Here is no tragic tale of compassionate gods moved by the melodiously grieving Orpheus journeying to the Underworld to bring back his beloved wife. Our Orpheus, a music teacher in Thebes, cannot stand his wife; nor can Eurydice abide her husband's poetry and music. She is in love with an Arcadian shepherd Aristeus (Pluto in disguise). Pluto contrives to have her killed by one of the poisonous snakes Orpheus had scattered about to keep her lovers away, and thereupon happily whisks her down to Hades. Orpheus' delight at being free of Eurydice is short-lived, however, as Public Opinion, whom no popular artist can afford to offend, insists that he make a show of love for his wife by seeking her return to earth. After a fond farewell to his violin pupils, Orpheus reluctantly departs with Public Opinion.

Act II is set on Mount Olympus, where most of the gods are sleeping in clouds, to be joined by Cupid, Venus, and Mars, returning from their private affairs on the island of Cythera. All are awakened by Diana, heartbroken at not having found the peeping Acteon at her regular bathing place. Jupiter explains that, for the honor of mythology, he has changed Acteon into a stag. The other gods grumble at his rigid, tyrannical rule, and about their perpetual diet of nectar and ambrosia, but obediently depart before Mercury flies in to announce the arrival of Pluto, summoned by Jupiter for questioning as to the whereabouts of Eurydice (on whom he, too, has had his eye). Their confrontation is interrupted by a full-scale revolt of the gods, followed by a ridicule of Jupiter's many exploits of seduction through metamorphosis. At this point, Orpheus arrives and, under pressure from Public Opinion, asks that Eurydice be restored to him. Jupiter demands that Pluto comply, then decides to accompany him to Hades to make sure that his will prevails. The other gods clamor for permission to go along.

Act III takes place in the Underworld, where a bored Eurydice, neglected by Pluto, is now subject to the unwelcome attention of her guard, Pluto's personal servant John Styx, who, when alive, had been King of Bœotia. When Jupiter arrives, Eurydice is hidden, locked in her boudoir. Cupid and his Love Police help Jupiter first to find Eurydice, and then to reach her, by transforming him into a fly. Eurydice is delighted with her fly, especially when he proves to be the king of the gods, and they plot an escape to Olympus during the revelry of the party to be given in Jove's honor. After a drunken salute to Pluto, the gods proceed to the ball, where a stately minuet suddenly erupts into that wildest of bacchanals, a galop, or what we know as a cancan, as the cancan! Pluto, however, has recognized Eurydice, disguised as a bacchante, and prevents her departure, just as Orpheus and Public Opinion arrive to seek her release. Jupiter orders Orpheus not to look back at Eurydice as the two depart, then tricks him into doing so. He bestows a final blessing on the pair, by making Eurydice a bacchante in the worship of Bacchus forever. The brief masquerade has become her eternal reality.

-- Jim Ellis

Overture

Act I:

INTERMISSION (15 min)

Act II:

Entr'acte

Act III:

Women's Chorus

Joan L. Berry, Esta S. Busi, Helena Donovan, Cami Elbow, Carol Flandreau, Marese Dolan Hutchinson, Anah Klate, Karen Lewis, Elysse J. Link, Kathy Moser, Yvonne B. Nicholson, Marie Scavotto, Elaine Walker
 

Men's Chorus

Carlton Brose, Geert DeVries, Robert Firestone, Paul Flandreau, John Foster, Glen Gordon, Kurtiss Gordon, Peter Hirschman, Kevin P. Hutchinson, Ronald Kotzsch, Tom Pelletier, Joe Pistrang, Jim Walker
 

Children's Chorus

Jerusha Barnes, Thijs DeVries, Jon Foster, Sarah Kavanaugh, Elijah Miller, Matt Propert, Tatiana Scott, Patricia Toro

Bacchus               James MacRostie

COSTUME CONSTRUCTION

Diane Kelton and Elaine Walker, co-heads; Millie Allenchy, Cathy Bennett, Joan Berry, Nancy Clydesdale, Dorothy Dean, Lucy DeVries, Maureen Egan, Cami Elbow, Doris Holden, Marese Dolan Hutchinson, Karen Jordan, Phyllis Jordan, Betty King, K. C. Kozminski, Wendy Larson, Louise MacDonald, Robin MacRostie, Alice Mertz, Kathy Moser, Mary Rajkowski, Lucy Robinson, Marion Rosenau, Linda Samano, Sally Venman, Penrose Worman, Fay Zipkowitz
 

