1998
Valley Light Opera
presents
or Bunthorne's Bride
| book by | music by | |
| W. S. Gilbert | Arthur Sullivan | |
Friday, November 6, 1998 . . . 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 7, 1998 . . . 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 8, 1998 . . . 2 p.m.
Friday, November 13, 1998 . . . 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 14, 1998 . . . 8 p.m.
Amherst Regional High School
Stage Director
Jim Ellis
Music Director and Conductor
Michael Greenebaum
Producers
Cami Elbow
Jacqueline Haney
Al Hudson
Elaine Walker
All the eligible young ladies--twenty in number by their own persistent count--are in love with Reginald Bunthorne, a fleshly poet, who spurns them in favor of the village milkmaid, Patience.
Enter the ladies' former sweethearts, the Thirty-fifth Dragoon Guards, under their commanders, the dashing Colonel Calverley and the stolid Major Murgatroyd, and accompanied by the flattery-wearied Duke of Dunstable.
Surreptitiously, Bunthorne admits that he is an æsthetic sham, who seeks admiration most of all. Patience confesses to the Lady Angela that in matters of love she is untaught.
Then, however, her childhood playmate, Archibald Grosvenor, an idyllic poet of utter perfection, appears and wins her love.
However, convinced by the ladies that true love must be unselfish, Patience rejects her adored Archibald and offers herself to the despised Bunthorne.
Enraged, the ladies revert romantically to their former loves, the dragoons, until in predictable ecstatic fickleness they transfer their affections to the newly discovered Grosvenor.
This prompts Bunthorne to enlist his most ardent admirer, the Lady Jane, to help rid him of his rival poet, and at the same time prompts the dragoon officers to resort to æsthetic postures to win back the maidens.
Intimidated by Bunthorne's threatened curse, Grosvenor agrees to become a commonplace young man. This enables Patience to redirect her affections to him, leaving Bunthorne in the hands of the relentless Lady Jane.
Confounded once again, when the Duke finally makes his choice of a bride, Bunthorne is left, in the midst of happily paired maidens and dragoons, with the consolation of only a tulip or lily.
Place -- A Glade outside Castle Bunthorne
Time -- Fin de Siècle*
* of or characteristic of the last part of the
19th Century, especially with reference to its artistic climate
of effete sophistication.
-- American Heritage Dictionary
Overture
Act I:
| 1. | Twenty love-sick maidens we | Maidens, Angela, and Ella |
| 2. | Still brooding on their mad infatuation! | Patience, Saphir, Angela, and Maidens |
| I cannot tell what this love may be | Patience | |
| Twenty love-sick maidens we | Maidens | |
| 3. | The soldiers of our Queen | Dragoons and Colonel |
| 4. | In a doleful train | Maidens, Ella, Angela, Saphir, Dragoons, and Bunthorne |
| Twenty love-sick maidens we | Maidens | |
| 5. | When I first put this uniform on | Colonel and Dragoons |
| 6. | Am I alone and unobserved? | Bunthorne |
| 7. | Long years ago, fourteen maybe | Patience and Angela |
| 8. | Prithee, pretty maiden | Patience and Grosvenor |
| Though to marry you would very selfish be | Patience and Grosvenor | |
| 9. | Let the merry cymbals sound | Ensemble |
Act II:
| 10. | On such eyes as maidens cherish | Maidens |
| 11. | Sad is that woman's lot | Jane |
| 12. | Turn, oh, turn in this direction | Maidens |
| 13. | A magnet hung in a hardware shop | Grosvenor and Maidens |
| 14. | Love is a plaintive song | Patience |
| 15. | So go to him and say to him | Jane and Bunthorne |
| 16. | It's clear that mediæval art | Duke, Major, and Colonel |
| 17. | If Saphir I choose to marry | Duke, Colonel, Major, Angela, and Saphir |
| 18. | When I go out of door | Bunthorne and Grosvenor |
| 19. | I'm a Waterloo House young man | Grosvenor and Maidens |
| 20. | After much debate internal | Ensemble |
Mary Annarella -- Lady Saphir -- joins our cast for her second VLO fall production. She played Isabeau in The Vagabond King last fall. Since moving to the area five years ago, she has appeared as Viney in The Miracle Worker, Lady Larken in Once Upon a Mattress, a storyteller in St. Brigid's Players' Song of Mark, and (most recently) Billie Jo Casta in Oedipus Tex in this year's VLO Spring Show. Mary thanks her husband Joe and their two young sons for love, support, and (of course) their patience.
