A theatre company in a German duchy as worthless as its name (Pfennig Halbpfennig) are planning to overthrow their disagreeable Grand Duke (Rudolph) and take over the court themselves, when their leading comedian (Ludwig) accidentally reveals their plot to the Duke's private detective, who has readily eaten three of the repulsive sausage rolls the conspirators chose as their safe and secret sign. The local Notary proposes a way out of their dilemma: Ludwig and the theatre manager (Ernest Dummkopf) must fight a "statutory duel," in which cards (rather than swords or pistols) are drawn, with the loser declared legally dead and the winner taking his place and his obligations. The winner of the duel will then go to Rudolph, denounce the loser as the chief plotter and receive a ducal pardon. By happy chance, the statute is to expire the next day, so the loser will be able to come to life with a clean slate, not chargeable twice for the same offense. Ernest draws a king, but Ludwig draws an ace and seeks out the Grand Duke, whom he finds in such a distraught condition (having just read his detective's report of the planned coup) that he devises a second statutory duel which he, Ludwig, will selflessly win and so face the conspirators, while the real Duke will be safely "dead" for a day. Rudolph agrees, so he, like Ernest, becomes a legal ghost, while Ludwig and his fellow actors become Duke and courtiers.

Ludwig's first act as Grand Duke is to reinstate the dueling statute, thus placing Ernest and Rudolph in limbo for another hundred years. However, he had not counted on the sequence of wanna-be duchesses he has inherited. At the start of the opera, he is about to marry the company's soubrette (Lisa), but as Grand Duke his partner as Grand Duchess will have to be the company's leading lady, Julia, theatrical contracts being more binding than wedding ones. "Exit Lisa, weeping," the stage direction informs us. But the real Grand Duke had just asked the wealthy (and stingy) Baroness von Krakenfeldt to marry him, so she now has a prior claim on Ludwig. But there is an even priorer claim! As in all Gilbert and Sullivan operas, Rudolph had been engaged in childhood's happy hour to the infant daughter of the Prince of Monte Carlo, whose father had been an impoverished debtor restricted to his palace until he invented roulette, paid his debts, and has now brought his daughter to claim her husband.

Here's a pretty how-de-do! But the subtleties of the legal mind (Gilbert's) are equal to the emergency. The fine points of the law on statutory dueling are, wouldn't you know (and you will), tricky, so neither Ernest nor Rudolph has died at all, and Ludwig is not Grand Duke of Pfennig Anything! All of the plot's twists and turns unravel, and we come (as always) to a happy resolution.

-- Jim Ellis

Overture

Act I:

Won't it be a pretty wedding?	Chorus
Pretty Lisa, fair and tasty	Lisa and Ludwig, with chorus
By the mystic regulation	Ludwig with chorus
Were I a king in very truth	Ernest with chorus
How would I play this part?	Julia and Ernest
My goodness me! what shall I do?	Chorus
Ten minutes since I met a chap	Ludwig with chorus
Strange the views some people hold	Julia, Lisa, Ernest, Notary, and Ludwig
Now take a card and gaily sing	Julia, Lisa, Ernest, Notary, and Ludwig
The good Grand Duke	Chamberlains
A pattern to professors of monarchical autonomy	Grand Duke
As o'er our penny roll we sing	Baroness and Grand Duke
Come hither, all you people (Finale)	Ensemble
Oh, a monarch who boasts intellectual graces	Ludwig with chorus
Ah, pity me, my comrades true	Julia with chorus
Oh, listen to me, dear	Julia and Lisa, with chorus
The die is cast	Lisa with chorus
For this will be a jolly Court	Ludwig with chorus

Act II:

