Tag Archives: operetta

Downpatrick Choral Society: The early years

Music theatre, Uncategorized, , ,

Contributor: Mathew Campbell

Just like any new company or indeed business, the beginning can be a bumpy process and indeed sometimes slow to take flight. Speaking with some past members of Downpatrick Choral Society (St Patrick’s), they never fail to remind me that it was those early years that produced some of the most wonderful stories and memories. Nothing was as uniform as it might seem today and the term “rough and ready” may have been thrown into conversation now and then, however this did not stop a dedicated group producing some wonderfully memorable productions.

Downpatrick Choral Society held its inaugural concert in 1962 in the beautiful surroundings of The Great Hall auditorium situated in the Downshire Estate. I find this quite apt as The Great Hall is now, and has been, the home of Downpatrick Choral society since the late ‘90s.

Founding member Maureen Keohane recalls how “a small group of people with a common interest in singing, came together in the front room of Mrs Kathleen Rafferty’s house in Irish Street to prepare for the debut”. Those rehearsals around the fire are quite a juxtaposition to how rehearsals currently run in the local parish hall. I’ve heard many times how those initial weeks of rehearsal during cold winter Tuesday and Thursday evenings were responsible for some lifelong memories. (Kelly, Keohane, 40th Anniversary Concert Programme) 

After the success of a series of concerts from 1962-63, the society embarked on their first musical production ‘The Bohemian Girl’, an opera by Alfred Bunn and Michael Balfe. Bunn was a well known English theatre manager who held managerial positions at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, and also the Theatre Royal in Birmingham between 1823 – 1830. Balfe on the other hand was an Irish composer, violinist and opera singer. He also notably spent some seven years directing Italian Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre. In total, Balfe has composed over 29 operas from a career spanning 40 years. Their most famous work ‘The Bohemian Girl‘ may be remembered by us now for producing the haunting aria ‘I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls’ sung many times by another founding member and respected local singer Anne Quinn. ‘The Bohemian Girl’ ran from Monday 2nd – Wednesday 4th March 1964 in The Canon’s Hall, Downpatrick (now the site of the Patrician Youth Centre). The leading roles were played by Oliver McGrady (Devilshoof), Bernard McDevitt (Florestein) and Maureen Keohane (Queen of the Gypsies). I also found it quite interesting to note the price of a programme in 1964 which was 6 pence (equivalent to £1.16 in 2018) compared to today’s price of £3.

Newspaper advertisement, Down Recorder (1964)

 

This production was very much a local effort with many members turning a hand to scenic design, costume gathering and various other ‘behind the scenes’ jobs, a factor of the society that I can proudly say is still very much the same today.

Scenery was for many years the creation of award winning set designer Mr Francie Morgan. I have had the pleasure of training under Francie and can endorse that even today he is still a master at his craft. Sadly many of his lavish sets were destroyed some years later when the Canon’s hall caught fire.

(Keohane, 40th Anniversary Concert Programme)

The years which followed saw the society begin to explore the world of light operetta and notably works by Gilbert & Sullivan. It wasn’t until 1982 that the society staged what we class today as a pure musical theatre piece, that was indeed a production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘Oklahoma’. The society had wonderful success staging productions of ‘The Mikado’ (1970) and ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ (1973) and in the 15 years since its inauguration, consolidated itself as a thriving music society.

The early years of Downpatrick Choral Society were by all accounts a very special time. I am very privileged to still perform with some of the founding members of the company and also humbled to discover that my late grandfather Mr Brendan Rice was a member of the gentleman’s chorus of that first production in 1964.

