RUDDIGORE or THE WITCH'S CURSE

Daniel Greenwood, Sarah Caldwell Smith, David Macaluso, Matthew Wages, Hannah Holmes,

 David Wannen and Angela Christine Smith

 We have been enjoying the fruits of New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players' labors for quite a long time but we never realized that the company has been delighting audiences for half a century. During our time in New York City we have witnessed their growth in size, professionalism, and audience impact.  Every season brings new delights with constant reminders of why HMS Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance are such enduring classics as well as fresh introductions to Gilbert and Sullivan's  lesser known work like last night's Ruddigore.

The three hours spent in their company last night flew by with nary a dull moment. Ballads, madrigals, patter songs, and choruses tumbled over one another, exhibiting Arthur Sullivan's keen sense of melody. W. H. Gilbert's lyrics are replete with clever rhymes and plays on words. Although we have often heard excerpts from Ruddigore on many a prior occasion, this is the first time we had the opportunity to enjoy the entire work--and enjoy we did!

As in their other works, Gilbert's text manages to skewer all of Great Britain's "sacred cows"--aristocratic ancestry, serious opera, the Royal Navy, social etiquette, the institution of marriage, religion, and even income tax. The story concerns a hereditary baronetcy tainted by a long held curse that requires each baronet to commit a daily crime or die a horrible death. In a gloss on religious hypocrisy it just wouldn't do to commit a sole crime early in the day and then compensate by doing good for the remainder of the day.

The last baronet has apparently staged his own demise in order to escape the curse, and has gone into hiding as the shy and simple farmer Robin Oakapple, portrayed by the terrific tenor David Macaluso. The professional bridesmaids of the village, given some lovely choruses and dances (choreographed by David Auxier), have not had a wedding in months and are champing at the bit. They would like to see the lovely Rose Maybud wed.  Soprano Sarah Caldwell Smith, aside from having a lovely voice, excelled at creating a character who hides behind her etiquette book and whose willingness to wed seems not fixed on any particular suitor.

Robin is so shy and Rose is so constrained by the rules of etiquette that they cannot manage a courtship. Their duet "I know a youth" was delightful and charming.  Robin's foster brother Richard Dauntless is not so shy! As portrayed by Daniel Greenwood, he is an outwardly affable sailor who agrees to court Rose for Robin but decides to win her for himself. Alas, poor Robin!

There is worse in store for the hapless hero. His disguise is revealed by that old snake-in-the-grass Richard; Robin's brother, Sir Despard Murgatroyd, who has assumed the baronetcy, is thrilled to be relieved of his ancestral duty. Matthew Wages seemed to enjoy playing the evil man in "Oh, why am I moody and sad?". as much as he enjoyed playing him as a proper citizen when relieved of his position, leaving us to wonder "does the role make the man?"

One of the many highlights of the evening was the performance of mezzo-soprano Hannah Holmes as Mad Margaret who manages to outdo every mad scene you have ever seen.  In "Cheerily carols the lark", it was not just the singing that impressed us but the body movement amounting to a dance of madness. Once reunited with her beloved she assumes a staid mien, only occasionally erupting into the crazies from which she is brought back to normalcy by the safe word "Basingstoke" which probably had a significance for the late 19th century audience.

Vocally impressive was the contralto instrument of Angela Christine Smith as Ruth's aunt Dame Hannah.  We were happy to see her reunited with her long lost lover (or at least with his ghost) Sir Roderic Murgatroyd, portrayed by David Wannen. The tender duet "There Grew a Little Flower" placed two great voices in pleasing harmony.

Rounding out the cast was Patrick Lord Remmert who created the character of Robin's faithful servant Old Adam Goodheart, a "Vally-desham" in the titles which we figured out was Brit-speak for valet de chambre. 

Maestro Albert Bergeret brilliantly led his orchestra through the constant flow of musical numbers and also co-directed with Mr. Auxier. We found no fault with the direction which emphasized the melodramatic nature of the story and its stock characters, which are as familiar to the English speaking world as commedia del'arte is to the Italian speaking world. 

The set design was most satisfactory, attributed to Albére, after Edward Gorey.  Act I created a seaside village with a house on one side and a shed of some sort on the other, reminding us of the set for the ballet Giselle. Act II took place in the ancestral home of a the Murgatroyd's with an entire wall of ancestral portraits which, in a stroke of directorial genius, came to life.

