Selections from The Pirates of Penzance . . . W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

The Coloratura Soprano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Anna Russell

Serenude for devious instruments (S. 36-24-36) . . . P. D. Q. Bach (1807-1742)?

1. Shake Allegro
2. Andante Alighieri
3. Four-Voice Frugue

Two madrigals from The Triumphs of Thusnelda (S. 1601) . . . P. D. Q. Bach

The Seasonings (S. 1 1/2 tsp.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. D. Q. Bach

Oratorio for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra

"Hail, poetry!"

Chorus:

Charles Adams, Mary Annarella, Cathy Bennett, Esta Busi, Lloyd Craighill, Geert de Vries, Helena Donovan, Cami Elbow, Jim Ellis, John Foster, Tamara Gallant, Glen Gordon, Kurtiss Gordon, Margaret Green, Al Hudson, Kevin Hutchinson, Marese Hutchinson, Elysse Link, Denise Lopardo, Janet Mankowsky, Alan H. McArdle, Nancy McConnell, Ken Moore, Kathy Moser, Dick Mudgett, Scott Oury, Jean Lorelle Paul, Paul Peelle, Princy Quadros, Lucy Robinson, Dianne Smith, Liz Smith, Dick Stromgren, Stephen Tanne, Bill Tobey, Vaijrah, Elaine Walker, Jim Walker, Robin E. Williams, Roy Williams, Susan Zup

Orchestra:

Violins -- Barbara Freed, Roberta Goldman, Elaine Holdsworth, Bob McGuigan, Diana Peelle
Violas -- Nancy Hoople, Judy Hudson
Cellos -- Barbara Davis, Janet O'Rourke, Louise Pressman
Bass -- Lynn Lovell
Harmonium -- Glen Gordon
Flutes, Slide whistles -- Susan Dunbar, Patricia Devine
Oboe, Duck call -- Katherine Hudson
Clarinets, Kazoos -- Miriam Jenkins, Jim Henle
Bassoon -- George Howard
Trumpets -- Sheldon Ross, John Jenkins
French horn, Shower hose -- Jim Chapman
French horn, Windbreakers -- Peggy Chapman
Trombone, Tromboon -- Ben Smar
Percussion-- Zachary Smith

Staff:

Rehearsal accompanists -- Cathy Bennett, Glen Gordon
Chorus preparation -- Kathy Moser
Maker of devious instruments -- Trevor Robinson
Program -- Kurtiss Gordon
Videotaping -- Ken Walker

The idea of a spring show goes back to the early years of the Valley Light Opera, when we thought it would be a good idea to have entertainment at the Annual Meeting. The spring shows give us a chance to explore different music or to try something out informally before putting it into full-scale fall production. Once we wanted to explore "lost" music and did a whole concert of numbers that had been cut from G&S operas. Then occasionally we want to do something just for fun--like most of tonight's program.

Next fall's 25^th anniversary VLO show will be our third production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. The first was in 1979, the second in 1989. Pirates is an audience (and performer's) favorite, with some of the best solo and choral music in the canon. Tonight we're going to give you a taste of what you'll hear next November--the overture, choruses first for the women, then for the men, and then the most famous double chorus of all. (As usual, we'll close our program with "Hail, poetry!")

The middle section of tonight's program brings more Anna Russell. Last year we introduced her with "How to write your own Gilbert and Sullivan opera." This year we're presenting her in a different format, her commentary on coloratura sopranos.

We've expanded the P. D. Q. Bach final section of the program. P. D. Q. wrote material for instruments as well as for voices, so we've programmed Serenude, one of the few of his pieces which has not been recorded. We'll follow this with the two madrigals he wrote for a never-completed tribute to the long-forgotten Thusnelda. We conclude with P. D. Q. Bach's first oratorio, The Seasonings.

P. D. Q. Bach is actually the alter ego of Prof. Peter Schickele, a contemporary composer in his own right. P. D. Q.'s purported persona is that of the last and least of the great J. S. Bach's 20-odd children. He was not only the oddest, but also the least understood, since there was so little to understand. He lived an exceptionally pointless life which is mirrored with amazing fidelity in his compositions. His creative career is divided into three periods, the Initial Plunge (marred by a characteristic incompetence), the Soused Period (occupying the longest portion and displaying wild extravagances), and the brief, final Contrition Period.

