S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian & His Theater by Jane Steadman, 1996 416 pp. 16 pp bxw plates. Item # 287 816174-3 $24.00 + S&H
Order from the Order Dept, Oxford U Press, 2001 Evans Rd., Cary, NC 27513. [The Steadman book has generated some controversy in the UMGASS newsletter. Since the much-respected Harry Benford admires it, We suspect that it is worth reading. And We believe we saw the Bradley book at the Harvard bookstore; to save S+H charges, it's worth checking your local bookstore! -- mlc]
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PATIENCE at MITG&SP: I am perennially amazed and delighted with how MITG&SP seems able to extract the utmost out of its resources. This April's production of PATIENCE was no exception. The production was perhaps the most "conventional" PATIENCE I have ever seen-but perfectly directed! Andrew Robertson, the Director, has ample reason to be proud of his work. Andrew states that he patterned his production on a version by the Fairfield County Student Operetta Workshop during the summer of 1981 in which he played Bunthorne. That must have been quite a show!
Even the two minor rewrites were brilliant: The Duke asks the Major whether he is fond of coffee, not toffee. This analogy is equally appropriate, and rather easier to grasp, particularly for an American audience. Even better, Jane's response to Bunthorne's "Yes, and a pretty damozel you are!" is "No, not pretty. . . Different." -- a decided improve-ment upon the original, "Massive."!!! (And you imagine we G&S fanatics might miss the minutest deviation from the original text. Ha! Not likely!).
The unmistakable stand-out in the show was Debra Hanggeli as Lady Jane. Her voice was beautiful throughout its range, but particularly in her warm, vibrant lower register. And can Debra act!!! No wonder the Duke selects Lady Jane to be his bride! In particular, Lady Jane interpreted "Sad is that Woman's Lot" ("Silvered is the Raven Hair") beautifully. And this was the only production I have seen in which "So Go to Him and Say to Him" was a highlight of the show, not a low point. Debra's masterful interpretation of both song and dialogue inexorably crafted the sympathetic Lady Jane that renders the resolution to Patience utterly fitting and just.
Bridget Copley was the perfect Patience-but not the Patience I expected. Never mind, the fault is mine, not hers. I had come to expect a Patience modeled after Rose Maybud of RUDDIGORE. This Patience looked and acted with such incredible adolescent, ingenuous naiveté that-perhaps for the first time-Gilbert's libretto becomes plausible. Bridget's powerful, pure soprano voice was magnificent, both in her solo numbers and soaring in her ensembles. "Love is a Plaintive Song" was exquisite. On Thursday evening, Patience's makeup was much too heavy for MIT's small Sala de Puerto Rico, but on Saturday evening, her makeup was much improved.
Mike Bromberg, as Reginald Bunthorne, is unmistakably an actor who can sing (albeit only a little), not a singer who can act. His acting was perfect for the role of Bunthorne-affected almost (but not quite) to the point of caricature and slapstick. Bunthorne's "Finish-ed" was perceptively intense and consummately utter! Throughout the show, Mike demonstrated how superb acting can surmount minor or major vocal shortcomings and yield a fully satisfying portrayal. His pompous reading of "Oh, Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!" was grandiloquent, masterful, and hilarious. His "Am I Alone and Unobserved?" ("If you're Anxious for to Shine") was everything one could hope for.
The long, l…o…n…g…, l…..o…..n…..g….. freeze at the conclusion of Bunthorne's poem "Oh, Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!" was precious. Teetering on the brink of slapstick-but not beyond. Likewise was Lady Jane's cymbals in Bunthorne's ears during "Let the Merry Cymbals Sound." With less than twelve inches between the crashing cymbals and Mike Bromberg's ears, his winces were either real, or else convincingly realistic.
Craig Hanson, as Archibald Grosvenor, sings supremely well, but his acting paled in comparison with that of Mike Bromberg. Craig shone brilliantly in the dialogue and song "A Magnet Hung in a Hardware Shop."
