New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players
Encyclopedia
New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players is a professional repertory
theatre company, based in New York City that has specialized in the comic opera
s of Gilbert and Sullivan
(G&S) for over 35 years. It performs an annual season, usually at New York City Center
, and tours extensively in North America.
Beginning in New York City in 1974 by performing the Savoy opera
s with piano accompaniment, the company hired its first orchestra in 1979 for its seasons at Symphony Space
theatre in New York. The company was fully professional by the 1980s and began touring, presenting its full-scale productions at such venues as Wolf Trap
in Virginia, as well as its New York seasons. In 2002, the company first rented 2,750-seat City Center. It also performs at schools and has smaller touring groups.
Gilbert and Sullivan Society, a New York City college theatre group that presented the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan
at Columbia University
from 1948 to 1991.
The nascent group's first performance was in Straus Park
, on the Upper West Side
of Manhattan
, on July 14, 1974 as part of a street fair. In the early years of the company, singers were drawn from Columbia University
and from the semi-pro New York theatre community, including Vincent La Selva
's opera workshop, and sang without compensation. Originally called "West Side Gilbert & Sullivan Players", the group originally performed scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan operas with a sound system and a cast of nine people in outdoor performances and in nursing homes and hospitals around New York City, with borrowed costumes, set pieces and an electric piano from the New York Grand Opera, the Bloomingdale School of Music
and other supporters. Their first indoor home was at the theatre in the B’nai Jeshurun Community Center. Bergeret designed and built the sets and acted as stage and musical director. In 1975, the company incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under the current name.
At the beginning of 1976, the company incorporated under its present name and began to offer runs in repertory on Sundays, the only day the theater was available, since the New York School of Opera used the space on other days. After several Sunday performances of H.M.S Pinafore and Trial by Jury
, they broadened their audience by premiering a new production of The Pirates of Penzance
on Sunday afternoon, February 29, 1976 – the character Frederic's 30th birthday. Bergeret appeared on stage ahead of the performance, made up as the 120-year-old hero, and a substantial cake (and the presence of WQXR
Radio's manager, Robert Sherman
) was cut and shared with the audience. That autumn, the company had grown sufficiently to permit four shows – Pinafore, Pirates, The Mikado
, and Iolanthe
– to be presented in rotation. Beginning in fall of 1977, the company was performing full weeks runs of the operas, and the following year moved into the 700-seat Symphony Space
theatre in New York, including a production celebrating the centenary of H.M.S. Pinafore. Bergeret traded his services as the first Technical Director of Symphony Space (and Wofford was House Manager) in exchange for office space, storage and theatre dates.
Bergeret was ambitious, and he wanted his company to grow and become fully professional. In May 1979, NYGASP hired its first 25-piece orchestra and began to pay performance fees to principal singers as the level of professionalism of its cast continued to increase. NYGASP scored a publicity coup on October 28, 1979, when pictures of the cast performing excerpts from Pinafore on the Staten Island Ferry
were displayed on the Sunday New York Times and in the New York Daily News
. The Company’s audience developed further at Symphony Space as the company celebrated the centennials of the G&S operas there, beginning with The Pirates of Penzance
in 1979. NYGASP attracted such loyal fans and supporters as writer Isaac Asimov
and began to gain favorable and frequent reviews in the Times and the Daily News, among others.
The 1981 season opened with NYGASP's celebration of the Patience
centenary in April 1981 (hosted by Asimov). In the fall of 1981, NYGASP began touring its productions along the U.S. East Coast
in addition to its short New York seasons. By the early 1980s, NYGASP paid performance fees not only to principal singers, but also to choristers. The company was able to attract an increased level of contributions, including annual grants from the New York State Council on the Arts
. By the mid-1980s, NYGASP had attracted an independent Board of Directors to assist with fund raising and risk management.
