A Video Introduction to Gilbert & Sullivan in Austin

A video profile produced by David Little of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin just as auditions begin for the grand summer production of Princess Ida, to be staged June 13 - 23, 2013:

(Click for more information about GSSA)

(Click for more information about Princess Ida)

Upcoming: Musical Rareties from The Yeomen of the Guard, Gilbert & Sullivan Society at Genesis Presbyterian Church, March 7

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proudly presents a Sunday afternoon of Gilbert & Sullivan delights as Artistic Director Ralph MacPhail, Jr. – Master of Ceremonies of the event – reveals hidden mysteries and surprises in the ingenious

The Yeomen of the Guard

Audience favorites Janette Jones, Dan Girardot, Russell Gregory, and David Fontenot will perform various selections from Yeomen – accompanied by Martha Dudgeon.

Musical selections include:

• A song cut immediately after the opening night performance in 1888, as the lovesick Head Jailer of the Tower of London reveals his broken heart – with perhaps the most sensuous lyrics in all Gilbert & Sullivan.

• One of the most famous tenor songs in G&S that Sullivan composed three times.

• The original Finale to Act I, cut to save time, that caused friction between its creators.

• The rollicking but often cut duet by Dame Carruthers & Sergeant Meryll at the end of Act II, that features one of Gilbert's favorite words – Rapture – and also includes a secret plot element.

• Hear Sergeant Meryll's lost song, cut after the opening night, in which he reflects on the passing of time and his pride in his son, the valiant Leonard, who's "come to join the Tower Warders."

This performance will preview the summer 2010 Grand Production of The Yeomen of the Guard, to be performed June 10-20. Last performed by the society in 1997, Yeomen is a richly textured show that is the closest thing to grand opera in the G&S repertoire.

Both Gilbert & Sullivan considered The Yeomen of the Guard to be their favorite collaboration. Its story is lofty and its score is magnificent, and yet it loses not one bit of the fun and frivolity that are hallmarks of G&S shows. Its hauntingly beautiful tunes, colorful pageantry, and topsy-turvy storyline have captivated audiences for well over 100 years.

Location for the March 7 musicale:
Genesis Presbyterian Church
1507 Wilshire Blvd | Google Map

FREE !
Please Bring Munchies!

See You There !
Sunday, March 7th at 3 p.m.



The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin
PO Box 684542 / Austin, Texas / 78768-4542 / 512.472.4772 / info@gilbertsullivan.org

Auditions: The Yeomen of the Guard, Gilbert & Sullivan Society, February 27 - 28

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(Click on poster for a printable .pdf version, 2.8 MB)

More information available at the website of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin

Upcoming: Love, Labour and Loss, a holiday musicale, Gilbert and Sullivan Society at Genesis Presybterian Church, December 6

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The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin proudly presents a holiday musical look at relationships.

Love Labour, and Loss

It's an evening of performances of Gilbert & Sullivan favorites along with operatic classics and Broadway musical theatre hits - all concerning love and the travails of romance.

Several selections from The Yeomen of the Guard will be performed, along with other Gilbert & Sullivan tunes from Patience and The Grand Duke. The program also includes grand opera selections by Mozart, Pablo Sorozabal, and Federico Moreno Torroba along with Broadway hits from Guys and Dolls and The Fantasticks.

The program will include performances by audience favorites from past G&S shows - Meredith Ruduski, Arthur DiBianca, Rebecca Stokinger, Andy Fleming, Ariel Rios, Katherine Wiggins and Derek Smootz. Martha Dudgeon's pianistic stylings will accompany the singers.

Genesis Presbyterian Church
1507 Wilshire Blvd Map

FREE ! Please Bring Munchies !

SEE YOU THERE!

Upcoming: Gilbert & Sullivan Society Fall Musicale, September 20

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Fall Musicale: The Soaring Soul Soirée

Sunday, September 20
7 p.m.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin presents "The Soaring Soul Soirée," an evening of popular G&S tunes imbued with traditional style, swing, and a jazzy twist.

Reminiscent of an old-time radio show, this light-hearted parody will transport your soul to a place of reverie and delight. The program will include fine sounds from local jazz group La Vie en Rose, featuring vocalist Diana VandeWater; the pianistic stylings of accompanist Martha Dudgeon; the premiere of Come to Me, a lovely chamber choral piece written by Lisa Alexander (who appeared as the Fairy Queen in our recent production of Iolanthe); and other wonderful performers from past G&S shows - Katherine Altobello, Jay Chacon, David Fontenot, June Julian, Lisa Alexander, Paul Nixon, Louis Ontko and Meredith Ruduski.