MAKE-UP

Linda Patterson, head; Gretchen Crowley, Julianna Holden, Catherine Lee, Michelle Patterson, Sarah Patterson, Shirley Perez, Kerri Wessel
 

HAIR DRESSING

Hair by Harlow
 

SET CONSTRUCTION and STAGE CREW

Bob Graham, head; Carlton Brose, Sudro Brown, Bryant Carpenter, John Foster, Matt Kimmel, Gabe McGuigan, Mark Parsons, Judi Pierce, Joe Pistrang, Marie Scavotto, Linda Tallent, Doug Taylor, Bill Venman, Jim Walker, Phil Ward
 

SET and BANNER PAINTING

Doug Taylor, head; Debra Braswell, Mimi Cary, Valerie Faith, Jen Healey, Kevin P. Hutchinson, Pamela Jones, Matt Kimmel, Elysse J. Link, Judi Pierce, Lucy Robinson
 

LIGHTING

Justin Townsend, master electrician; Geoff Lewis, Kinard Montgomery, Tim Plankey, Ben Stanton
 

PROPERTIES

Marese Dolan Hutchinson, head; John Foster, Kevin P. Hutchinson, Diane Kelton, Kathy Moser, Judy Pistrang, Trevor Robinson, Elaine Walker, Jim Walker
 

REHEARSAL ACCOMPANISTS

Diane Beck, Cathy Bennett, Marilyn Berthelette, Kenneth Forfia, David Kidwell, Kathy Moser, Cindy Moss, Gina Tager, Nina Turkington

PROGRAM

Kurtiss Gordon and Louise Krieger, co-heads; Dorothy Miller, Paul E. Peelle, Joanne Tebaldi
 

PUBLICITY

Carlton Brose, Esta Busi, Mimi Cary, Cami Elbow, Al Hudson, Louise Krieger, Elysse J. Link, Rosalie McCrae, Kathy Moser, Dick Stromgren, Susan Wiggin
 

USHER COORDINATORS

Duane Dale, head; David Aronow, Corinne Bliss, Heidi Frantz-Dale
 

SENIOR USHERS

David Aronow, Asha Awad, Nick Buckminster, Deborah Campbell, Adam Campbell-Strauss, Heather Carmichael, Molly Collins, Ben Frantz Dale, Addie Fletcher, Jenny George, Schachar Gillat, Mollie Godfrey, Kirstin Goodrich, Sarah Harrington, Jennifer Healey, Alison Hsieh, Patrick Januszewski, Sally Lawton, Diana Lemly, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Debbie Mullins, Eleanor Norton, Rob Noyes, Rick Pelletier, Nina Reck, Emily Riddle, Matthew Riddle, Caitlin Robinson, Janet Ross, Karen Ross, Diana Santiago, Courtney Scherpa, Lorianna Streciwilk, Emily Swartz, Chris Walker-Ray, Sam Wilson
 

JUNIOR USHERS

Sarah Pearl Aronow, Thomas Broderick, Dan Buckminster, Kate Campbell-Strauss, Charlotte DeVries, Chris Frantz Dale, Carl Goodrich, Virna Johnson, Elizabeth Morzuch, Emma Morzuch, Artemis D. Roehrig, Lora Swartz
 

TICKET SELLERS

Joe and Judy Pistrang, co-heads; Marion Arnold, Diane Chajes, Gretchen Jacob, Anne Kruse, Nancy Morrison, George Nichols III, Eunice Progulske, Bill Rice, Jean Schoen, Bob Schuyler, Phil Ward, Winnie Zimmerman
 

COMPANY PHOTOGRAPHY

Deborah Campbell, Marie Scavotto, Susan Wiggin
 

COMPANY COMMISSARY

Mimi Cary, head; Esta S. Busi, Elysse J. Link, Kathy Moser
 

PERFORMANCE REFRESHMENTS

Amherst Regional High School Theatre Company

Jonathan Boxer -- Mercury -- is a first-year graduate student at UMass and in his first VLO production. As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, he sang extensively with the Motet and Rockefeller Choirs. Now safely back in his home state, he is studying voice with Jon Humphrey and performing with the UMass Madrigal Singers and Opera Workshop.