NYGASP has imported various guest stars over the years to appeal to a larger audience. Some of those, like Steve Allen
, were criticized for their lack of experience in the genre. In 1984, however, NYGASP hired John Reed
, the former principal comedian of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
, to join NYGASP for a centennial production of Princess Ida
at Symphony Space. He remained as the company's principal comedian for five more of its New York seasons. Reed's performances were a particular treat for Gilbert and Sullivan fans, to whom he was well known. His presence also attracted additional professional singers to NYGASP for the chance to perform with him, and he was able to impart some of his experience to company regulars. At a gala benefit for the company at Symphony Space in 1987, Reed, dressed as the Lord Chancellor from Iolanthe, proposed marriage, on stage, to celebrity guest Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
NYGASP averaged four productions a year at Symphony Space during the 1980s and 1990s, each playing for about a week. In 1985, the orchestra was unionized, and in 1989 the company entered into an agreement with the Actors' Equity union. The company's repertoire expanded throughout the 1980s, and it gradually produced all of the extant G&S Savoy operas. There was also a short-lived attempt in 1989 to broaden the company's repertory beyond G&S, when it presented Gershwin's Pulitzer Prize
-winning musical Of Thee I Sing
. But the experiment proved too expensive for the company, and since then, NYGASP has stayed with G&S (and a few presentations of Sullivan collaborations with other librettists). NYGASP recovered from a financially difficult 1990 with the help of supporter contributions and a willingness of its audiences to pay higher ticket prices, and the company survived (after one dark season), and continued to grow, through the 1990s, outliving the other professional light opera companies in New York City, notably the year-round Light Opera of Manhattan
. In 1997 the company hired a professional touring management company.
In 2001, NYGASP had to find a new venue because Symphony Space closed for renovations. NYGASP decided to rent City Center, a 2,750 seat theatre in midtown Manhattan
, for its January 2002 season. During a three-week run of Pirates, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Mikado, the company enjoyed excellent box office results and continued to perform at City Center annually thereafter. Moving to this large house further increased NYGASP's level of recognition and made it an organization with an annual budget of nearly 1.5 million dollars.
For their recent New York seasons, NYGASP has generally programmed two or three G&S operas, at least one of which is one of the "Big Three" (Pinafore, Pirates or Mikado) and one of which is one of the less often seen Savoy operas. In January 2007, NYGASP presented, as part of its City Center season, one performance of The Rose of Persia
, a comic opera by Sullivan and Basil Hood
that had not been performed by a professional company for over seventy years. NYGASP continues to present broadly traditional productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, usually with a number of topical references thrown in. In their Pirates production, for instance, at one point the company performs a kick-line parody of A Chorus Line
. But mostly they stay close to Gilbert's libretti.
NYGASP uses a number of different directors and conductors from time to time, but most of the productions are still directed and/or conducted by Bergeret. Notable singers who have recently performed with the company include soprano
Kimilee Bryant
(2008), Hal Linden
(2005), and tenors Keith Jameson (ENO
; NYCO
) and Brandon Jovanovich (San Francisco Opera
; NYCO), who have gone on to substantial opera careers. In reviewing the company's Pinafore in 2008, The New York Times
wrote, "From a staging perspective, there is nothing remotely subtle about Mr. Bergeret’s approach. Spoken dialogue is emphatically underlined with endless mugging and exaggerated gestures.... Still, all hands treat the music with style and respect. Mr. Bergeret drew playing of bouncy refinement from the orchestra. The principals were uniformly good." In a 2010 review of Ruddigore
, the Financial Times
praised the company's "roster of principals, mostly youthful, who treat the music with lilting grace, rhythmic bravado and patter virtuosity, as needed".
NYGASP continues to tour up and down the East Coast, in the Midwest and in other parts of the U.S. several times each year, performing regularly at Wolf Trap's Filene Center
in Vienna, Virginia
; Van Wezel Hall
in Sarasota, Florida
; the Mann Center
outside Philadelphia; McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey
; the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut
; and in Saratoga, New York
among other venues, often earning warm reviews. In 2004, the company presented two G&S productions in Buxton
, England, at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
. It also presented two full-scale productions (Pinafore and Pirates) and its cabaret-style revue
, "I've got a little twist", at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
, as part of the U.S. leg of the 17th International G&S Festival. The Epoch Times
noted, "The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players filled the Majestic Theater with color, panache, fine voices, and playfulness."