As before you we defile	Chorus
Your loyalty our Ducal heartstrings touches	Ludwig
At the outset I may mention	Ludwig with chorus
Now Julia, come, consider it from	Julia and Ludwig
Your highness, there's a party at the door	Chorus
With fury indescribable I burn	Baroness and Ludwig
Now away to the wedding we go	Baroness and chorus
So ends my dream	Julia
If the light of love's lingering ember	Julia and Ernest
Come, bumpers--aye, ever-so-many	Baroness and chorus
The Prince of Monte Carlo	Herald and chorus
His Highness we know not	Ludwig
We're rigged out in magnificent array	Prince and Princess of Monte Carlo, with Herald and Nobles
Dance
Take my advice--when deep in debt	Prince of Monte Carlo with chorus
Hurrah! Now away to the wedding	Ensemble
Well, you're a pretty kind of fellow	Grand Duke with chorus
Happy couples, lightly treading (Finale)	Ensemble

COSTUME CONSTRUCTION--Phyllis Jordan, Diane Kelton, Emily Rosenberg, and Elaine Walker, co-heads;

Mildred Allenchey, Catherine Bennett, Esta Busi, Rosemary Caine, Connie Cappelli, Ann Creely, Cami Elbow, Eva Franklin, Barbara Freed, Caitlin Freed, Erin Freed, Rebecca Freed, Richard Gregory, Kathleen Grover, Lorena Healy, Doris Holden, Juli Holmes, Marese Hutchinson, Marge Johnson, Karen Jordan, Cassie Julia, Wendy Larson, Connie LaPointe, Elysse Link, Louise MacDonald, Sue Manning, Alice Mertz, Rena Moore, Yvonne Nicholson, Betsy Pelz, DeAnne Riddle, Marion Rosenau, Jillian Rosenberg, Amy Schloerb, Holly Schloerb, Jennifer Smar, Lois Smith, Anne Steinhauser, Sally Venman, Beth Willard, Ursula Woods, Cathy Youngen

MAKE-UP--Linda Stark, head;

Catherine Lee, Carol Lee, Henry Peirce

HAIR DRESSING--Hair by Harlow

SET CONSTRUCTION AND PAINTING--Chris Riddle, head;

Jamieson M. Cobleigh, Bob deLisle, John Foster, Caitlin Freed, Gordon Freed, Bob Graham, Stephen Grover, Karen Jones, Lew Jordan, Elysse Link, Ken Moore, Lee Pershyn, Judi Pierce, Joe Pistrang, Matthew Riddle, Linda Stark, Dick Stromgren, Bill Venman, Jim Walker, and the Brightside crew

LIGHTING--Dean Acheson, head;

Philip diPeri, Caralyn Leavis, Ken Weinberg

PROPERTIES--Marese Dolan Hutchinson, head;

Janet Bowdan, John Foster, Erin Freed, Elysse Link, Ken Moore, Judy Pistrang, and the costume crew

PROGRAM--Kurtiss Gordon, head;

Cami Elbow, Paul Peelle, Lee Pershyn, Fred Zinn

PUBLICITY--Steve Stoia, head;

Mary Annarella, Stephen Tanne, and Town of Amherst Leisure Services

TICKETS--Laurel Kushi, head;

Pat Desmarais, Donna Roy, Maryanna Whittemore, Town of Amherst Leisure Services, Beyond Words Bookshop, Jones Library, World Eye Bookshop

BANNER PAINTING--Alycen Waltein

USHERS--Kevyn Clegg, Barbara Davis, and Abigail Howard, co-heads;

Erika Ahbel, Olivia Bass, Kevin Bernotas, Ben Brassord, Matthew Denny, Megan Devine, Charlotte DeVries, Paul DeVries, Tosin Fagade, Cooper Findley, Rebecca Freed, Krystal Glushien, Julia Griffin, Virginia Holmes, Ben Howard, Leslie Johnson, Leah Lamdin, Sally Lawton, Matt Lichtenstein, Unati Mangaliso, Blake Marcus, Michaela Moebius, Kelly Morgan, Claire Orvis, Christina Pastorello, John Pastorello, Melissa Pastorello, Jillian Petroff, Laura Piela, Anthony Prinzivalli, Julianne Riva, Jeannine Rosen, Matthew Stebbins, Zachary Tanne, John Tobiason, Ariane Tuominen, Lori Tuominen, Killian Venman, Shoshanna Weiner