Peter G. Furlong -- Orpheus -- is a Master's degree candidate at the Hartt School of Music, where he studies under Jerome Pruitt. Although this is his first VLO role, he recently appeared as Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore with Simsbury Light Opera Company, and as Giuseppe in Verdi's La Traviata with Opera North. This spring, he will perform as Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte at Hartt and as Marco in The Gondoliers at Simsbury. In addition to his stage work, Peter is active in performing music of the twentieth century. While at UMass Lowell, he premiered many works by student composers. He has been accepted into the Hartt School's prestigious Performance 20/20 program, aimed at exploring and performing all aspects of music.

Sharon Derby Gordon -- Public Opinion -- is making her first appearance with VLO this year. Sharon holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Hartt School of Music, where she majored in Piano Accompanying and Ensemble. Since graduation, she has studied voice with both Betti MacDonald and, currently, Frances Lawton. Sharon sang the roles of Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore and Lady Blanche in Princess Ida with Simsbury Light Opera Company. She has sung with Cultural Omnibus on tour in Greece, has soloed in Connecticut with the Manchester Symphony Chorale and the Waterbury Opera Theatre, and is a member of the Greater Hartford Opera Ensemble. Sharon is also in demand as a piano accompanist. She lives in Manchester, CT, with her husband Randy (a cellist), and they perform together as the Derby/Gordon Duo.

Ben Hellman -- Mars -- is a sophomore at UMass, appearing for the first time with VLO. He is a three-year veteran of the North Shore Opera Company, having portrayed Giuseppe in The Gondoliers and, most recently, Strephon in Iolanthe. In addition to G&S, Ben's credits include the Wolf/Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods, Jasper in Drood, and Matt in The Fantasticks at the Boston Center for the Arts. He is currently a theater major, working in an opera workshop and studying voice with Susan Huetteman.

Pamela Jones -- Eurydice -- sings professionally and teaches voice. Last fall, she performed a recital of Brahms lieder at Smith College, and this fall she is on the faculty of the Smith College Music Department. She holds degrees from Temple University and Indiana University, and her former roles include Lead Player in Pippin, Frasquita in Carmen, and Madame Heartmelt in The Impresario. Pamela has twice performed in the Casals Festival in San Juan, PR, and has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestre Philharmonique Sainte Trinité in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. During the past year, she was featured in an Opera Gala for the Berkshire Lyric Theater and performed in scenes from Elixir of Love, Lucia de Lammermoor, and (as Mabel) Pirates of Penzance for a concert jointly sponsored by the UMass Theater Department and the South Congregational Church of Springfield. She has been the soprano soloist for Poulenc's Gloria, Mozart's Requiem, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, and next month will make her debut with Commonwealth Opera as the soprano soloist in their performance of Handel's Messiah.

Jonathan Klate -- John Styx -- is new to VLO this year, but not to the musical stage. He has performed principal roles in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore and The Gondoliers, as well as in South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Brigadoon, Pajama Game, and Bye Bye Birdie. Locally, he has been seen but not heard in the role of Herr Silberhaus in the Pioneer Valley Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. Jonathan is an acupuncture practitioner living and practicing in Amherst, the host of a local conversational radio show, and the father of Anah who sings in the women's chorus.

Louise Mold Krieger -- Venus -- marks her 11th season with VLO this fall and also serves as Past President on the Board of Directors. She has had the pleasure of portraying several G&S heroines on the VLO stage, her favorites being Princess Zara in Utopia, Ltd., and Tessa in The Gondoliers. In addition to solo work in numerous area churches, Louise has been a featured soloist with the Hampshire Choral Society. She has also appeared with the Victory Players' dinner theater/cabaret at the Delaney House in Holyoke. Louise holds an M.A. in Music from Smith College and studies voice with Adrienne Auerswald. She is the Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs at the Smith College School for Social Work.