The colorful costumes by Gail J. Wofford were a propos to time and place, adding to the success of the performance. We greet the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players with a grand. "Huzzah"!!!! We can barely wait for their production of The Pirates of Penzance in January.

© meche kroop

WE'VE GOT A LITTLE LIST

 The Gilbert and Sullivan Players presents THE MIKADO

Dank was the night and gloomy were our spirits; but three minutes of Arthur Sullivan's tunes and our smile might have lit up the stage of The Kaye Playhouse. For three hours we were transported to the Japan of Victorian Era England. It hadn't been long since Japan had become open to the West and the English were fascinated by Japanese artifacts.

Indeed, in the clever prologue devised by David Auxier-Loyola, we get to see an imagined scene in the offices of the D'Oyly Carte Company in which W.S. Gilbert (played by Mr. Auxier himself) gets his idea for The Mikado from examining a selection of Japanese objets d'art. Gilbert and his composer partner Arthur Sullivan (played by David Macaluso) had just premiered a hit and were looking for inspiration for their next creation.

Perhaps Mr. Auxier was inspired by Mike Leigh's 1999 film Topsy-Turvy which we highly recommend to all lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan since their tempestuous but artistically rewarding partnership was given a most satisfying treatment.

Getting back to the music that so rapidly changed our mood, Maestro Joseph Rubin put his orchestra through their lively paces with conductorial glee. We have been humming the tunes all night and those ear-worms have sustained that smile we spoke of. There is a reason why certain works of art become classics; in the case of music theater, the public wants tunes and rhythm, married to an engaging story with lyrics that fit the music, just as "the punishment fits the crime".

Although we despair of attempts by narcissistic directors to make their mark on the classics and thereby wind up destroying them (i.e. the current production of Bizet's Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera), we have no objection to the little touches employed in this production to bring the work into the 21st century. Do not worry, Dear Reader, Nanki-Poo does not carry a cell phone. We do believe it is customary for the director of this operetta to update The Mikado's hit number (which we call "I've Got a Little List") to include contemporary references to politics and social customs. We are not going to spoil it for you, Dear Reader; you will have to go and hear for yourself, be you lucky enough to get a ticket.

David Wannen made a fine, funny, and arrogant Mikado and his excellent performance was matched by the entire cast. We particularly enjoyed the Nanki-Poo of tenor John Charles McLaughlin who was more than commonly affecting in his creation of a young innocent Candide type youth. His "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" was sung with pure tone, lovely phrasing, and dramatic conviction.

As his beloved Yum-Yum, Rebecca L. Hargrove delivered one of the best ever examples of female vanity in her major aria "The Sun Whose Rays are All Ablaze". She provided plenty of humor in her off-again on-again intention to wed our hero, dependent upon whether she would be buried alive, a situation handled with dry British humor.

The part of Koko, Lord High Executioner of Titipu, was portrayed by Mr. Macaluso with admirable physicality that garnered much laughter from the audience. His desperate courtship of Katisha could be considered a lesson in clowning. This made his tender aria "Willow, Tit-Willow" even more soulful by contrast.

The character of Pooh-Bah is a matchless vehicle for comic acting and Matthew Wages more than lived up to the challenge with physical humor to spare. Just look at the gestures he employs as he describes his multiple offices and his greedy eyes as he extracts bribes without compunction.

None of these characters could be considered evil, just opportunistic. The character who comes closest to evil is the unpleasant Katisha (played by Hannah Holmes), the "Daughter-in-law Elect", but even she has a softer side. It was fun watching her melt to Koko's love song in contrast with her customary rage. This reminds us that miserable people are most often suffering from a lack of love. When she interrupts The Mikado's entrance with her insistent "daughter-in-law elect" we see the attention-seeking as an attempt to compensate for being rejected earlier by Nanki-Poo. She knows she is unattractive and therefore shows excessive pride in her shoulder and elbow. Her costume reminded us of that of Carabosse, the evil fairy in the ballet Sleeping Beauty.

Which reminds us to credit Quinto Ott for the colorful and apt Costume Design. The blend of Victorian fashion with Japanese elements is most successful. The female chorus is decked out in high Victorian style with bustles and exposed crinolettes. The male chorus ("We are Gentlemen of Japan") is dressed in typical Victorian gentlemen fashion with some Japanese decoration.

Anshuman Bhatia designed the simple but effective set with Koko's tailor shop stage right and the Titipu railway station stage left, lent verisimiltude by the sound effect of the approaching train, heralding the arrival of the "Three Little Maids from School" and later The Mikado and Katisha.