Songs performed will include selections from The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, Patience, Iolanthe, The Sorcerer, Thespis, and The Yeomen of the Guard.

Invite your friends and family to join along and please bring your favorite munchies to share. We look forward to seeing you at The Soaring Soul Soirée.

Our season-opening fall Musicale will be held at:
Harris Bell Hall in Westminster Manor
4100 Jackson Avenue

Directions to Harris Bell Hall in Westminster Manor:
From the north, take 45th Street to Bull Creek (second light east of MoPac); go south, turn right onto Jackson. From the south, exit MoPac at 35th Street, and continue north on Jackson.

Parking is available at the North Entrance.
Please enter through the Health Care Center.

Iolanthe, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, June 11 - 21

What a sensation Gilbert & Sullilvan must have been back then, the 19th century London equivalent of our Capitol Steps and Second City rolled into one! In fine satirical style, in their best known works they took on the Empire, the peerage, exotic Asia and the Royal Navy.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin in its 34th year brings us with Iolanthe their mockery of Parliament itself, pairing the pompous velvet-clad peers of the House of Lords with diaphanous fairies operating by quite a different set of social rules.

Gilbert and Sullivan provided my very first initiation into musical theatre. I was about 12 years old when my father took my brother and me to see The Mikado, all unprepared, in the distinctly unexotic setting of a high school in northern Alabama. We were enraptured by the music, the style, the color and the wit, and we have probably not recovered even yet. I took my wife, equally unexposed to G&S, to see this production of Iolanthe. I was cheered to see on her face, throughout the two acts, the same very attentive little smile that must have marked my own, way back then.

Their light opera is brainy stuff, pretty far removed from your standard American broadway musical. Recognizing that Austin's G&S society has put a lot of effort into teaching and outreach. Artistic director Ralph MacPhail Jr. and musical director Jeffrey Jones-Ragona worked the talk shows with Dianne Donovan at classical station KMFA and with John Aielli at KUT-FM. Their website includes streaming video both on the front page and on the page providing a history of the organization, with photo and video galleries reporting the last five years of productions. Since Gilbert and Sullivan is music, song and promenading-cum-dancing, that visual approach is effective.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Iolanthe Preview on KMFA, June 7, 7 p.m.

Click to view Statesman article on Iolanthe, June 5

Upcoming: Iolanthe, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, June 11 - 21

UPDATE: Review by Clare Croft on Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, June 15


From the Gilbert & Sullivan Society:



2009 Grand Production
Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin
presents

IOLANTHE
or
The Peer and the Peri

June 11 - 21
Travis High School Performing Arts Center
1211 E. Oltorf

Ticket Pricing
$25 adults, $20 students over 18 with i.d.
$8 for 18 and under.
($5 discount on adult & student tickets, $3 discount 18 and under, when purchased in advance)
(Additional discounts June 11 only, $20 adults / $15 students over 18 with i.d. / $8 for 18 and under $15 / $10 / $5 when purchased in advance).
For group sales of 10 or more, contact Allan Longacre at (512) 472-4772 or info@gilbertsullivan.org.

Iolanthe; or, the Peer and the Peri, is one of the lesser known Gilbert & Sullivan operas, but it is considered by many to combine Sullivan's finest opera compositions with another of Gilbert's nutty plots and his witty and waggish dialogue.

First performed in 1882, Iolanthe (“eye-oh-LAN-thee”) is one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s fourteen musicals, and is universally regarded as one of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s most beautiful scores - a high water mark in terms of music, wit, cleverness, and color – with incredible choruses, wonderful solos and orchestration beyond compare.

Peers, British noblemen and honorable members of Parliament, encounter Peris, lovelorn fairies from a golden glen – a collision of powerful mortals with feet of clay and immortal beings wielding magic wands. The result - havoc is wreaked in the House of Lords!

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Box and Cox Staged Reading, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, May 11

Received by e-mail, May 1:

G&S Society May Musicale

Box and Cox

Monday May 11th

7:30pm

Come see a staged reading of John Maddison Morton's 1847 hilarious farce, Box and Cox

Featuring:

Ralph MacPhail, Jr., as Mr. Box
Libby Weed as Mrs. Bouncer
Allan Longacre (stage director) as Mr. Cox

Genesis Presbyterian Church

1507 Wilshire Blvd.

Following the performance, Rafe MacPhail will explain, with musical examples, how the play was adapted by F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan from comedic drama into musical theatre as Cox and Box.

Free to members and non-members!
Please bring munchies!

Click to read May 2009 Newsletter of G&S Society of Austin (.pdf)

Click for G&S website with video discussion of upcoming production of Iolanthe