James Brower -- Lieut. The Duke of Dunstable -- is a newcomer to VLO. Born in New Hampshire, he had a soprano role as a 10-year old in a Metropolitan Opera traveling company production of Puccini's La Bohème. More recently, he has sung with Hampshire Choral Society and studied voice with Margery Heins. He lives in Shelburne Falls.
Tamara Lou Gallant -- Lady Angela -- fell in love with community G&S in high school and college ("long years ago, fourteen maybe"). This is her second season with VLO. She has been a guest soloist at area churches and sings regularly with the University Women's Chorus. When not on stage, Tamara develops health education materials for the Channing L. Bete Co. in South Deerfield.
Heather L. Lattuca -- Lady Ella -- is appearing in her second VLO production. Locally, she has also done shows with LSSE community theater and Arena Civic Theater. This summer, she was a member of the College Light Opera on Cape Cod, where she performed in nine musicals, including Patience, Carousel, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Heather is a sophomore theater major at UMass and plans to study abroad next year. She thanks her family for everything, especially their constant love.
Alan McArdle -- Maj. Murgatroyd -- is appearing in his first VLO fall production. He sang with the VLO chorus in the last two spring shows. He has also sung in the chorus of Welcome, Yule! for more years than he can easily remember and has played a variety of small roles, usually heavily disguised, in that production. When not performing on the stage, he can often be found in the company of the Juggler Meadow Morris Men. By day, he keeps UMass well supplied with data in the Office of Institutional Research.
Steve Morgan -- Reginald Bunthorne -- has been involved with VLO since the company's third production, The Mikado, in 1977. He has been seen on stage with VLO in such roles as Roddy Doddy in the 1982 Ruddigore and Arac in the 1981 Princess Ida. Other local community theater roles include Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Emile deBecque in South Pacific, and the title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale. For the last few years, Steve has produced for VLO. He last sang the role of Bunthorne in fifth grade.
Ann Moss -- Patience -- is making her VLO debut. A fourth-year student at Hampshire College doing her Division III in vocal performance, she aspires to a solo career in opera. She is a student of Rodney Gisick and sings with the UMass Opera Workshop and the Five College Early Music Collegium, as well as her father's choir at the Congregational Church in Acton, MA. She would like to thank her parents, grandparents, Ann Kearns, Rod, and Ben for their inspiration and talents. She is especially thankful to her family for passing on their G&S genes.
Matthew Roehrig -- Archibald Grosvenor -- is appearing in his fifteenth role with VLO. Audiences will remember him as François Villon in The Vagabond King, King Hildebrand in Princess Ida, Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld, and Capt. Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore. 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 appeared with the Broadway revue group Give My Regards. Matt is a sixth grade teacher in Belchertown.
Mary Jane Schulze -- Lady Jane -- portrayed Anna Russell in "How to Write Your Own G&S Opera" at the 1998 VLO Spring Show. She played Ruth (The Pirates of Penzance), Katisha (The Mikado), and Dame Hannah (Ruddigore) in previous VLO productions. Other credits include Mother Superior in Nunsense, Mame in Mame, and Reverend Mother in The Sound of Music. She sings with a cabaret troupe called A Class Act and made her New York debut in October. Mary Jane is an elementary school music teacher, past president of the Ludlow Education Association.
Stephen Tanne -- Col. Calverley -- is appearing in his third VLO production. Originally hailing from New York City, Steve lives in Amherst with his wife Sara and son Zachary (a budding Savoyard himself). Steve sang for several years with the Echo Chorus in New York and has been a G&S fan since childhood.
Michael Greenebaum -- Music Director and Conductor -- has been with VLO since its inception in 1975. He has conducted H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, Ruddigore, Princess Ida, and Orpheus in the Underworld. He has staged Iolanthe, The Gondoliers, Princess Ida, H.M.S. Pinafore, and last year's The Vagabond King. In 1991, he retired from a joint position as Principal of Mark's Meadow School and Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts.