COMPANY PHOTOGRAPHY

Deborah Campbell, Abigail Elbow, Gigi Kaeser, Kathy Tobiassen

GIFT SHOP

Mimi Cary, Lee Pershyn

COMMISSARY--Mimi Cary, head;

Rena Moore

OUTREACH--Kathy Moser, head;

Esta Busi, Robert deLisle, Geert deVries, Glen Gordon, Kurtiss Gordon, Elysse Link, Mzamo Mangaliso, Rena Moore, Paul Peelle, Stephen Tanne, Roy Williams

PERFORMANCE REFRESHMENTS--Amherst Regional High School Theatre Company

Mary Annarella -- Princess of Monte Carlo -- joins our cast for her fifth VLO fall production, having played Phyllis in last year's Iolanthe, Edith in 1999's The Pirates of Penzance, and Lady Saphir in 1998's Patience. She has worked with Hampshire Shakespeare Company onstage in The Tempest and A Little Mischief and offstage as last summer's Front of House Manager. Mary has appeared in several productions at the Shea Theater and can often be heard singing in the choir at the Edwards Church.

Andrew P. Banas -- Herald -- has performed with several area theater groups including Exit Seven Players, Commonwealth Opera, and the Westfield Theater Group. He recently appeared as Curley in The Country Players' production of Oklahoma! This is his second performance with Valley Light Opera; the first was as Scynthius in Princess Ida (1995).

Bob Barrett -- Ben Hashbaz -- has done summer stock and community theatre work since the '50s, from California to Mount Holyoke, but this is his first stint with VLO. An Amherst native, he currently resides in Hadley and teaches at Hopkins Academy. He is a jazz clarinetist and "etymologically maniacal."

Janet Bowdan -- Gretchen -- sang in the chorus of Commonwealth Opera's The Phantom Tollbooth. She teaches English at Western New England College in Springfield. This is her VLO debut.

Colette McGrail Cosner -- Bertha -- is new to Amherst as well as to VLO. However, she has been singing and acting, mostly at school and in community theatres, "for many years." She is a student at Amherst Regional High School.

Ann Creely -- Elsa -- is in her first role with the VLO and her first role in New England. She hails from California where she co-wrote and performed in three scripts for Mothertongue Readers Theater. She also played minor roles in Company, a musical Lysistrata, and Under Milkwood. Ann holds a BA in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz. She currently works at Head Start in Holyoke.

Laura Garner -- Julia -- returns to VLO after an 18-year hiatus. In 1982-83, she played the Plaintiff (Trial by Jury), Rose Maybud (Ruddigore), and the title role in Patience. She founded Theater on the Bay on Cape Cod, where she won a regional award for her direction of Iolanthe. Recent favorite roles include Lola in Damn Yankees and Sarah Jane Moore in Assassins. Laura is an editor with the National Marine Fisheries Service, and her first novel is being considered by a local publisher.

Dennis Gordan -- Dr. Tannhäuser -- portrayed Lord Mountararat in Iolanthe last year. Although he has sung since high school, including the Pirate King almost 40(!) years ago, he didn't become involved in community theatre until his children were in a production that also needed adults. Now his youngest has graduated from college. Dennis is the President-elect of the Hampden District Medical Society.

Glen Gordon -- Viscount Mentone -- is one of the original members of VLO and has been in every fall production but one (when he was on sabbatical). He also has helped plan and has written scripts for many of the spring shows, and regularly serves as a rehearsal accompanist. In the real world, he has been at UMass since 1964, where he currently is Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Stephen Grover -- Grand Duke Rudolph -- is appearing in his first VLO production. A native of Hartford, he has appeared in G&S lead roles with several companies in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Particular favorites include Sir Joseph, Ko-Ko, ... and Rudolph, of course. He resides in Manchester, CT, with his wife Kathleen and whichever of their five sons happens to be in town, and earns his "bread and cheese" by doing arcane but honest work with computers.

Lorena Foster Healy -- Lisa -- joined VLO in 1982. She has played various roles, including Constance in The Sorcerer, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, and Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore. Her favorite role was Phyllis in the 1986 production of Iolanthe. Lorie teaches Latin at Longmeadow High School.