NYGASP also presents a few special events each year, usually at Symphony Space, often featuring pastiches or lesser-known Sullivan music or company members' favorite songs in concert, and there is often a segment where spontaneous audience requests are played, with orchestra, and with singers chosen on the spot by the conductor. It also offers small groups of singers for concerts, private and corporate events and outdoor performances, under the name "Wand’ring Minstrels" and a cabaret show combining and comparing Gilbert and Sullivan with musical theatre, called I've Got a Little Twist, written and directed by David Auxier. The piece won a Back Stage
Bistro Award in 2010. In addition, NYGASP groups have often performed on the "listening room" program on WQXR
radio in New York City and have been seen on the local broadcast of The Today Show on Saturday morning on NBC
. In 2002, it produced a Gilbert and Sullivan potpourri CD, entitled Oh Joy! Oh, Rapture!.
Each season, NYGASP offers a few full-scale performances of its main stage productions to NYC public school groups free of charge (paid for by corporate sponsors). It also presents its "Family Overtures" series of pre-show introductions for multi-generational audiences. In addition, Bergeret and small groups of performers from NYGASP travel to private schools in New York City to give concert-classes about the music and satire of Gilbert and Sullivan and other aspects of presenting G&S. The company also presents nearly full-scale or shortened versions of the shows at various schools throughout the school year, and sometimes invites school groups to see their shows for free or at reduced prices.
NYGASP has an arrangement with the school district in Syosset, New York
, in which, each spring, a shortened version of one of a G&S opera is presented at a school, with piano accompaniment, using NYGASP principals, and giving an opportunity to 40-60 6th grade students to act as the chorus. The music teachers teach the students their vocal parts, and then Bergeret and a NYGASP accompanist teach the students the staging and choreography of the show and refine the choral music. The children rehearse for a full day with the NYGASP principals and have the opportunity to ask any questions that may occur to them. Two performances are given by the students at their school. In addition, introductory programs are given in advance to each of the 5th and 6th grade classes in the school district, to acquaint the students with some of the material and any special concepts they may need to understand (such as "apprenticeship
" in The Pirates of Penzance or the British class structure in H.M.S. Pinafore). Sometimes the children also travel to New York City to see a full-scale NYGASP production.
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
theatre company, based in New York City that has specialized in the comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
s of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
(G&S) for over 35 years. It performs an annual season, usually at New York City Center
New York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
, and tours extensively in North America.
Beginning in New York City in 1974 by performing the Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s with piano accompaniment, the company hired its first orchestra in 1979 for its seasons at Symphony Space
Symphony Space
Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...
theatre in New York. The company was fully professional by the 1980s and began touring, presenting its full-scale productions at such venues as Wolf Trap
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, known locally in the Washington, D.C. area as simply Wolf Trap, is a performing arts center located on 130 acres of national park land in Wolf Trap, Virginia...
in Virginia, as well as its New York seasons. In 2002, the company first rented 2,750-seat City Center. It also performs at schools and has smaller touring groups.
Early years
Albert Bergeret founded the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (NYGASP) in 1974, together with his wife, Gail Wofford (they married in 1978), Lucian Russell and a few others. Bergeret, Wofford, Russell and most of the other founders were alumni of the BarnardBarnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
Gilbert and Sullivan Society, a New York City college theatre group that presented the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
from 1948 to 1991.
The nascent group's first performance was in Straus Park
Straus Park
Straus Park is a small landscaped park in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, at the intersection of Broadway, West End Avenue, and 106th Street....
, on the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, on July 14, 1974 as part of a street fair. In the early years of the company, singers were drawn from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and from the semi-pro New York theatre community, including Vincent La Selva
Vincent La Selva
Vincent La Selva is an American conductor. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he began performing at the age of 8, and by the age of 12, he was conducting student performances. He received his bachelor's degree from the Juilliard School, where he has served on the faculty since 1969...