Prof. Schickele informs us that the madrigals were commissioned by an 18^th-century nobleman, Count Pointercount, as a tribute to his recently departed wife Thusnelda. The count, inspired by a practice that flourished during the Golden Age of the English madrigal, around the year 1600, wished to commemorate her with a collection of pieces by different composers to be published together under a single title. However, the only composer he could find who was willing to write in a form that had been dead for almost two hundred years (or, perhaps, was unaware of that fact) was--wouldn't you know?--P. D. Q. Bach. Thus it is that he was the sole contributor to "The Triumphs of Thusnelda." The two madrigals, Schickele No. 1601, were written during the final period of the composer's life, the Contrition Period, when P. D. Q. was trying to make amends for the previous twenty-nine years (the Soused Period) by writing in a style that seemed to him purer and more uplifting than the hybrid and downletting style of some of his earlier works, e.g., Serenude and the Gross Concerto.

The concluding piece on our program is the oratorio, The Seasonings. This oratorio was also written during the last of the composer's three creative periods--Contrition. The work was first published in Liverpool by Jonathan "Boozy" Hawkes, who had been one of P. D. Q.'s many drinking companions in Wein-am-Rhein during the Soused Period. Since the original manuscript, or ms., has never been found, and since the first published edition was already in English, with no credit given for the libretto, we can only speculate about the authorship of the text; or, of course, we can simply not think about it at all.

We all know what a kazoo is, and maybe a slide whistle, but what in heaven's name is a windbreaker? or a slide windbreaker? or a shower hose? P. D. Q. Bach apparently used what came to hand in the musically fertile 18^th century and, if it wasn't available, he invented it. But where does a late 20^th century performing group find instruments which have (some say rightly) been consigned to history's dustbin? We have for years looked to Trevor Robinson, instrument-maker and all-around mechanical and musical genius of North Amherst, for creative, ingenious solutions. Over the years Trevor has built some of the most ingenious props we've used. But these instruments(?) are not props--they work (well, sort of). Trevor is nothing if not curious. When we asked him to build tonight's instruments, we gave him what descriptions were available to us, and he came up with what you see (and hear).

Let it be clear, however, that Trevor's musical efforts are not confined wholly (or even principally) to the odd or unusual. He started his musical instrument explorations spinning bells for brass instruments on a Bridgeport lathe he had acquired many years before and which was sitting unused in his basement. From brass spinning, which led to making complete brass instruments such as natural horns and trombones, Trevor went on to explore ways of duplicating antique woodwinds including shawms, racketts, serpents, and other instruments familiar to ancient music afficionados. Building windbreakers and the shower hose were extensions of Trevor's genius. We're very grateful to Trevor. He's never come up empty before, and he certainly hasn't tonight.

Valley Light Opera, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. Among other things, this means that 1999-2000 is our silver anniversary year. Over the years, VLO has been guided by two principles--to promote broad community participation and to produce fine entertainment. In the course of its first 25 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. Last winter's VLO concert included another first, Oedipus Tex, an oratorio by the renowned(?) 18^th century compositional misfit, P. D. Q. Bach. This evening's performance continues the fun we had last year.

The affairs of VLO are in the hands of a Board of Directors elected by the membership at the Annual Meeting. Officers of the Board for the year just concluded are Barbara Davis (President), Geert de Vries (Past President), Mzamo Mangaliso (President Elect), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), and James Walker (Treasurer). Members of the Board are John Foster, Tamara Gallant, Glen Gordon, Bob Graham, John Jenkins, Lew Jordan, Kathy Moser, Judy Pistrang, and Stephen Tanne.

The Amherst-Kanegasaki Sister City Committee promotes relations between the towns of Amherst and Kanegasaki, Japan. Kanegasaki is about the same size as Amherst and is located in the northern part of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

Since the establishment of this relationship in 1989 there have been numerous exchanges between the two towns, including visits by students from both secondary schools, town officials and staff members, and other citizens and business people. This year a group of Amherst students visited Kanegasaki during the February recess, and Kanegasaki students will visit Amherst in March. Recently a representative of Kanegasaki's planning department worked in Amherst, and in return an employee with our Leisure Services department visited Kanegasaki to study their lifelong learning center.

Unfortunately, there is little public funding available in Amherst for this program. The Committee is grateful to VLO for the opportunity to raise funds for this purpose. We feel that these proceeds, along with money received from grants, will enable us to support the exchange program without the need for substantial local tax support.

Home | Who we are | Membership | Contacts | Directions | Get involved | Production history | Pictures | Newsletters | Links