It struck me a short while ago that next Wednesday is the 25th of March. That is not a date that should be expected to evoke any passion for most people, but it has a bit of a wistful zing for me.
Forty years ago on that date, the Boston Light Opera performed its first operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury", a special version that commemorated 100 years that week from the grand opening of "Trial" in London, England. It was not the first of Gilbert and Sullivan's 14 operettas, but it is the oldest surviving one still able to be performed, as the score to the very first, "Thespis", was lost to the years (though the libretto survives).
One hundred years later, the opera company I co-founded became a real, actual, honest-to-God performing enterprise. I had left medical school in 1974 to move to Boston with the intent of starting such a company to perform the English comic operas I loved and, after the usual bizarre machinations, well, there it was. And now I look back on it from the perspective of 40 years since.
I'm thinking today of the friends and associates who helped get it off the ground. We lost Norman Nuber, our principal comedian, thirty years ago and far too young, an all-too-common scenario in the theater community of the time. A few of the soloists, Cullen Casey and Marguerite Coughlin, also left us too soon.
Others have gone on to successful careers in the arts, and I salute them for their diligence. Chip Piatti, who helped so much to get the Company launched and directed productions, has continued to impart his wisdom to young men and women in the school systems and community in Boston. Linda Cameron is still performing on stage; director Kathleen Huber is indeed still directing. Chris Blair, the musical director, is still practicing as an acoustical expert.
Philip Baas, the first principal baritone, became a lawyer, but not all of us can remain pure :) Denise Freeland, principal soprano, is still teaching voice. Kathy Kluger helped found the company, and while I have not heard from her in a long time, I know things are doing well. Tim Kirwan remains in the hospitality industry managing one of Boston's largest hotels. Brian Rehrig, a close friend and accompanist, is still a close friend despite the distance.
The Company survived several years. We made some mistakes -- not extending our initial three-week run of "Pirates of Penzance" in year two when it started to sell out the last weekend, for one. But we were young, we learned, and hopefully everyone who was a part of it and enjoyed their association remembers fondly an incident or two ... and remembers all their colleagues as I enjoy thinking of them.
I sang my last performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas in 1978, the last of 75 productions. Each and every one of them means something to me, but this week I will remember especially a double bill of "Trial by Jury" and "HMS Pinafore" done by an underfunded new company to celebrate the 100th anniversary of "Trial." As Edwin, the lead tenor, I lost the soprano in the end (whom I had "tired of") to the Judge, but I won a different battle that day.
I helped bring a fun art form to a community who enjoyed it. And now I appreciate all who helped do that.
Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
Sad to report the passing of Chip Piatti and Brian Rehrig, co-founder and accompanist/performer, in the past couple years. Being in our 70s has its own issues, and saying goodbye to people you've known for decades is one of them. I remember my dad at 95, complaining that all his friends "had gone and died on him."
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