Word: operettas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sing excellently, the Trio choruses an amusing accompaniment, and one can't be bored by the band. The vertical divides of the set work for this latter part of Evening, permitting rapid changes of scene by shifts of lighting. A revue of popular songs and a small-scale operetta by a famous composer are far from risk-free recipes for success, yet despite this Evening's unevenness, one leaves savoring a taste that lingers. For that, Grant-in-Aid nearly deserves a Cordon Bleu...
...Gilbert and Sullivan production to be performed late in April, is certainly no adaptation. The cute couplets, scores of love sick maidens, and happy endings could only have sprung from the brows of the illustrious two. Yet Patience, like any true G & S, is a satire and in this operetta what is being so obviously but fondly mocked is the aesthetes who so carefully buttoned their sleeves in Victorian England. Banthorne, the hero, is a parody of Oscar Wilde or Swinburne; Patience is the name of the simple village milkmaid he adores...
There are G&S aficionados who delight in humming Sullivan's airs and are apt to break into a patter song at a moment's notice, or without it. Then there are those whose exposure to the masters of Victorian operetta has been painfully shoddy. The current G&S production of The Pirates of Penzance is bound to convince both groups that it is, it is after all a glorious thing to be a Gilbert and Sullivan...
Sensual Fantasy. The Tavern's first-night gala was more like an operetta than a restaurant opening, with five bands, fiddlers and jugglers introducing each of nine courses, and a wild array of plumage on all the Beautiful People that was a direct result of their host's request that they wear "garden formal." What is garden formal? LeRoy answered his question by wearing a gold-spangled suit with spangled blue-gold rep tie and rhinestone-studded glasses that made him resemble a well-padded Elton John...
...Peter Grimes (Jan. 28) and Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea (March 25). Gockley's innovations include the creation of the touring Texas Opera Theater, which has successfully made a home in Texas and five nearby states; next month, for instance, Sousa's saucy operetta El Capitan again takes to the road. Gockley is perhaps most proud of the two Houston shows that reached Broadway: Scott Joplin's Treemonisha last fall and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess this week. "Why can't grand opera produce something like Kiss Me, Kate"? he asks. If anyone...