Nathan Handspicker was the perfect Colonel, both visually and vocally bombastic. His "If You Want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery" was as swaggeringly delivered as any I've seen. The Chorus of Dragoon Guards supported him superbly, both visually and vocally.
Unfortunately, Chuang-Yien Jonathan Lee was a disappointment as the Duke. His acting was adequate or better, but his weak high notes (A-flat) in "Your Maiden Hearts, Ah, Do Not Steel" detracted from an otherwise competent performance.
Natasha Olchanski, as Lady Saphir, has a lovely tone, particularly in her verse of "In a Doleful Train," "Though So Excellently Wise."
The Male Chorus of Dragoon Guards was well coached and rehearsed. The entrance and singing of "The Soldiers of Our Queen" was particularly well choreographed by Brenda Winston, the Choreographer. During "If You Want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery," the Dragoon Guards pantomime the behavior of the personalities named by the Colonel. Superbly done; a vast improvement over the static staging which I've seen in previous productions. During the following number, "In a Doleful Train," upon the entrance of Bunthorne, the Love-Struck Ladies instantly lapse into a trance-like state--totally oblivious to the desperate attentions of the rejected Dragoon Guards-masterful staging. Furthermore, this apt staging is reprised later, when the Love-Sick Maidens ficklely transfer their attentions to Archibald Grosvenor. The pixie, Teresa DiGenova, the shortest of the Dragoon Guards, particularly caught my eye.
Once again, Tova Brown-now a mature sixteen-crowned the Ladies' Chorus. Tova exudes youthful charm, energy, enthusiasm, and mischievousness. For example, Tova playfully steals Archibald's book of poems and sticks out her tongue as she flees. During Act II, I could not believe the totally-convincing, vacuous look of all Twenty Love-Sick Maidens as they follow Angela's instruction, "Let us think of nothing at all."
On the negative side, the partially-a capella sextet-plus-chorus of the Act I Finale, "I Hear the Soft Note of the Echoing Voice" was marred during both performances which I saw. On Thursday evening, one male voice wandered decidedly off-pitch. On Saturday evening, two voices-one male, one female-were distinctly off-pitch. Lastly, the trio "It's Clear that Mediaeval Art" needs rework. Gilbert's stage directions call for the three Dragoon Officers to "walk in stiff, constrained, and angular attitudes-a grotesque exaggeration of the attitudes adopted by Bunthorne and the young Ladies in Act I." The Officers failed to follow these explicit instructions. Perhaps a perusal of "Sir Edward Burne-Jones" by Russell Ash might have helped guide their behavior. "The Golden Stairs," a huge 2.77 meter by 1.17 meter painting (1872-1880), "was said to have become an important inspiration for W. S. Gilbert in writing his operetta Patience, first produced in 1881, which satirized the Aesthetic Movement."
Lastly, the orchestra included several noteworthy performances. Once again, The French horns (Susanna Mierau and Chris Stratton) were magnificent, particularly during the "Ah, Miserie!"s of "Twenty Love-Sick Maidens We." Likewise, the clarinet soloist, Steve Malionek, was excellent. I discovered that he is the same instrumentalist who performed for the Sudbury Savoyard's March production of YEOMEN.
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PIRATES at Theater at Old South. I saw a performance of PIRATES with many enjoyable aspects, by TAOS, a group which had not previously come to my attention (except for notices in the Trumpet Bray). The acronym was for Theatre at Old South (the Old South Church in Copley Square), a subcommittee of the Old South Church's Committee for Religion and the Arts.
The price was slightly high for community theater, $15, and I wondered whether there might be a professional orchestra behind the partition. By the end of the overture, I had been forced to discard that notion, but I assumed the price was necessitated by the small audience space, probably fewer than a hundred seats.
The set was simple but effective, a skillfully-painted backdrop and risers. The pirates entered in effective and colorful costumes and sang their opening chorus well, although they were sloppy on the cutoffs. (Actually, one pirate had entered earlier, faced the orchestra, drew his sword, and then, thinking better of it, drew a wand instead, and proceeded to conduct. I was disappointed to learn that this "bit" had only been added for the matinee.)
