Job well done

Job well done and lots of fun.  Thanks all.  I ended up playing 5 performances of the 10 session series.  Never perfect but always pretty OK.   Locked in the dark pit, just seeing the light for a final pic after the final performance.  And here it is.  With most of the orchestra present, but not all.  

The Queanbeyan Players presented Gilbert & Sullivan  HMS Pinafore at TheQ.  Matt Greenwood (musical director, yellow shirt) conducted the orchestra.

Bonnets

Life has made me cancel my musical commitments over November: jazz gigs and preparation and performance of a few classical outings.  So when I got the opportunity to fill in over 9 days of HMS Pinafore I was thrilled and jumped at it.  The timing was perfect and I love pit work even if I have no time otherwise to partake.  It's four sessions to relieve bassist Mel Fung under MD Matt Greenwood for Gilbert & Sullivan's well known operetta presented by the Queanbeyan Players at TheQ.  Too late for rehearsals so it's a sight reading job with a instructions and changes over the phone and before the first performance.  The last 20 minutes before the first performance were busy moments!  But it's not too hard and the music is often recognisable.  My main preparation was just to listen to the music while following the score.  So far, it's 2 down and 2 to go and getting to be more relaxed.  Perhaps the strangest thing is interval: characters in gaudy costume and wireless mics eating sweet treats and the musicians in black.  It's a world of its own and a blast.  Great fun and thanks to Helen for the contact and Matt for the opportunity.

Queanbeyan Players presented HMS Pinafore at TheQ.  Eric Pozza (bass) covered for four performances under Matt Greenwood (musical director).

Aussies can can

The Merry Widow of Bluegum Creek had me thinking of the difference between musicals and opera. I looked it up, and the distinctions were pretty indeterminate: opera is more centred on music, trained voices, traditional; musicals include more dance and acting and use popular musical styles and are always in the language of the audience. All pretty indefinite: I expect some operas were using popular music and stories and singing styles of their days. Given the popularity of the original Merry Widow (Vienna, 1905, as Die lustige Witwe), I expect the distinctions remain unclear. This take of the MW was performed by the Queanbeyan Players at TheQ with a recent Australianised libretto. It's 1901, Australia is just federated and the first Australian Embassy opens in Paris. The newly widowed wife of a mega-rich grazier/industrialist is expected. The PM has instructed that this widow must not marry a Frenchman because the wealth must stay in Australia. An old boyfriend of the widow works in the Embassy and likes the high life: bawdy bars, Maxim's, chorus girls and the like. I won't give away the rest of the story but it's light and fun and includes the can can. Louise Keast was Anna Gladstone, the widow, and she did a fabulous job, with an excellent soprano and some wide-eyed, playful acting. Likewise a string of others with some very impressive voices. It's a big operation, including a small orchestra in the pits and a big cast on stage (professional musicals are seldom so generous: they have to pay). There were various comedy parts (if rather droll) and they went down well. The chorus singing was very good. The feature singers were very impressive. I particularly liked Michelin and the Viscount and Danny and Lady Valerie. In one joke, Michelin knew all the backstreets and Anna offered to fund the publication of a guide when he wrote it. The embassy wives and staff were humourous (not least in a final can can dance); the two real dancers did a nice job; the orchestra too, accompanied and overtured with responsiveness and skill. The music is unchanged from the popular operetta original; just the story and characters and lyrics are changed. This was a fun night with a Aussie theme but opera voices. Well done all.

The Queanbeyan Players presented The Merry Widow of Bluegum Creek at TheQ. Key performers were Louise Keast (Ann Gladstone, the widow), Charles Hudson (ex-boyfriend Danny Macquarie), Robert Grice (Ambassador), Stephanie McAlister (Valerie, the Ambasssador's wife), Matt Greenwood (Michelin) and Kenneth Goodge (the Viscount). Key roles were Peter Smith (director and the Marquis of Cascada), Jennifer Groom (musical director) and Belinda Hassall (choreographer).

Out of a prior age

The Mikado is another visit for us to the Canberra/Queanbeyan musical theatre scene. As before, I'm most impressed. This time, I could hear all the players (I'm told everyone was miked) and there were some great performances if against a very bland backdrop. I'm not of the class of English-heritage baby-boomers who are nostalgic for D'Oyly Carte and it's very out of time these days, so it's not particularly a favourite of mine. The caricature of the Japanese might be thought distasteful these days and the plot sexist and the central act of beheading is too agonisingly current to even be questioned as tasteless. But they were different days and it shows. I asked about known songs before the show and Megan and Sally both remembered "three little girls from school are we / we come from a ladies' seminary", but the second act had a string of tunes even I recognised: The flowers that bloom in the spring and several others that I can't recall from titles in the program. Perhaps my favourite was a lovely vocal quartet called a madrigal, but in the program as Brightly dawns our wedding day. The four unaccompanied voices worked wonderfully together and the harmonies were clear and sweet. We enjoyed the song of list of local criminals (featuring a string of currently controversial names) and another sung by the Mikado himself about suitable punishments (including a mention of Andrew Barr for Light rail). You get the picture. Megan tells me rewording these songs is a tradition: another English public-school mannerism, I guess. The Ko-Ko (Lord High Executioner of Titipu) was played by Matt Greenwood and he stole the show for me, although there were very capable Mikados and Nanki-Poos and Yum-Yums and Pish-Tushs and Pooh-Bahs and various girls and men and ladies. But it's all very silly (which it's clearly supposed to be) and not really my thing. But then, I lack the relevant heritage. Once again, well done to the Queanbeyan Players.

The Mikado was presented by the Queanbeyan Players at TheQ theatre.