Jim Ellis -- Stage Director -- has directed nine previous fall productions for VLO, including his own translation of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. His recent appearances onstage with VLO include Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, King Gama in Princess Ida, and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. Elsewhere in the valley, he has played Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew, Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables, and Dr. MacFarlane in Hobson's Choice. He has directed five productions of Welcome, Yule! at the Shea Theatre, where he takes special delight in writing the mummers' play. His edition of W. S. Gilbert's comic poems, The Bab Ballads, is available from Harvard University Press.
Geoffrey Boothroyd -- Set Designer -- became involved with VLO around 1975, when his wife Shirley sang in the chorus for many years. He started by helping to paint the sets for the first production of Iolanthe and, following that, gradually became set designer, which he continued to do until he moved to Rhode Island in 1985 to teach at URI. He retired from URI two years ago and now devotes his time to running his computer software business in Rhode Island. He is flattered that VLO is recreating the set he designed for their previous production of Patience.
Cami Elbow -- Producer -- has sung in the chorus of most VLO productions since The Pirates of Penzance in 1989. Behind the scenes, she has served as usher coordinator, house manager, and president of the Board of Directors. Cami is happily unemployed after a career as a divorce mediator and, most recently, coordinator of the Triad crime prevention education program. She lives in Amherst with her husband Peter, who directs the UMass Writing Program, and is visited occasionally by Abby and Ben Elbow, former VLO ushers.
Bob Graham -- Technical Director -- returns for his eighth consecutive year with VLO as a technical director. He is a member of the Board and has also been a producer for five shows. A central Michigan native, he began his theatrical career early as the production assistant and stage manager with the University of Michigan Student Players. 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 Professor Emeritus of Computer Science.
Richard Gregory -- Costume Designer -- joins us for his thirteenth VLO production. He has designed costumes for most of VLO's shows since 1985. He also directed one of those productions (Utopia, Ltd.) and designed sets for two others (Princess Ida and The Vagabond King). Dick has been on the boards as Cupid in Thespis and the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers. He designed sets for Commonwealth Opera's Kismet and has directed and designed for ECTA and The Williston Theatre. A teacher of arts history at Williston-Northampton School, Dick has composed several operas and many choral works.
Jacqueline Haney -- Producer Emerita -- works with several local theatre groups. She is relieved to deal here only with lilies, rather than giant man-eating plants from outer space, having just finished Little Shop of Horrors with Arena Civic Theatre. She also works with Le Cabaret, which performs musical revues in Northampton and Lenox.
Al Hudson -- Coordinating Producer -- has played many parts in VLO over the past two decades: chorus member, principal (most recently Oliver in The Vagabond King), producer, and president of the Board of Directors. In real life, he is a retired Professor of Anthropology at UMass.
Lew Jordan -- Technical Director -- is working for the fourth time with VLO. He was Assistant Stage Manager two years ago for The Mikado and is presently serving as a member of the Board of Directors. Lew has been stage manager for the productions of the St. Brigid's Players in Amherst. During the day, he is a computer network specialist at UMass. He resides in Amherst with his wife Phyllis and their three children.
Janet Mankowsky -- Stage Manager -- has always loved musicals and is excited to be involved with VLO (many thanks to Steve Morgan for getting her the job). She has stage managed at Greenfield Community College, for Hampshire Shakespeare Company's Much Ado About Nothing, and for Jupiter Theater's recent production of three short plays by Chekhov and Strindberg. She works as an RN in the Adult/Pediatric unit of Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
Kinard Montgomery -- Lighting Designer -- started out on the crew for 1989's The Pirates of Penzance while still a student at ARHS, and slowly worked his way up the ladder. Outside of VLO he has acted, designed, stage managed and directed numerous productions with various educational and professional groups around western Massachusetts. He was seen in the UMass productions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Hair, and currently performs weekly in a local cabaret act. Kinard is technical director of the Northampton Center for the Arts.
