New approach
Gilbert & Sullivan Society looks to raise profile with comic opera Ruddigore
FERGUS — There was a lot of giggling and general silliness as four soloists settled in for their first rehearsal of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera, “Ruddigore” in a rural home outside Fergus.
How fitting, given the whole premise behind the famous Victorian era’s musical duo was that they did not take themselves too seriously while commenting shamelessly on the state of society. What they created was the stage version of a political cartoon with plenty of double entendre, love triangles, villains and heroes all wrapped into a ridiculous plot line.
“I’ve always loved those wonderful turns and the comedy,” said Jeff Page, vice-chair of the Waterloo Regional Gilbert & Sullivan Society, which is undergoing a revamp with a new artistic director for “Ruddigore” which will be performed Oct. 28 at Lincoln Road Chapel, in Waterloo.
“Ruddigore” also known as “The Witch’s Curse” was a perfect choice for Halloween season and hiring choral conductor Jurgen Petrenko as the new artistic director for this show means the 42year-old group is serious about raising its public profile.
“I really wanted to do this,” enthused Petrenko, a long time fan of Gilbert & Sullivan.
He had even volunteered his spacious country home for this first rehearsal of the five soloists. None are members of the Society but all sing professionally which will bring a different flavour to the music, he said.
The soloists include bass-baritone Tom Goerz, who has considerable experience singing Gilbert & Sullivan roles as well as musical theatre across Canada.
Baritone Paul Grambo is a London-based singer, vocal teacher and chorister as well as soloist with the Elora Festival Singers.
Soprano Sheila Dietrich is a frequent guest artist across Canada and in 2014 she made her debut at Carnegie Hall as a featured soloist. Along with Dietrich, tenor Chris Fischer and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Enns Modolo are frequent guest soloists in concerts across the country and all three sing with Spiritus Ensemble.
The choral roles in the production are filled by 12 Society members.
Petrenko is an organist, music adjudicator as well as co-founder and artistic director of the 100voice Toronto Classical Singers. He knew all these singers in this new show personally and chose them both for their vocal talents as well as acting and comic abilities. This is not serious musical theatre, but it does require special skills.
“I picked them because they’re very good on stage,” said Petrenko, who notes the singers must be highly animated, able to tell a story with their actions and music.
W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan collaborated on 14 musical theatre pieces between 1871 and 1896. Their more famous productions, “H.M.S. Pinafore,” “The Mikado” and “The Pirates of Penzance” are still performed but the genre doesn’t have quite the public interest it once did. The local society hopes to change all this.
“I was a huge fan in my early 20s,” said Petrenko of the light opera genre. “I’m also a Victorian (era) nut.”
These two passions made Petrenko a good candidate for the job of artistic director, though it’s not necessarily a long term gig beyond this single performance on Oct. 28. He is taking a wait-and-see attitude, focusing now on perfecting this concert.
Page, who recruited Petrenko for the job, said that despite “Ruddigore” being 130 years old, the music and the comedy is “timeless.”
“Ruddigore” debuted at the Savoy Theatre in London on Jan. 22 1887. The story takes place in Cornwall, where a group of professional bridesmaids worry that there have been no weddings in months. In order to move fate along, they plot to pair a lovely young maiden in the village with one of the many eligible bachelors, each one too shy to make the first move. Or they could find a beau for the maiden’s unmarried and unwilling aunt.
Somehow, woven into the storyline is the village’s curse stemming from a previous Baronet of Ruddigore’s persecution of witches. One of the witches laid a curse that all subsequent baronets must commit a crime every day or die in agonizing pain.
This will be a concert format rather than a full musical production and Debra Lacoste will be conducting the singers.
Page said “we’re trying this, see if it flies.”
Petrenko compares Gilbert & Sullivan to Shakespeare in terms of the stories being relevant to modern audiences.
“It’s really good material,” he said. “You take what’s there and make it come alive.”