Elizabeth Nogueira -- Cupid -- is a senior at UMass, majoring in vocal performance and music education. She is also deeply involved with UMass' opera workshop. This is her first VLO production. Elizabeth studies with Dorothy Ornest, who has influenced her greatly over the years. Originally from Ludlow, she sends her family her love and dedicates this performance to her mom and dad.

Elizabeth Parent -- Diana -- makes her VLO debut this fall, but has extensive performance experience. She graduated from the Hartt School of Music and, while there, she performed in La Traviata and Die Fledermaus and was featured in several recital series. She also traveled the east coast with the Hartt Chamber Singers. Liz was lead singer in 1992-93 at the Coachlight Dinner Theater in Windsor, CT. She has studied with world-renowned soprano Elaine Malbin and was recently featured in a concert "Elaine Malbin and Friends" on Long Island, NY. With a minor in Business Administration from the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business, Liz is a sales representative for Madco, Inc. Her territory covers Vermont and western Massachusetts.

Lucy Robinson -- Juno -- is enjoying her sixth VLO production, including her third principal role, having sung Inez in The Gondoliers and Mrs. Partlett in The Sorcerer. She's also had leads in such shows as Company, Guys and Dolls, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with the Valley Players in Waitsfield, VT, as well as 30 seconds of fame(?) in Lee Remick's TV movie A Gift of Love. Her morning audience is her class of 3- and 4-year-olds at the Amherst Preschool at Skinner.

Matthew Roehrig -- Jupiter -- is appearing in his twelfth role with VLO. Audiences will remember him as Capt. Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, as Robin Oakapple in Ruddigore, and as Strephon in Iolanthe. Other Pioneer Valley performances have included the roles of Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and El Gallo in The Fantasticks. As an undergraduate, Matt sang with the Amherst College Glee Club. Later, he appeared with the Broadway revue group "Give My Regards." He studies voice with Susan Huetteman. Matt is a fifth grade teacher in Belchertown.

Alan Schneider -- Pluto -- first appeared with VLO last year as Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore. He is a senior at UMass, studying with Dorothy Ornest and working towards a Bachelor's degree in music and theatre. Alan's previous principal roles include Rolf Gruber in the Victory Players' production of The Sound of Music and Beadle Bamford in a UMass Theatre Guild production of Sweeney Todd.

Marion Arnold -- Choreographer -- returns for her third year with VLO. She choreographed Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore in 1991 and The Gondoliers in 1992. This year also marks Marion's 30th with the Betty Champion Academy of Dance in Westfield, during which time she has performed along the Eastern Seaboard as well as doing the choreography for such plays as Godspell, Fiddler on the Roof, and Lost & Found for St. Brigid's Church in Amherst. Marion commutes from Southwick, where she runs a tobacco farm with her husband Thomas. She is the daughter of Patricia Jasmin, who runs the Amherst Tire Center.

Nancy Clydesdale -- Producer -- has been a vital VLO member for eleven years, working backstage in many capacities in costumes, make-up, and as Associate Producer and Stage Manager for our 1987 The Mikado. She also was Producer and Stage Manager for The Sorcerer, The Pirates of Penzance, The Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondoliers, and H.M.S. Pinafore. Nancy is the Business Manager of Scandinavian Seminar.

Jim Ellis -- Translator and Stage Director -- has directed and performed in Gilbert and Sullivan since his undergraduate days at Oberlin College in the 1950s. His introduction to New England was as a member of the Oberlin College Summer Players on Cape Cod. His teaching and scholarship have focused on drama, particularly of the nineteenth century, and include an edition of W. S. Gilbert's Bab Ballads available through Harvard University Press. Over the years, Jim has directed eight productions for VLO, most recently The Yeomen of the Guard (1990) and Ruddigore (1991). He also directed the last two productions of Welcome, Yule! in Turners Falls. Last year's audiences will remember him as Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore.

Bob Graham -- Producer and Technical Director -- returns for his fourth consecutive year with VLO as technical director and third as producer. A central Michigan native, he began his theatrical career early as the production assistant to the Faculty Producer/ Director of the University of Michigan Student Players, as well as stage managing the group's Volpone and Brigadoon. Bob was also active on both sides of the stage with the Ernie Pyle Players in Tokyo while there with the U. S. Army, including playing The Monk in The Lady's Not for Burning. He is a UMass Computer Science professor.

