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Lamplighters Music Theatre Performs Gilbert And Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore At The Napa Valley Opera House
NAPA, CA- It’s hilarity on the high seas as the Bay Area’s acclaimed Lamplighters Music Theatre performs Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. PINAFORE” at the Napa Valley Opera House on Saturday, August 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, August 12 at 2 p.m. Lamplighters Artistic Director Barbara Heroux directs this fully-staged production featuring a live orchestra and the phenomenal voices of the Lamplighters company, with guest conductor George Thomson at the baton. Tickets are $35 and $40.
With folly and mirth to spare, Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic comic operetta “H.M.S. PINAFORE” is as timely as today’s headlines with its mockery of incompetence in high political places. This side-splitting send up of snobbery and social class sets sail with a lowly seaman in love with his Captain’s daughter, who in turn is pledged by her father to a higher-ranking officer. Mayhem prevails in this ship-shape satire chock full of Gilbert and Sullivan’s trademark twists and turns, as does true love.
“H.M.S. PINAFORE” was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourth operatic collaboration, and became the duo’s first big hit, opening at the Opera Comique in London on May 25, 1878. Running for 571 performances, the second longest run of any musical theatre piece at the time, “H.M.S. PINAFORE” became a huge fad in England as well as America, and was copied illegally by dozens of performing companies. Drawing on several themes introduced in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Sorcerer,” specifically love between members of different social classes, “H.M.S. PINAFORE” pokes fun at the Royal Navy and, in themes to be repeated in the later operas, parliamentary politics and the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority.
Lamplighters Music Theatre has assembled a talented ensemble for “H.M.S. PINAFORE” including F. Lawrence Ewing as Sir Joseph Porter; Jonathan Smucker as Ralph Rackstraw; Jennifer Ashworth as Josephine Corcoran; Katy Daniel as Little Buttercup; and Jonathan Spencer as Captain Corcoran. Also featured are Behrend Eilers as Dick Deadeye; Cary Ann Rosko as Cousin Hebe; Chris Shuford as Bill Bobstay; and Ted von Pohle as Bob Becket.
Lamplighters Music Theatre, recognized as one of the top Gilbert and Sullivan companies in the world, is one of the oldest continuously performing theatres in the Bay Area, and the only year-round musical theatre company in San Francisco. Since the company’s founding in 1952, Lamplighters Music Theatre has been dedicated to upholding the tradition of light opera and musical theatre, particularly through the production of the operettas of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. The company has produced the entire Gilbert and Sullivan canon as well as other light opera and musical theatre classics such as “The Merry Widow,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Of Thee I Sing,” “My Fair Lady,” “Candide,” and “A Little Night Music.”
WHEN: Saturday, August 11, 8 PM & Sunday, August 12, 2 PM
WHO: Lamplighters Music Theatre In
WHAT: H.M.S. Pinafore
COST: $40/$35
WHERE: Napa Valley Opera House, 1030 Main Street, Napa, CA 94559
PUBLIC INFO: (707)-226-7372, www.NVOH.ORG
CONTACT: Teri Stevens, teri@nvoh.org, 707-603-2338
“H.M.S. PINAFORE” was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourth operatic collaboration, and became the duo’s first big hit, opening at the Opera Comique in London on May 25, 1878. Running for 571 performances, the second longest run of any musical theatre piece at the time, “H.M.S. PINAFORE” became a huge fad in England as well as America, and was copied illegally by dozens of performing companies. Drawing on several themes introduced in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Sorcerer,” specifically love between members of different social classes, “H.M.S. PINAFORE” pokes fun at the Royal Navy and, in themes to be repeated in the later operas, parliamentary politics and the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority.
Lamplighters Music Theatre has assembled a talented ensemble for “H.M.S. PINAFORE” including F. Lawrence Ewing as Sir Joseph Porter; Jonathan Smucker as Ralph Rackstraw; Jennifer Ashworth as Josephine Corcoran; Katy Daniel as Little Buttercup; and Jonathan Spencer as Captain Corcoran. Also featured are Behrend Eilers as Dick Deadeye; Cary Ann Rosko as Cousin Hebe; Chris Shuford as Bill Bobstay; and Ted von Pohle as Bob Becket.
Lamplighters Music Theatre, recognized as one of the top Gilbert and Sullivan companies in the world, is one of the oldest continuously performing theatres in the Bay Area, and the only year-round musical theatre company in San Francisco. Since the company’s founding in 1952, Lamplighters Music Theatre has been dedicated to upholding the tradition of light opera and musical theatre, particularly through the production of the operettas of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. The company has produced the entire Gilbert and Sullivan canon as well as other light opera and musical theatre classics such as “The Merry Widow,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Of Thee I Sing,” “My Fair Lady,” “Candide,” and “A Little Night Music.”
WHEN: Saturday, August 11, 8 PM & Sunday, August 12, 2 PM
WHO: Lamplighters Music Theatre In
WHAT: H.M.S. Pinafore
COST: $40/$35
WHERE: Napa Valley Opera House, 1030 Main Street, Napa, CA 94559
PUBLIC INFO: (707)-226-7372, www.NVOH.ORG
CONTACT: Teri Stevens, teri@nvoh.org, 707-603-2338
More than 30 years in the making, The Napa Valley Opera House, a national historic landmark, restored the Margrit Biever Mondavi Theatre in June 2003, a second-floor theatre that was originally constructed in 1879. The NVOH 2007 Fall Season marks the fifth year of programming in the intimate 500-seat theatre, the “Jewel of Napa Valley” located in the heart of downtown Napa. Patrons experience an eclectic array of performing arts including theatre, dance, comedy, jazz, blues, world music, and family programming in a world class setting.
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