The Pirate King, Roger Anderson, was outstanding, both in voice and acting, and I was not surprised to read in the program of his professional experience. Ruth, the well-known local veteran Ronnie Marshak, was very good as expected. Frederic had a pleasing voice, but a bit less pleasing at the top of his range, and by the third performance still had not mastered his dialogue lines. Plausibly one-and-twenty, he made an attractive couple with Mabel, the experienced Kathryn Phillips.
The women's chorus charmed, and blended well, although one chorister with long dark hair and a flowery dress was consistently blocked from view, despite her graceful attempts to move to a position from which she would not be blocked. (Disclaimer: the victim was somebody I knew, and had come to see. I was disappointed to see her moves countered by someone who seemed to be intent on upstaging her.) Kate, Kristan Peck, was sweet and endearing. Edith was dramatic, but screeched slightly, in belting out her "Go and do your best endeavor" number. The Major-General, Don Hovey, was extremely traditional and extremely good. Everybody's diction was clear throughout, even in the Major-General's high-speed encore.
Staging was fairly traditional, and I was pleased that the police were relatively restrained in their capers. I noticed more than one place in which pauses that I had not expected contributed effectively. In the Paradox trio, for example, after the Pirate King's "Some person in authority," Ruth held out her hand in query, and the PK thought slightly and shrugged before continuing "I don't know who". On the other hand, I wished the director had been slightly less cavalier about the police hiding from the pirates. They barely made even a pretense of hiding, and even that was only momentary. Oh, well, nothing was too outrageous in the director's choices, and I left hoping that TAOS will return to the Savoy Operas frequently.
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UTOPIA (un)LIMITED in North Carolina: The Durham (N.C.) Savoyards' production of Utopia (Un)Limited was well worth the cost of a trip down from Massachusetts at twice the price! My old group, with whom I had performed a number of shows ...have a solid reputation for their professional attitude both in musical and production values, and I was expecting an entertaining afternoon. But the Savoyards outdid themselves with this sparkling adaptation of one of the least-often performed operettas in the G&S canon. This was a rousing and stirring new version which ... should become a solid part of the post-copyright G&S repertory.
To begin with, the spectacle was just that -- Doris Schneider, the Set Designer, gave us a lavish South Sea setting for Act One, complete with a Samoan royal hut, a tiki god, a volcano, palm trees swaying, and plenty of room for pretty girls in bright sarongs to dance. For Act II we saw a silvery-white gazebo on cliffs overlooking the sea, under a glittering night sky with a full, romantic moon.
The music was superb, as always, but this time the direction, under the baton of maestro Benjamin Keaton, was particularly articulate, well-paced, and powerful. The overture was staged with many comic touches, including a visit by a team of National Geographic photographers. Even Gauguin was there, working at his easel, painting a beautiful maid in a bright red dress.
The overture flowed directly into the first musical number, which, in turn flowed into the expository ballad "From yacht that lay in yonder bay", from the original sketch for the opera. Here we saw an entire new scene, with Keaton's setting of Gilbert's lyrics that Sullivan never set. The scene, given to Calynx (Michael Gray), provides a much-needed and logical (in a Gilbertian sense) reason for King Paramont to learn British social systems and customs, (which is, to be able to better them at it). Mr. Keaton also composed a Utopian national anthem, as part of the new scene, and its fervor and enthusiasm cleverly sets up everything that follows directly, including the wonderful performances of Scaphio (Alan Riley Jones) and Phantis (Richard Diderikson). In any other company's production, these two master performers would have stolen the entire show with their fast and furious timing and impeccable comic characterization. But the other leads in this large cast were also up to their jobs.
Tarara (Jim Cox) was a thoroughly despicable meddler; Lady Sophy (Olive McKrell) was played with aloof and commanding charm; Princess Zara (Kathy Dittman) was a beautiful and enthusiastic remodeller of paradise; Arthur (or was it William?) Fitzbattleaxe (Erick Keil) was a handsome and obsessively neat romantic hero; and King Paramont (Joseph Purvis), who came complete with full and authentic Maori war paint on, even while dressed in Act II as a British Field Marshall, was imposingly handsome and entirely believable as the show's second romantic lead.