's opera workshop, and sang without compensation. Originally called "West Side Gilbert & Sullivan Players", the group originally performed scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan operas with a sound system and a cast of nine people in outdoor performances and in nursing homes and hospitals around New York City, with borrowed costumes, set pieces and an electric piano from the New York Grand Opera, the Bloomingdale School of Music
Bloomingdale School of Music
Bloomingdale School of Music is a nonprofit community music school on the Upper West Side of New York City. It is housed in a five-story, 102-year-old brownstone and was founded in 1964 by David D. Greer, organist and choirmaster of the West End Presbyterian Church...
and other supporters. Their first indoor home was at the theatre in the B’nai Jeshurun Community Center. Bergeret designed and built the sets and acted as stage and musical director. In 1975, the company incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under the current name.
At the beginning of 1976, the company incorporated under its present name and began to offer runs in repertory on Sundays, the only day the theater was available, since the New York School of Opera used the space on other days. After several Sunday performances of H.M.S Pinafore and Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
, they broadened their audience by premiering a new production of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
on Sunday afternoon, February 29, 1976 – the character Frederic's 30th birthday. Bergeret appeared on stage ahead of the performance, made up as the 120-year-old hero, and a substantial cake (and the presence of WQXR
WQXR-FM
WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...
Radio's manager, Robert Sherman
Robert Sherman (music critic)
Robert Sherman is an American music critic, radio personality, academic, and writer on music. He is the son of pianist Nadia Reisenberg. From 1964-2003 he was a music critic for The New York Times. Since 1969 he has hosted the folk music radio program Woody's Children; for the first 30 years on...
) was cut and shared with the audience. That autumn, the company had grown sufficiently to permit four shows – Pinafore, Pirates, The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, and Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
– to be presented in rotation. Beginning in fall of 1977, the company was performing full weeks runs of the operas, and the following year moved into the 700-seat Symphony Space
Symphony Space
Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...
theatre in New York, including a production celebrating the centenary of H.M.S. Pinafore. Bergeret traded his services as the first Technical Director of Symphony Space (and Wofford was House Manager) in exchange for office space, storage and theatre dates.
Bergeret was ambitious, and he wanted his company to grow and become fully professional. In May 1979, NYGASP hired its first 25-piece orchestra and began to pay performance fees to principal singers as the level of professionalism of its cast continued to increase. NYGASP scored a publicity coup on October 28, 1979, when pictures of the cast performing excerpts from Pinafore on the Staten Island Ferry
Staten Island Ferry
The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry service operated by the New York City Department of Transportation that runs between the boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island.-Overview:...
were displayed on the Sunday New York Times and in the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
. The Company’s audience developed further at Symphony Space as the company celebrated the centennials of the G&S operas there, beginning with The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
in 1979. NYGASP attracted such loyal fans and supporters as writer Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
and began to gain favorable and frequent reviews in the Times and the Daily News, among others.
The 1980s and 1990s
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
centenary in April 1981 (hosted by Asimov). In the fall of 1981, NYGASP began touring its productions along the U.S. East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
in addition to its short New York seasons. By the early 1980s, NYGASP paid performance fees not only to principal singers, but also to choristers. The company was able to attract an increased level of contributions, including annual grants from the New York State Council on the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The New York State Council on the Arts is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell , with backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and began its work in 1961...
. By the mid-1980s, NYGASP had attracted an independent Board of Directors to assist with fund raising and risk management.
NYGASP has imported various guest stars over the years to appeal to a larger audience. Some of those, like Steve Allen
Steve Allen (comedian)
Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...
, were criticized for their lack of experience in the genre. In 1984, however, NYGASP hired John Reed
John Reed (actor)
John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
, the former principal comedian of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
, to join NYGASP for a centennial production of Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
at Symphony Space. He remained as the company's principal comedian for five more of its New York seasons. Reed's performances were a particular treat for Gilbert and Sullivan fans, to whom he was well known. His presence also attracted additional professional singers to NYGASP for the chance to perform with him, and he was able to impart some of his experience to company regulars. At a gala benefit for the company at Symphony Space in 1987, Reed, dressed as the Lord Chancellor from Iolanthe, proposed marriage, on stage, to celebrity guest Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
NYGASP averaged four productions a year at Symphony Space during the 1980s and 1990s, each playing for about a week. In 1985, the orchestra was unionized, and in 1989 the company entered into an agreement with the Actors' Equity union. The company's repertoire expanded throughout the 1980s, and it gradually produced all of the extant G&S Savoy operas. There was also a short-lived attempt in 1989 to broaden the company's repertory beyond G&S, when it presented Gershwin's Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning musical Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing is a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform...