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 is a member of the Board and also works on props, costumes, and a variety of other tasks for the company. Kathy co-produced VLO's twentieth anniversary show. She teaches vocal music at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield.
Linda Stark -- Make-up Designer -- is designing make-up for her fifth 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 27 years. She is the mother of four and a grandmother. She has her own cake decorating business and works as a floral designer. Linda is currently studying pastry arts at Johnson and Wales University in Providence.
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 fifth 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.
Valley Light Opera expresses thanks to the following for helping to make this production possible: the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools' staff, especially Ron Bell and Maryanna Whittemore of the Superintendent's Office, the music faculty, and the custodial staff, for their good nature, flexibility, and unstinting support in this difficult transition year; Rena Moore and the Pelham Elementary School for rehearsal space; the Town of Amherst Department of Public Works for hanging the banner; Jim MacRostie and the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center for the use of set construction space; Joe Bass for providing Lady Jane's string bass; and to Sally and Bill Venman for caring for the VLO year-round and always being there when we sought advice.
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Patience, sixth of fourteen collaborations of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, is, strictly speaking, the first Savoy Opera, having opened at the Opera Comique on April 23, 1881, then transferred on October 10 to Richard D'Oyly Carte's sumptuous new Savoy Theatre in the Strand. Soon after the move, the Savoy became the first theatre in the world to be lighted entirely by electricity, with light bulbs figuring as motifs in the souvenir programs.
The inspiration for the plot came from one of Gilbert's early poems, "The Rival Curates," in which the Rev. Clayton Hooper, famed for extreme mildness, threatens to murder the even milder Rev. Hopley Porter unless he agrees to become more worldly. With the libretto about two-thirds done, Gilbert grew uneasy about possible charges of "irreverence," so switched (reverted?) to rival poets, leaving a few clerical traces behind in such features as the rural setting, the raffle, and the effectiveness of the threatened curse.
Gilbert was also very much aware that the cult of æstheticism had just taken a flamboyant turn with the arrival in London of Oscar Wilde, just down from Oxford and causing a sartorial and epigrammatic sensation. George du Maurier, who had been spoofing the æsthetes for years in brilliant cartoons in Punch, quickly introduced a very Wildean figure to the arty circle of Mrs. Cimabue Brown, Braesnose Boniface, and the like, although it remains unclear whether du Maurier imitated Wilde or Wilde imitated the cartoon. The traditional identification of Wilde with Bunthorne and Swinburne with Grosvenor is at best an oversimplification. In size, George Grossmith, who played Bunthorne, would have been right for the diminutive Swinburne, while the substantial Rutland Barrington, cast as Grosvenor, would have been a good match for Wilde. If Bunthorne's costume resembled Wilde's dress, his monocle and white-streaked hair were the trademarks of another extravagant æsthete, Whistler, and his poetry most closely parodied Swinburne's. Grosvenor's sappy cautionary poems resemble nothing remotely æsthetic, but might qualify as a cross between Coventry Patmore and Martin Tupper, neither of them household words now, although households were exactly what those proper Victorians hoped to sanctify. The artists of the age also figured in a generalized way, with the soulful, drapery-clad women of Rossetti and Burne-Jones clearly in Gilbert's mind when he designed the ladies' costumes, using fabrics from Liberty's, the then new and trendy store on Regent Street.
Patience proved an immense success, running for 578 performances, second only to The Mikado, and proved surprisingly popular in the United States as well. Carte, always the astute businessman and concerned that Americans might not be sufficiently versed in matters æsthetical, arranged for Oscar Wilde to lecture on æstheticism around the country at the same time the opera was touring. Oscar apparently did better than the opera, as one hears in the annoyed tone of Carte's report back to England: "Patience is still playing to fair business. Wilde has given it a fresh spirit and it has simply made him. His business is enormous."
-- Jim Ellis
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, 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 Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King, Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, 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 Barbara Davis (President), Mzamo P. Mangaliso (Vice-President), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), James Walker (Treasurer), and Geert De Vries (Past President). Members of the Board are John Foster, Tamara Gallant, Glen Gordon, Bob Graham, John Jenkins, Kathy Moser, Judy Pistrang, and Stephen Tanne.
Donations to Valley Light Opera are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
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