Adapter/director Randolph Umberger kept the tempo flying and gave the actors and chorus hundreds of inventive and comic pieces of business. His choreography for the small numbers was wonderful and choreographer Kathy Starks' dances gave additional spectacle to the evening. The chorus in a Durham Savoyard show never simply stands in a line and sings -- they clump, they move, they react, they dance -- I know full well the hours and activity involved in every number.
The two princesses (Tiffany Hampton and Gayle Robinson) were pert and charmingly "English", and especially winning in their second act numbers. Lady Sophy, whose Act Two aria "When but a maid" provides such a surprising insight into her character, sang with a rich and controlled, yet commanding, voice. King Paramont's exceptional vocal and acting performance reminded me of another famous oriental monarch who fell in love with an English lady. May Paramont have inspired Hammerstein?
There were several other wonderful touches to the show, including the introduction of a G&S ballet in place of the usual tedious court entrance in Act I. Here the dancers were in costumes from other G&S operas, except for UTOPIA and GRAND DUKE. Several new flowers of progress were introduced in place of the originals, and they appeared in the finale of Act One as if they were part of a traveling circus act. There was also a second verse written for "Eagle High", which came as quite a surprise to me since it is a favorite of mine and I have been singing it for over ten years in small G&S ensembles. Fifty a-capella voices on stage in the historic Carolina Theater provided, for me, the emotional peak of the evening.
In addition to all the above, the "English girl," song in Act Two was turned into a wonderful duet between Sir Bailey Barre (Larry Broadright) and Mr. Rhodesbury (Patrick Kenan), and the final dialogue scene revolved around a new flower of progress, Mr. Vimpany (Alan Hamm), providing a comic denouement to the plot that was far more believable and satisfying than the original.
... According to Umberger, approximately fifty percent of the lyrics were changed and about seventy percent of the dialogue was altered or completely rewritten. And while new music has been added, not one note of Sullivan's has been changed from the score. With regard to the new scenes, even the most devoted G&S fans will be hard pressed to differentiate where Gilbert left off and where Umberger took over, or where Sullivan ended and Keaton began. As it stands, the twelfth of the thirteen extant G&S operas has proved to be the most ignored and underproduced in the canon except, perhaps, for their last collaboration, GRAND DUKE. ... Only one revival of the opera was ever attempted by the D'Oyly Carte Company, and that for only five nights in 1975. Although Keaton and Umberger have profound respect for the genius of Gilbert and Sullivan, they were both of the opinion that it is better to revise and give new life to a potentially rewarding work than to allow its bones to molder in a museum of theatrical curiosities.
The evening ended with a thunderous curtain-call and a reprise of the new Utopian National Anthem, after which Benjamin Keaton was ... declared the Durham Savoyard's first and only Official Maestro. Under his direction this group has performed the entire G&S canon as well as Mr. Keaton's four-movement symphony for orchestra and chorus, Places Please! A Savoyard Symphony. ... he [then] led all assembled in his own dynamics of "Hail Poetry" to conclude a truly memorable evening. (Those of you who were present for the first Great G&S Sing-out in Maryland in 1992 will remember Ben concluding that occasion in the same fashion in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Why Sullivan ever began the piece forte is beyond me . . . try starting it double piano, have a crescendo starting at the first "Hail" lead to piano for "flowing font", crescendo again at the second "hail", and crescendo molto at the third to double forte by "-mol-" with a crisp cutoff from the final, sustained D major chord. The electricity present in the split-second silence following that cut could power Arlington for a week.
... Many [present] declared [UTOPIA] now among their favorites, and one enthusiast, who has attended the group's past six productions, declared it better than MIKADO and GONDOLIERS. This is not faint praise for a show usually listed near the very bottom. Hopefully the "Durham version" will soon change the minds of others as well and will do much to increase respect for the beauty and invention of its score.