. But the experiment proved too expensive for the company, and since then, NYGASP has stayed with G&S (and a few presentations of Sullivan collaborations with other librettists). NYGASP recovered from a financially difficult 1990 with the help of supporter contributions and a willingness of its audiences to pay higher ticket prices, and the company survived (after one dark season), and continued to grow, through the 1990s, outliving the other professional light opera companies in New York City, notably the year-round Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an Off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989....
. In 1997 the company hired a professional touring management company.
Recent years
Bergeret still serves as NYGASP's Artistic Director and General Manager, and Wofford continues to create the costumes and helps to run the company, along with one or two of the original Barnard alumni and a few more recent additions to the NYGASP team, including Assistant Music Director Andrea Stryker-Rodda (since 1983); Managing Director David Wannen (since 2006); and Assistant Director David Auxier (since 2008).In 2001, NYGASP had to find a new venue because Symphony Space closed for renovations. NYGASP decided to rent City Center, a 2,750 seat theatre in midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
, for its January 2002 season. During a three-week run of Pirates, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Mikado, the company enjoyed excellent box office results and continued to perform at City Center annually thereafter. Moving to this large house further increased NYGASP's level of recognition and made it an organization with an annual budget of nearly 1.5 million dollars.
The Rose of Persia
The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 29 November 1899, closing on 28 June 1900 after a profitable run of 211 performances...
, a comic opera by Sullivan and Basil Hood
Basil Hood
Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...
that had not been performed by a professional company for over seventy years. NYGASP continues to present broadly traditional productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, usually with a number of topical references thrown in. In their Pirates production, for instance, at one point the company performs a kick-line parody of A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....
. But mostly they stay close to Gilbert's libretti.
NYGASP uses a number of different directors and conductors from time to time, but most of the productions are still directed and/or conducted by Bergeret. Notable singers who have recently performed with the company include soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Kimilee Bryant
Kimilee Bryant
Kimilee Karyn Bryant is an American actress, singer and former Miss South Carolina. Bryant is best known for playing the role of Christine Daae in the Broadway and other productions of The Phantom of the Opera, and later the role of Carlotta in the same musical. She has sung at Lincoln Center's...
(2008), Hal Linden
Hal Linden
Hal Linden is an American stage and television actor and television director, best known for his role in the television comedy series Barney Miller and as presenter on the ABC educational series Animals, Animals, Animals....
(2005), and tenors Keith Jameson (ENO
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
; NYCO
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
) and Brandon Jovanovich (San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
; NYCO), who have gone on to substantial opera careers. In reviewing the company's Pinafore in 2008, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "From a staging perspective, there is nothing remotely subtle about Mr. Bergeret’s approach. Spoken dialogue is emphatically underlined with endless mugging and exaggerated gestures.... Still, all hands treat the music with style and respect. Mr. Bergeret drew playing of bouncy refinement from the orchestra. The principals were uniformly good." In a 2010 review of Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
, the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
praised the company's "roster of principals, mostly youthful, who treat the music with lilting grace, rhythmic bravado and patter virtuosity, as needed".
NYGASP continues to tour up and down the East Coast, in the Midwest and in other parts of the U.S. several times each year, performing regularly at Wolf Trap's Filene Center
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, known locally in the Washington, D.C. area as simply Wolf Trap, is a performing arts center located on 130 acres of national park land in Wolf Trap, Virginia...
in Vienna, Virginia
Vienna, Virginia
Vienna is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 15,687. Significantly more people live in zip codes with the Vienna postal addresses bordered approximately by Interstate 66 on the south, Interstate 495 on the east, Route 7 to...