Past Productions (1962 – 1980)

1962    Inaugural Concert

1963    Series Of Concerts

1964    The Bohemian Girl

1965    Maritana

1966    Carmen (Concert Version)

1968    Trial By Jury

1969    The Gondoliers

1970    The Mikado

1971    HMS Pinafore/Trial By Jury

1972    Concert

1973    The Pirates Of Penzance

1974    Iolanthe

1975    The Mikado

1976    Waltzes From Vienna

1977    Concerts

1978    The Arcadians

1979    The Merry Widow

1980    Gypsy Love

Sources 

Letters written to St Patrick’s Choral Society by Gerry Kelly & Maureen Keohane for publication in the 40th Anniversary Concert Programme (2002)

List of previous productions

http://www.stpatrickschoralsociety.co.uk

Image courtesy of Downpatrick Choral Society archive

Downpatrick Choral Society: A new kind of musical theatre

Music theatre, Uncategorized, , ,

Contributor: Matthew Campbell

Many people today tend to disregard the light operetta as a form of musical theatre, or even forget that it is in fact an early form of musical theatre rather than a different genre. It cannot be classed as purely opera if we are to compare it to say Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ for example, and William Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan) once remarked during a rehearsal for ‘HMS Pinafore’ that “unfortunately this is not Italian Opera, but only a burlesque of the worst possible kind” (Gilbert, Gilbert & Sullivan; A Biography, 1935) however there is no doubt that the early works of Gilbert & Sullivan do indeed resemble an operatic style even if they are not to be considered so.

What we are subsequently faced with is a new genre under the title ‘Musical Theatre’ that many regard to have begun in 1927 with the publishing of Jerome Kerne’s ‘Showboat’. This new era of music theatre seemed to be much more appealing to a wider audience of both spectators and performers and indeed the volume of works that have emerged since is quite remarkable if compared to those under the genre of light operetta. This genre within itself appears to be uncapped as even today new musicals are written and categorised as musical theatre meaning that the genre spans almost a century with no sign of it slowing down.

Why do I mention this? Well as I was examining a list of past productions by Downpatrick Choral Society, I noticed something rather strange along the timeline. From 1964 – 1981, all of the productions staged were of an early music theatre or light operetta genre (works such as The Mikado, Iolanthe & The Gondoliers). However, in 1982 the society staged a production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, a musical planted quite firmly in a sub-genre that is now know as ‘The Golden Age’ of musical theatre (works written between 1943 – 1959).
See http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/timelines/1943-1959/ for more information on ‘The Golden Age’ of musical theatre,

I found this abrupt shift in genres quite surprising and indeed the timeline that followed did provoke some questions.

1982 – Oklahoma
1983 – The Pirates of Penzance
1984 – Patience
1985 – Waltzes from Vienna
1986 – The Gondoliers
1987 – Fiddler On The Roof
1988 – Carousel
1989 – Ham
1990 – The Sound of Music

Notice how after Oklahoma in 1982, the society returned to older, more familiar repertoire of an earlier genre for the following four years and I am intrigued as to why. Was it that the audience reaction did not agree with a new genre of work and therefore they retreated to a safer option, or perhaps the performers themselves did not like the new style of work and preferred to return to what they were more comfortable with. Either way it seems rather strange that after one production they company then retired the idea for at least four years before attempting something ‘different’ again.

Now in 1987 when they staged ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, there appears to be a more consistent trail of the works which followed as they at this point had taken to performing several works from the new ‘Golden Age’ of musical theatre. I can only assume by this stage that the reception of these newer genre style pieces was more welcoming as from that moment moving forward there appeared to be a turning point in the types of work being staged, all of which was newer more commercial material that wouldn’t be out of place on the West End of Broadway stage today.

I must point out that in 1989 the company were months into rehearsals for a production of ‘South Pacific’ when the licensing company withdrew the performance rights to the production without warning. At this point the director at the time, Peter Kennedy, produced a script for a piece called ‘Ham’ which he had written himself. With three weeks to go until opening night, the company took to learning this brand new piece which by all accounts went down very well with the local audience.

Basil Kelly (L) & Brian Trainor (R) in OKLAHOMA! (1994)

Image courtesy of Downpatrick Choral Society archive

Sources
Hesketh, Pearson, Gilbert & Sullivan; A Biography (Hamish Hamilton LTD. 1935)
Fiddler on The Roof – 50th Anniversary production programme (2012)