I understand that a video of the performance will be available by the end of May and the libretto will also be available soon. If you want a real treat, you can contact the Durham Savoyards, Ltd. about ordering copies of both at: 120 Morris Street, Durham, NC 27701, or contact the on-line Secretary, Charlie Register, at charlie@duke.edu.
--- JIM PARMENTIER
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Dave Kay passed the word: The Stow Festival Chorus performed an all-G&S concert featuring madrigals, part songs and glees for the Stow Community Spring Concert on Sunday, 5/18, while the rest of Us were attending the NEGASS meeting. Did anyone catch it? Review, anyone?
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| Newsletters and booking forms for this year's Festival are available
from:
Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, P.O. Box 59285, Philadelphia, PA 19102-9285. Phone and FAX: 215-629-0672 Also available are various souvenirs - e.g.: the video of The G&S Story is their catalog number V05. $30 plus $2.50 postage. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ |
The Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players are seeking stage and music directors for their fall production of MIKADO. The show will be performed on Dec. 4, 5, 6, 12, 13 at 8 PM and Dec. 6, 7, 12 at 2 PM in the Agassiz theatre in Radcliffe Yard. For more info, reach them via tmoore@fas.harvard.edu, or call 617-496-4747.
MITG&SP will hold interviews for Producer, Director and Music Director for their fall show, RUDDIGORE, on June 9-22. For an interview or more info., call 253-0190, or email savoyards-request@mit.edu. Auditions will be in early Sept., with performances on Nov. 14-16, 21-22. PIRATES is planned as their April '98 show, and a production of TRIAL may be produced in January. There's also talk of a nascent Wellesley G&SS - more news as it breaks!
The North Shore Light Opera Company will hold auditions for IDA Monday, June 2, 6-10 pm and Tuesday, June 3 6-10 pm (for callbacks and those who can't attend Monday's session). Prepare a song or aria in English, preferably G&S, and a one-minute comic monologue (this is for everyone, including those who are trying out for chorus) Directors are Steve MacDonald and Brian Twomey. Performances will be in Newburyport, August 7-10 and 14-17. Call Melody at 617-495-4829 (9 am-5 pm) or 617-524-4386 (eve.) for more info.
The Sudbury Savoyards will be interviewing directors for their spring '98 productions, PINAFORE and TRIAL, on the evenings of June 9 and 10. Call their new Chairman, Eric Rubin, at (508) 650-4215 to schedule an interview.
SLOC's next show will be The Most Happy Fella, by Frank Loesser. Call (508) 371-7562 for more info.
Visitors to Illinois may want to catch the Light Opera Works production of PINAFORE May 31-June 8. Call (847) 869-6300 for more info.
Note: The Foxborough Regional Center for the Performing Arts' production of PATIENCE has been postponed to 1998. Patience...
Fairfield County Student Operetta Workshop plans PINAFORE in July - more news as it breaks!
OSLO (The Ocean State Light Opera of Rhode Island) plans MIKADO for 6/19-22, 27-28 & 7/3, 5 & 6; and IDA for 8/21-24, 29-30 & 9/7. (2 PM matinees on 6/29 & 8/24; the rest are evening perfs.) Call (401) 331-6060 for tix & more info.
The Connecticut G&S Soc. plans IOLANTHE for next October - more news as it breaks!
Valley Light Opera plans Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King for November '97.
On August 29 & 30, 1998, the Victorian Lyric Opera Company of Rockville, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, DC), will host their second Sing-Out -- a marathon sing-through of every G&S operetta. The first Sing-Out, in 1992, was excellent fun - We're looking forward to the second.
--- mlc-
THE NEW ENGLAND GILBERT AND SULLIVAN SOCIETYPO Box 367, Arlington, MA 02174-0004 Send electronic contributions to our new e-mail address: negass@iname.comPresident RICHARD FREEDMAN: (617) 630-9525; e-mail: rnf@null.net Vice-President PATRICIA BREWER: (617) 323-3480 Members at Large: NEGASS membership dues are $15 and up. Please send membership inquiries to Bill Mahoney C/O the above address. The NEGASS Web Page is located at |