Take an opera from 1879, add a daring stage director with an inventive idea to place it in the 1960s and watch college students flock to perform it on stage. That is the scenario for Grand Valley State University's Opera Theatre production of The Pirates of Penzance.
Performances run February 2-4 and February 9-11. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus. Tickets are $12 general public; $10 alumni, faculty, staff, and special populations; $6 all students. Call (616) 331-3484 or visit www.gvsu.edu/music.
Hailed as one of Gilbert and Sullivan's best operas, this tale of tender-hearted orphan pirates is a comic masterpiece where hypocrisy and literal-minded devotion to duty are artfully skewered in comic twists of plot with energetic and beautiful music, performed by the GVSU Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Brian Asher Alhadeff.
"My philosophy for these productions is to link students to the professional world of opera by bringing in the pros to work with them," said Artistic Director Dale Schriemer. "The fact that they love to come back year after year to work with our students is a testament to the quality of the program."
Case in point is the stage director, Isabel Milenski, who is doing Pirates as her third production here. Her directing experience includes numerous productions for the Long Beach Opera, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Opera Center.
She came to campus for a week in September to work with the cast on characterization and has returned to work with them for a month prior to the performances. Her reason for updating the time frame for the opera was so the students could better relate to the material and "have a blast with a very savvy production."
Another professional brought in to share his expertise with the student cast is pianist and vocal coach Mark Markham, who hails from France. He has performed in more than 25 countries, primarily as pianist for the famed American opera singer Jessye Norman. The pair also did a special performance when President Jimmy Carter received the Noble Peace Prize in 2002. His time at Grand Valley is spent as vocal coach for the student cast.
There are 34 cast members on stage and 38 artistic staff behind the scenes. "Because of the growth in the Opera Theatre program at Grand Valley, many of the roles are double cast," said Schriemer. "Though with six performances, they are each on stage for three shows."