Elizabeth Cernadas had the role of Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo was played by Sarah Hutchison.

Mr. Auxier did a fine job directing and choreographing, and Maestro Albert Bergeret served as Music Director. Kudos to all!

Since we always need some minor detail to grumble about, it would be some ineffective enunciation on the part of the chorus and some of the female performers. Surtitles would have been welcome since Gilbert's text is so very clever. It seems a shame to miss a word of it.

© meche kroop

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

 Curtain call for Cyrano de Bergerac

We take the label "fan" to have derived from the word "fanatic". We have further observed that the happiest most productive people are those who immerse themselves in their passions. Alyce Mott, Founder and Artistic Directof of VHRPL!  must be one of the happiest people in New York. She has devoted most of her professional life to championing the works of Victor Herbert, the late 19th c. composer--so well known in his day and becoming more and more renowned since Ms. Mott established the Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!

This is their 10th Anniversary Season and we have watched the audience grow from a small group of devotees at the sanctuary of a small church on the Upper 

West Side to a packed house in the far more commodious Theater at St. Jean's on the Upper East Side. The new home has a real proscenium stage and orchestra pit and gives these works the setting they deserve.

Last night we saw a work that, like most great works, produces both laughter and tears. It is difficult to imagine that the score to Herbert's Cyrano de Bergerac lay dormant for a century until Dino Anagnost of the Little Orchestra Society of New York joined forces with Ms. Mott for a rebirth of this neglected work. The most fascinating part of the story is that there was no libretto; but our intrepid Ms. Mott rose to the occasion and created one!  And that is what we saw and heard last night. This is only the second time the work has been performed.

Mr. Herbert's music is always delightful to the ear, but in this case he outdid himself and one sensed from the overture, replete with waltzes and marches, that we were in the hands of a musical genius. What we didn't expect was the felicitous marriage of music and lyrics--lyrics that rival those of W.S.Gilbert--but American in style. This delightful music was performed by a chamber group of musicians comprising the piano of William Hicks, augmented by violin, cello, string bass, flute, clarinet, and percussion--all brought together by Maestro Michael Thomas.

The work was effectively cast with singers who could act; they succeeded at drawing out the pathos of the story, leaving us with abundant thoughts about not being fooled by the surface of people but rather being open to perceiving their inner beauty.

As the swashbuckling arrogant Cyrano we heard VHRPL! LIVE regular Matthew Wages whose deeply resonant baritone and body language allowed us to see the sensitive insecure soul underneath. He carefully allowed us to see how he lived vicariously through the handsome Christian. There was no need for a fake nose! As his beloved cousin and childhood chum Roxane, we heard the lovely soprano Hannah Holmes who allows herself to be deceived by appearances until the final moment when we weep for her because it is too late and Cyrano is dying.

The role of narrator Comte de Guiche, a "frenemy" and rival to Cyrano we heard Jack Cotterell who inhabited the role with Gallic pomposity. As Roxane's beloved Baron Christian de Nuevillette we heard lyric tenor Ai Ra who created a character of meager verbal skills who can only win Roxanne with the soulful words of the poet Cyrano.

It is always a joy to see the veteran David Seatter as a baker and as the monk who is tricked into marrying Roxanne to Christian instead of to Comte de Guiche. New to the company and most welcome was Jesse Pimpinella as Montfleury. The chorus of cadets was excellent as were the ladies, although the women's chorus did not enunciate as clearly.  Of course we acknowledge that lyrics are more difficult to understand in the upper register.

Christine Hall's choreography was terrific, especially for the Musketeers. No one was credited for costuming which was minimal but not missed. The headgear, a few ruffles around the neck, some boots, and some swords were sufficient.

As far as the gorgeous musical numbers, we mostly enjoyed those with harmonizing voices--"Let the Sun of Thine Eyes" for Cyrano, Christian, and Roxanne; "Since I Am Not For Thee" for the same voices with considerable overlapping; and "The Call to Arms" for the entire company, at the end of which we heard the effective lower register of Mr. Wages' voice.

The final number "Those Were the Good Old Times" for Cyrano and Roxane was quite moving with the orchestra syncopated like a faltering heart. Music Director Michael Thomas did his customary excellent job conducting.

We admit that we enjoyed the work more than Alfano's opera, also written based on the same play by Rostand!

© meche kroop