The University of Texas Vocal Ensemble is set to offer the comedic opera “Pirates of Penzance” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 415 N. Lee Ave.
Performances are free and seating is open. The director and conductor is David Corman, UTPB adjunct professor of voice, and Nichole Rougeau-Vanderford, UTPB senior English lecturer, is in charge of costumes and props.
Cole Carter is in charge of sound and choreography is by Maija Johnson.
According to Royal Museums Greenwich website, the operetta is set in Cornwall in Victorian times.
“It tells the adventures of the love-struck Frederic, who is indentured to a group of comically useless and tender-hearted pirates. This operetta explores the timeless themes of courage, duty and honour, as well as being a social commentary of its times,” the site said.
Corman said “Pirates of Penzance” is probably the most famous of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas.
“They tried … to do some serious work, but actually they found they were so good at comedy they kind of drifted toward these operettas,” Corman said. “They were giant successes about the turn of the century, about the 1890s.”
The show runs about an hour and a half and is sponsored by UTPB and First United Methodist Church, Corman said.
The UPTB Vocal Ensemble has performed “Into the Woods,” “Sweeney Todd” and “The Three Little Pigs.”
About 20 students are part of the group.
“It’s an interdisciplinary collaboration,” Rougeau-Vanderford said. “We are working toward a theater minor. We really hope to get to that point in the near future, so this is just a really fun way of bringing in music and English. In the future, we’re going to bring in art to try and create a little larger scale productions. We’re looking at some straight plays later, but for now we’re … in the musical theater realm.”
Rougeau-Vanderford said she searches for costumes, but also embellishes them.
“We ordered several of them from Amazon, but then we have a very small collection at UTPB. The Permian Playhouse was very generous and allowed me to go through their costume loft and pull some pieces. I go with the director’s vision and what the director hopes to accomplish, so we have a little bit of a nod to the late 19th-early 20th century. Then we … have some comical pieces,” she said.
Corman said the operetta is zany and that’s something that’s needed right now.
“I’ve also added some characters and made it even more Monty Pythonesque, a little, because G&S is kind of some of the beginnings of the English humor. This is kind of zany, out-of-the-universe humor. Our goal is to make people laugh unashamedly, and I think out of COVID … we need a good belly laugh,” Corman said.
Rougeau-Vanderford said she likes Pirates of Penzance because it’s very simple in terms of theater production.
“It’s not the big, elaborate stage with settings and movable pieces. It’s all about the characters coming through and these kids are so talented. Their voices are beautiful and that is what we’re highlighting in this production, so it’s really kind of honing in on the early theater style,” Rougeau-Vanderford said.
Corman said there is a lot of patter music, but also operatic.
“That’s also part of the reason I chose it is because I want my singers to experience tough singing,” he said.
Rougeau-Vanderford said she thinks the public is going to enjoy the piece and introduce them to a wonderful dimension of operatic arts.
“And it’s a good production for all ages. Anyone can come in and enjoy this piece,” she said.
Corman added that it would be good even for grade school children.
Coming in March 2022 will be the opera “Pagliacci” at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center.