Michael Greenebaum -- Music Director -- directed last year's production of H.M.S. Pinafore. He has been active in VLO as both music and stage director since its inception. In recent years, Michael has also conducted the Western Massachusetts Young Peoples' Philharmonia, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Chamber Players, and seven musicals at Amherst Regional High School. He received his musical training at Harvard University, where he founded the Bach Society Orchestra in 1954. At the time of his retirement in 1991, Michael had served twenty-one years as Principal of the Mark's Meadow Laboratory School in Amherst.

Al Hudson -- Producer -- has participated in most of the company's productions since the fall of 1979 as principal singer or chorus member. He has sung the roles of the Sergeant of Police and Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance, Antonio in The Gondoliers, Florian in Princess Ida, and Sir Marmaduke Poindextre in The Sorcerer. He has also appeared locally in two Menotti operas: he sang the Page in Amahl and the Night Visitors (Commonwealth Opera) and Mr. Gabinot in The Medium (Ad Hoc Opera). Al served VLO for two years as President, and this is his second year as a producer. In his spare time, he ekes out an existence as Professor of Anthropology at UMass.

K. C. Kozminski -- Costume Designer -- works as Costumer/Designer at Mount Holyoke College. She holds a B.F.A. from West Virginia University and an M.F.A. from Boston University. In the decade between her degrees, she freelanced in the Midwest, Mexico, and New York--where her favorite jobs included some soap operas and the Macy's Parade. She also ran costume shops for Hunter College and Boston College. K. C. is new to VLO this year, but her "light opera habit" has had a longer run.

Mary May -- Children's Chorus Director -- currently teaches music at Mark's Meadow School in Amherst. She is the co-founder of the Amherst All-Town Chorus, which recently participated in the Springfield Symphony's production of Carmen. Mary has studied in the Metropolitan Opera Teacher Workshops. She is a professional organist and is the Director of Music at First Church of Monson.

Kathy Moser -- Assistant Music Director -- is in her fifteenth season with VLO. She started off with a small principal role in the 1980 production of The Gondoliers and has been either a chorus member or a principal in every subsequent show. Kathy's first stint as assistant music director came in 1992, with VLO's second production of The Gondoliers. She also works on props, costumes, publicity, and a variety of other tasks for the company. Kathy teaches vocal music at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield.

Amy A. Robertson -- Lighting Designer -- is a senior theater major at UMass, concentrating in lighting design. Among her design credits are Company and Pippin for the UMass Theatre Guild and Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll for Future Reference Productions. When she graduates, Amy hopes to design in regional theater. This is her first VLO production.

Doug Taylor -- Set Designer -- is making his debut with VLO. After spending ten years in the New York metropolitan area working as a theater electrician and audiovisual technician, Doug has returned to school. He is currently studying lighting design at UMass under the University Without Walls program.

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. Although this is her first year as producer with VLO, Elaine co-founded and produced several musical shows with the St. Brigid 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.

Jacques Offenbach, whose operas and operas-bouffes seem to epitomize the exuberant boulevard society of the French Second Empire, began life neither Jacques nor French. Born in Cologne, Jacob Offenbach--son of Isaac Eberst, a Jewish cantor and musician originally from Offenbach-am-Main--came to Paris in 1833, where the great Cherubini bent the rules of the Conservatoire to accept the gifted fourteen-year-old foreign cellist. In 1850 he was named musical director of the venerable Comédie Française, but his goal was to revive a tradition of musical vaudeville, "gay, diverting, amusing stuff." Five years later, Offenbach established his own small theater, the Bouffes-Parisiens, "consecrated to open-hearted laughter, to fantasy, to light and smart melody, to bold refrains."