Steve Morgan -- Prince of Monte Carlo -- has been involved with VLO since 1977 as performer, producer, and in a variety of other capacities. He has recently been seen on stage with VLO in such roles as The Lord Chancellor in last year's Iolanthe, Bunthorne in Patience (1998), and the Major General in Pirates (1999). He lives in Leverett with his small family of humans and dogs and, among other things, is working very hard to turn the old Amherst Cinema into a community performing arts and cinema center.

Matthew Roehrig -- Ludwig -- is appearing in his seventeenth role with VLO. Audiences will remember him as the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe, Grosvenor in Patience, François Villon in The Vagabond King, and King Hildebrand in Princess Ida. His other Pioneer Valley performances include Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and El Gallo in The Fantasticks. He also appears regularly as a recitalist. Matt is a sixth grade teacher in Belchertown.

Mary Jane Schulze -- Baroness -- is playing her tenth contralto lead for VLO in a run that began with Katisha (The Mikado) in 1977. She recently debuted her new cabaret act at Don't Tell Mama's in New York City. Other credits include her "Mother" roles in Nunsense, Sound of Music, and Bye Bye Birdie. In between, she played Miss Hannigan in Annie and Mame in Mame. Mary Jane is an elementary school music teacher in Ludlow.

Kathy Tobiassen -- Martha -- returns for her second VLO lead role, having played Fleta in Iolanthe last fall. Before coming to the Valley, she played Morgan le Fay in Camelot, Gymnasia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Mrs. Sowerberry in Oliver for the Orpheus Theatre of Oneonta, NY. Kathy is the Chemistry Department's graduate program manager at UMass and also does voice-overs professionally. She lives in Belchertown with her husband Bill Vining.

Heather C. Toelken -- Olga -- is making her VLO debut. She has performed with the Greater Westfield Choral Association and the Springfield Symphony Chorus, and she lives in Agawam.

Glenn Wall -- Ernest Dummkopf -- is making his second appearance with VLO, having played the role of Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe last year. He has been seen in community theatre productions of The Sound of Music (Capt. von Trapp), Annie Get Your Gun (Frank Butler), and Kiss Me Kate (Fred Graham/Petrucchio). He will be appearing in the Amherst Leisure Services production of The Secret Garden.

Dean Acheson -- Lighting Designer -- grew up in Chicago and worked in Detroit as an artistic director-designer-teacher. He teaches now at PVPA and Springfield College. His local directing and set design credits include Smith College, PVPA, and New Century Theatre. He runs a local business restoring and renovating old houses.

Cami Elbow -- Coordinating Producer -- returns for her fourth year as a producer. She finds ruling a theatrical company just as challenging as her previous career as a divorce mediator, but the music is a lot better and the people are in much better spirits. She lives in Amherst with her husband Peter.

Jim Ellis -- Stage Director -- has directed ten previous fall productions for VLO, including his own translation of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, and has appeared with the group in several patter roles. For Amherst Leisure Services he has directed The Music Man, Anne of Green Gables (playing Matthew Cuthbert), and Bye Bye Birdie, and is now at work on The Secret Garden. He has enjoyed directing and performing with Welcome, Yule!, the midwinter revels at the Shea Theatre, where he takes a peculiar delight in writing the mummers' play.

John Foster -- Producer -- got trapped by VLO in the 1988 spring production of The Grand Duke and has been a regular ever since. Retiring from Hampshire College seven years ago after 25 years as a Professor of Biology, he now has a new job making bows, gravestones, barrels, and divers other paraphernalia dreamed up by the stage directors. This is his third season as a producer. He's happy once again to share the stage with his daughter, Lorie Healy. John lives in Amherst with his wife Nancy.

Kate Holdsworth -- Stage Manager -- is a freshman at UMass, pursuing a major in Art History. She is originally from outside of Washington, DC, where she enjoyed four years' experience of high school theatre. Some of her favorite roles/responsibilities have included Gay Wellington in You Can't Take It With You, Constance in The Madwoman of Chaillot, make-up artist, and stage manager.

