G & S in tandem

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33985, 28 October 1975, Page 12

G & S in tandem

A centennial revival of the operetta that sent Gilbert and Sullivan along the road to fame will open in the James Hay Theatre tomorrow.

It is the Christchurch Gilbert and Sullivan and Light Opera Society’s production of “Trial by Jury.” Bob McGiffen is the Judge, a role he has played several times. He has appeared in other Gilbert and Sullivan productions, including “Patience” two years ago. Heather Taylor plays the part of the Plaintiff, or Bride. She has just returned from Wellington, where she appeared as the Countess in the New Opera Company’s production “The Marriage of Figaro.” She has. been a soloist with almost every major choir in New Zealand, but her leading role with the Christchurch Gilbert and Sullivan Society is her first with a local operatic group.

Opposite her is Peter Williams, a recent contestant in “The Entertainers” on TVI. Others in the cast include David Rodgers, who has taken leading parts in several Gilbert and Sullivan productions, and Ron Gray, a former member of the New Zealand Opera Company. The four bridesmaids are Diana Parsons, Barbara Walton, Yvonne Howman, and Cherry Taylor. After “Trial by Jury” a New Zealand musical play. “Sullivan . . . and Gilbert,” by Malcolm Hopwood, will have its premiere. The play is a light-hearted look at the stormy relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan, which reached a ' climax after their seventh production, “Princess Ida.” ; Sullivan left to write serious music on the Continent, while Gilbert persevered i

with a script about a magic lozenge which, he hoped, Sullivan would set to music. Commuting between them like a nineteenth-century Henry Kissinger is Richard D’Oyly Carte. The main characters in the play are Sullivan. Gilbert, D’Oyly Carte, and Mrs Mary Ronalds, Sullivan's close friend. The play features solos, duets, and major sequences! from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The producer is; Gwen Millar, the musical | director Mr Hopwood, and; the soloists Penryn Manning, William T. Williams, Dorothy Hitch (for 10 years the leading mezzo-soprano with the New Zealand Opera Company), Derek Rodgers, and others featured in “Trial By Jury.” The production will close on November 1.