A fresh, young take on comic opera

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This article was published 12/04/2017 (3310 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are fresh winds of change blowing as the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Winnipeg presents its first fully staged comic opera in two years: Ruddigore: The Witches’ Curse.

Notably, five of its eight lead characters are being performed by 20-somethings, all of whom are marking their G & S debuts. One of those, lyric soprano Andrea Lett, 26, appears as the prim-and-proper Rose Maybud, who lives life by her trusty book of etiquette that never leaves her side.

“It’s super-charming and very entertaining,” the Prince Albert, Sask., native says of her maiden voyage performing in a Gilbert & Sullivan production. “There’s also a lot of cheeky social and political references and it’s quite cartoonish in places. You get to be a kid again and sing just for the joy of it.”

The light-hearted show, penned in 1887 by Victorian composer Arthur Sullivan and librettist W. S. Gilbert, tells the tale of the “bad Baronets of Ruddigore,” cursed for generations to commit a crime every day or die in “unspeakable agony.” Sir Despard Murgatroyd (performed by Nathan Sawatzky-Dyck) dukes it out with his elder brother, Sir Ruthven, disguised as the long-believed dead farmer Robin Oakapple (Jean van der Merwe), who in turn seeks to win the love of Maybud as she tra-la-las her way into both siblings’ hearts.

The four-show production at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre runs nightly starting April 20 at 7:30 p.m. through April 22 and also includes a 2 p.m. performance on April 22. The show also reinstates a full orchestra led by Michelle Mourre, who has served as the society’s music director since 2013.

“It has some really great music and may be the funniest of the G & S shows just on sheer comedic level,” artistic director Reid Harrison says over the phone, who is directing the lesser-known work last staged by the 27-year old troupe in 2005. “The type of humour is somewhat different than the others and sharp enough that it’s literally laugh out loud.”

Lett, who won the Winnipeg Music Festival’s Rose Bowl trophy in 2014, recently returned to Winnipeg after completing her masters degree in opera at the University of Toronto, where she studied with Canadian vocal coach extraordinaire Mary Morrison. Lett also sang Pamina and the Queen of the Night during Manitoba Underground Opera’s production of The Magic Flute last August, as well as the title role in its 2015 production of Cendrillon: The Fable of Cinderella. She also was named a finalist in the Canadian Opera Company’s 2016 Centre Stage Gala Competition.

Often, life imitates art. As though living a real-life Gilbert & Sullivan plot with all its twists and turns, Lett says love brought her back to the Prairies last spring, after being swept off her feet by her businessman husband Caleb, whom she met while performing The Magic Flute last summer. They embarked on a two-year long-distance relationship during her graduate studies and were married last September.

She has also eagerly assumed another new role as proud stepmother to a toddler son.

The young family will keep in touch via the Internet and phone calls as Lett departs for New Mexico next month to participate until August in Santa Fe’s 2017 Young Artist Apprenticeship Singer Program. Lett then jets off to further her professional training, from October until next May, with Calgary Opera’s 2017-18 Emerging Young Artist’s Program. That promises to open even more doors for the budding opera star.

For now, she is keenly aware of the shoulders she sings on. Many of her venerable castmates have performed with the society ever since Glen Harrison, who recently passed at age 87, helped to found it. The art of rapid-fire syllabic singing doesn’t naturally trip off the tongue, Lett says, nor does its Victorian dialogue laced with antiquated references. She carefully watches such society veterans as Fred Simpson and Fred Cross during rehearsals, aspiring to their natural ease with delivering the idiosyncratic text and music. She also has studied YouTube videos and listened to recordings to prepare.

Reid Harrison, Glen’s son, is directing Lett for his first time — and is tickled pink with her portrayal.

“At the end of the day, Andrea is a great soprano and is extremely engaging onstage. She’s also inventive with what she does with her dialogue,” he says. “She’s able to adjust her sound to suit what a G & S romantic soprano should be, and is really getting the style.”

But he also sings praises for her millennial compatriots, clearly pleased with how the younger generation is flocking to the older music that served as backbone for many a high school and glee-club production over the past century. Notably, this production marks the greatest influx of young talent since the society’s first performance of Mikado in 1991. Eleven of its 33 cast members are performing for their first time in one of its productions.

“We were quite blown away by the number that came out to audition this year, and you have a lot of these younger ones, they energize a room in a way that you can’t do otherwise. It just gets everyone going differently,” Harrison enthuses.

On a more poignant note, Ruddigore will also be the first society production staged since Glen Harrison’s death in February. The director speaks to the pleasure the elder Harrison would have taken with the youthful spirit now infusing the ranks.

“Bringing in new blood to energize and help the society continue would have excited dad tremendously,” Reid says. “He would have loved it, because it also suggests that this is something that’s attractive to a new generation. We’re in great shape and are having fun which is what Dad was all about.”

For further information, visit: gssw.net. Tickets are available by contacting the Manitoba Opera box office at 204-957-7842, manitobaopera.mb.ca, or at the door.

holly.harris@shaw.ca