Juli E. Holmes -- Music Director -- has directed the Amherst Community Band since 1998. She joined the VLO orchestra last year, playing French horn. She also plays horn with the Pioneer Valley Symphony and the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra. Juli teaches instrumental music in School Union #38 (Conway, Deerfield, Sunderland, and Whately). She lives in Amherst with two beautiful daughters.

Peter Jessop -- Master Carpenter -- has been captivated by the theatre since his fourth grade class produced Pinocchio in 1959. He lives in Amherst with his wife and daughter, and is President of Integrity Development and Construction, Inc. This is his first VLO production.

Kathy Moser -- Assistant Music Director -- started at VLO with a small principal role in The Gondoliers in 1980. She has been in every subsequent show, primarily as a staunch member of the chorus. Kathy's first stint as Assistant Music Director came in 1992, with VLO's second production of The Gondoliers. She chairs the Outreach and Education Committee. Kathy co-produced VLO's twentieth anniversary show. She teaches vocal music at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield.

Chris Riddle -- Set Designer -- started participating in VLO two years ago as a set builder and painter and designed and helped build last year's sets for Iolanthe. He is an architect by profession, a partner in Kuhn Riddle Architects of Amherst. He loves the freedom and immediacy of set design and building, and calls this skin-deep and transitory medium "a wonderful antidote to architecture."

DeAnne Riddle -- Choreographer -- is business manager for the Preschool Enrichment Team in Springfield. She was assistant choreographer for VLO's The Mikado in 1987 and H.M.S. Pinafore in 1993. Last year she was on the set crew for Iolanthe. She takes ballet classes at Amherst Ballet Center and performed the part of Digory's mother in last year's production of The Magician's Nephew. She has choreographed 15 cantatas for the Grace Church Junior Choir.

Linda Stark -- Make-up Designer -- is designing make-up for her eighth VLO production. Linda studied fine art and received a degree in interior design at the University of Connecticut. She also studied painting in Italy and watercolor in New York, under the instruction of well-known American artists Sondra Frectleton and Jack Beal. Linda has lived in Amherst for 30 years. She is the mother of four and a grandmother. She is a trained pastry chef and runs a home business making special occasion cakes.

Peter Venman -- Producer -- has been involved, with occasional years off, as percussionist with the VLO orchestra since the VLO's first production in 1975. Last year he took over as orchestra manager; this year he added some producer's duties. Peter and his family live in Belchertown with their bulldog Violet and four cats.

Elaine Walker -- Producer -- has sung soprano in the VLO chorus for many years and served as co-head of the costume crew every year since 1988. This is Elaine's eighth year as producer with VLO, and she co-founded and produced several musical shows with the St. Brigid's Players in Amherst. She also supervises the costume shop for the Theater Program at Hampshire College. Elaine is self-employed as a dressmaker in Amherst.

"I have had rather a bad time of it," Gilbert wrote to a friend two days after The Grand Duke opened at the Savoy Theatre on 7 March 1896, "but now that the baby is born I shall soon recover. ... I'm not at all a proud Mother, & I never want to see the ugly misshapen little brat again!" If the Duke was misshapen, much that occurred during the gestation of the opera could account for it. Sullivan had found the original conception (the sketch-plot Gilbert had sent him) "as clear and bright as possible," a story about an impoverished German duke who engages a troupe of Shakespearian actors to serve as replacement courtiers in order to impress the visiting Prince of Hanau and so win the hand of the wealthy Prince's sister. A musical with this plot had been produced at the Avenue Theatre in 1889. The authors had wanted to name their piece The Grand Duke, but as that title was temporarily unavailable, they settled on The Prima Donna, which, as things turned out, might have better suited Gilbert's opus.