Orphée aux Enfers, which one is sorely tempted to translate "To Hell with Orpheus," was the first full-length production at the Bouffes-Parisiens, as well as Offenbach's first and in some ways greatest triumph. Richard Traubner describes it as "the first great operetta, the model for future operettas, whether French, English, or Austrian. Orphée is the first major tenor hero, Eurydice the first full-length soprano heroine, Cupidon the first soubrette of importance. . . .More importantly, the chorus, for the first time, became an impressive unit of the operetta, an essential part of the action rather than an echo." The plot had been sketched out by the talented young writer Ludovic Halévy as early as 1856 but, when the libretto was about half done, he was appointed general secretary to the Ministry for Algeria and felt forced to resign publicly from such a frivolous undertaking. Halévy's resignation left his colleague, Hector Crémieux, to take full credit for the words in the printed text. Only the dedication of the work to Halévy remains to suggest how important, probably predominant, his contribution must have been.

Orphée aux Enfers opened to a mixed reception on October 21, 1858, many in the audience feeling unsure how to react to this good-natured spoof of a story usually treated reverentially in the arts. Offenbach made numerous changes over the next few months, enough that by February of 1859 the critics returned to assess a revised production. One critic, Jules Janin of the Journal des Débats, hitherto kindly disposed toward Offenbach, condemned the operetta as a "profanation of holy and glorious antiquity in a spirit of irreverence that bordered on blasphemy." Only in France, and perhaps only in the Second Empire, could a critic so entirely ignore the obvious satiric targets, ranging from the close parallels between the moral laxities of Jupiter's court and those of Napoleon III's to the delightful introduction of a phrase from the disfavored Marseillaise and a passage from Gluck's renowned Orfeo ("Che farò senz' Euridice?"), and focus instead on disrespect for a religion which had been displaced by Christianity two millennia earlier. Parisians flocked to see this opera-bouffe which was so offensive. Offenbach clearly had the last laugh, for it turned out that a passage of purple prose spouted by Pluto in mock praise of Olympus was one lifted verbatim from a piece Janin had published only months before. Could the whole episode have been rigged?

Orphée ran for an astonishing 228 performances and produced profits of almost half a million francs, enough for Offenbach to get out of serious debt and even to build a home at Étretat which he named, predictably, the Villa Orphée. A benefit gala performance on April 27, 1860, was attended by the Emperor himself, who later presented the composer with a bronze and a letter thanking him for the dazzling evening. Louis Napoleon did not survive the Franco-Prussian War, but Offenbach did. In 1874, he mounted a lavish revival of Orphée aux Enfers at his newly acquired Théâtre de la Gaîté. There was an orchestra of sixty, a chorus twice that size, and an on-stage band of forty. A sixty-member corps de ballet performed a ballet of the hours and another of flies and flowers. A tribunal scene was introduced in which Pluto is tried by ancient judges, and even the dog Cerberus is called to give evidence. (For our production, we have incorporated only two features from this expanded Orphée, the opening chorus of shepherds and the children's chorus, performing in Act I as Orpheus' music pupils and in Act III as Cupid's Love Police.) It was all too much, and it marked the end of an era as well as an empire. There would be a few more successes for Offenbach, but not in the light, whimsical style of the earlier bouffes. All that was left for him was Les Contes d'Hoffmann, which he had almost finished when he died in 1880.

-- Jim Ellis

The Valley Light Opera expresses thanks to the following for helping to make this production possible: the Amherst Regional Schools' Staff for cooperation in scheduling and for the use of the high school facility, equipment, and storage space; Stamell Stringed Instruments for the violins used by Orpheus' pupils; Eric Kurtz for help in obtaining the French libretto for translation; Irene Drummond and the Jones Library Staff for space for our ticket sales; James Pistrang Computer Resources for custom ticket-management software; and a grateful twelve-month thanks to Charles F. Hoye, P.A., for assistance in corporate tax matters.

The Valley Light Opera, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. As a community group, VLO promotes broad participation and produces fine entertainment. Over the years, the Valley Light Opera 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 John Philip Sousa's El Capitan and Warren Martin's The True Story of Cinderella.

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 Cami Elbow (President), Miriam Jenkins (Vice-President), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), Melton Miller (Treasurer), and Louise Krieger (Past President). Members of the Board are Cathy Bennett, Esta Busi, Jean Eysenbach, John Foster, Kevin Hutchinson, Diane Kelton, Frances Plumer, Murray Schuman, and Elaine Walker.

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