; Van Wezel Hall
Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall is a theater in Sarasota, Florida.The 1,736 seat hall's 1968-69 construction was partly funded by a bequest from local residents Lewis and Eugenia Van Wezel....
in Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
; the Mann Center
Mann Center for the Performing Arts
The Mann Center for The Performing Arts is a 14,000 seat summer musical venue located in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park. The venue operates as both an indoor performance hall and an outdoor music venue...
outside Philadelphia; McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
; the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
; and in Saratoga, New York
Saratoga, New York
Saratoga is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,141 at the 2000 census. It is also the commonly used, but not official, name for the neighboring and much more populous city, Saratoga Springs. The major village in the town of Saratoga is Schuylerville which is...
among other venues, often earning warm reviews. In 2004, the company presented two G&S productions in Buxton
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...
, England, at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival is held every summer at the Opera House in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. The three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from all...
. It also presented two full-scale productions (Pinafore and Pirates) and its cabaret-style revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
, "I've got a little twist", at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg is a borough that is the county seat, part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the eponym for the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The town hosts visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park and has 3 institutions of higher learning: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, and...
, as part of the U.S. leg of the 17th International G&S Festival. The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times is a multi-language, international media organisation. As a newspaper, the Times has been publishing in Chinese since May 2000. It was founded in 1999 by supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline....
noted, "The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players filled the Majestic Theater with color, panache, fine voices, and playfulness."
NYGASP also presents a few special events each year, usually at Symphony Space, often featuring pastiches or lesser-known Sullivan music or company members' favorite songs in concert, and there is often a segment where spontaneous audience requests are played, with orchestra, and with singers chosen on the spot by the conductor. It also offers small groups of singers for concerts, private and corporate events and outdoor performances, under the name "Wand’ring Minstrels" and a cabaret show combining and comparing Gilbert and Sullivan with musical theatre, called I've Got a Little Twist, written and directed by David Auxier. The piece won a Back Stage
Back Stage
Back Stage is an entertainment-industry brand aimed at people working in film and the performing arts, with a special focus on casting, job opportunities, and career advice.Back Stage publishes a weekly tabloid-sized trade magazine in the U.S...
Bistro Award in 2010. In addition, NYGASP groups have often performed on the "listening room" program on WQXR
WQXR-FM
WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...
radio in New York City and have been seen on the local broadcast of The Today Show on Saturday morning on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. In 2002, it produced a Gilbert and Sullivan potpourri CD, entitled Oh Joy! Oh, Rapture!.
School and outreach programs
NYGASP has an arrangement with the school district in Syosset, New York
Syosset, New York
Syosset is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York, in the northeastern section of Town of Oyster Bay near the North Shore of Long Island. The population was 18,829 at the 2010 census...
, in which, each spring, a shortened version of one of a G&S opera is presented at a school, with piano accompaniment, using NYGASP principals, and giving an opportunity to 40-60 6th grade students to act as the chorus. The music teachers teach the students their vocal parts, and then Bergeret and a NYGASP accompanist teach the students the staging and choreography of the show and refine the choral music. The children rehearse for a full day with the NYGASP principals and have the opportunity to ask any questions that may occur to them. Two performances are given by the students at their school. In addition, introductory programs are given in advance to each of the 5th and 6th grade classes in the school district, to acquaint the students with some of the material and any special concepts they may need to understand (such as "apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
" in The Pirates of Penzance or the British class structure in H.M.S. Pinafore). Sometimes the children also travel to New York City to see a full-scale NYGASP production.
External links
- NYGASP website
- Broadwayworld.com review of NYGASP's Pirates from January 18, 2005
- Article about the local 802 musician's union negotiations with NYGASP
- NY Times review of NYGASP's Mikado, January 8, 2007
- NY Post review of NYGASP's Yeomen, January 8, 2007
- NY Magazine feature, January 23, 2006 issue
- Review of NYGASP's Iolanthe at City Center (2004)
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1DA1F3CF931A15751C1A96E948260NY Times review mentioning John ReedJohn Reed (actor)John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
(1988)] - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE3D6103CF934A35752C0A963958260NY Times review mentioning Steve AllenSteve Allen (comedian)Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...
(1995)] - Profile of the company and review of Princess Ida starring Frank Gorshin (2000)
- Review of the company's Mikado (2006)
- Description of the company's annual New Year's Eve Gala
- Collection of profiles of Al Bergeret and NYGASP