To this piece of conventional Ruritanian romance Gilbert intended to mate a thoroughly Gilbertian notion--the complications that would arise from having a legally dead character come to life again. He had already toyed with this in a story and a play, and it figures with Nanki-Poo's death and resurrection in The Mikado, but the immediate inspiration had come from, of all things, an editorial in the Keene (N.H.!) Evening Sentinel, written by a man with the auspicious name of Ellis--Bertram Ellis. The editorial, which Gilbert pasted into his plot book, considered the comic opera plot possibilities that would result from a criminal being electrocuted, pronounced dead, then resuscitated. To suit his 18th century setting, Gilbert substituted a variant on old-fangled dueling for new-fangled electrocution to kill off his victims, namely a "statutory duel," in which the antagonists draw playing cards instead of swords and pistols.

As work progressed, however, what was clear and bright became complex and murky. The plot of the actors becomes their plotting--to overthrow the Grand Duke for abolishing state theatres, a motive which vanished from the completed opera. Hired actors reappear, however, as supernumeraries in a sub-plot involving the impoverished Prince of Monte Carlo and his "beautiful daughter" Casilda (so named in early drafts), betrothed to the Duke in babyhood and now traveling to Germany to claim his hand and duchy. Obviously, Gilbert felt that a large dollop of The Gondoliers was needed in the new opera.

The plot was further thickened when Gilbert, annoyed that he would not have the expected service of three of his stable of popular Savoy actors to trot out--George Grossmith, Richard Temple, and, especially, Jessie Bond--decided to bring in a star, a prima donna if you will, to play one of the leading ladies in the theatre company. He chose the Hungarian countess Ilka Von Palmay, whose accent dictated that she be treated as the only English actress in this troupe of would-be Germans. Confusing? You bet! Gilbert was much taken with his countess and gave her more and more lyrics, at the expense of the other characters and the plot. Then, when the opera proved to be too long on opening night, he committed the final blunder by eliminating three numbers that gave the opera its necessarily flamboyant finish--the Baroness's drinking song, the Prince's café chantant roulette song, and the Grand Duke's "flibberty gibberty" patter song.

With the benefit of a century of hindsight, I have made different choices of what to cut and what to keep. My main goal was to stress the theatricalism--the self-conscious role playing, the posing, the imitating, the game playing--that constitutes the most distinctive and fascinating feature of the opera. I hope that my various cuts and restorations have transformed the misshapen brat into an attractive youngest offspring of Gilbert and Sullivan.

-- Jim Ellis

Valley Light Opera expresses thanks to the following for helping to make this production possible: the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools' staff, especially Maryanna Whittemore of the Superintendent's Office, the music and theater faculty, and the custodial staff, for their good nature, flexibility, and unstinting support; the Town of Amherst Department of Public Works for hanging the banner; Glenn Siegel and WMUA for public service announcements; Amherst Community Television for programming; Vera Peterson, Hampshire College, and Williston-Northampton School for costumes; Flayvors and Rao's for set pieces; Jonathan Strong for consultation; the Seattle G&S Society for restoring a full and accurate orchestration of The Grand Duke; Mansir-Holden Printing Company for donating flyer printing; Ron Bell for years of enthusiasm and support; and to Sally and Bill Venman for caring for the VLO year-round and always being there when we sought advice.

Valley Light Opera is on the World Wide Web at http://www.vlo.org/. We express our gratitude and appreciation to BerkshireNet for hosting our site. BerkshireNet (http://www.berkshire.net/) provides Internet service to Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Valley Light Opera, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. Over the years, VLO has been guided by two principles--to promote broad community participation and to produce fine entertainment. The company has produced all fourteen of the G&S operas as well as Cox and Box, The Zoo, and Sullivan's oratorio The Prodigal Son. In addition, VLO has performed Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King, Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, Warren Martin's The True Story of Cinderella, and several of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach works.

The affairs of VLO are in the hands of a Board of Directors elected by the membership at the Annual Meeting in February. Officers of the Board this year are Mzamo P. Mangaliso (President), Stephen Tanne (President Elect), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), and James Walker (Treasurer). Members of the Board are Mary Annarella, Esta Busi, Catharine Butterfield, Philip DiPeri, Glen Gordon, Caralyn Leavis, Rena Moore, Dick Stromgren, Kathy Tobiassen, and Roy Williams.

Donations to Valley Light Opera are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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