In a colorful combination of romance and comedy, The Biola Opera performed “The Gondoliers,” a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, last week. The performance looks back to a romanticized period in Venice, Italy, while also adding hints of modern humor.

SYNOPSIS

“The Gondoliers” is a collaborative work made by Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert in 1889. The story is set in Venice, Italy, and follows the story of two gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe. They are one day informed (after getting married to two women) that they were mixed up as infants, and that one of them is the heir to the late King of Barataria. They set off with their friends and their republican ideals to temporarily rule the Kingdom of Barataria as a diarchy while the matter is settled.

However, they do not know that the heir was married, as an infant, to Casilda, daughter of the Duke of Plaza Toro. Though this would make her the Queen of Barataria, this is an unfortunate piece of news, as she is already in love with her father’s personal drummer, Luiz.

As the story progresses, the audience sees multiple characters, all with problems in their romantic endeavors, accidentally collide against one another in awkward, yet humorous ways.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Senior musical theater major Jesenya Rivera-Puls, who was both an assistant director and a part of the cast, described “The Gondoliers” as a fun show, with both comedic and sentimental beats throughout it. In terms of production, Puls noted that the show was relatively easy in terms of getting people to produce music. However, challenges arose when it came to the other two aspects of opera: dancing and acting. While most of the cast were knowledgeable in vocal performance, others marked this as their first time producing an opera, which meant they had very little knowledge of dancing or acting.

“With Biola, we don’t really have a large capacity for dancing in any way shape or form,” Puls said, referring to the lack of sanctioned dancing classes. “Having to help teach people to dance was probably the hardest thing to do.” 

Puls noted that they had to teach beginners the basics, such as balance, stage awareness and partner dancing. They also had to teach basic principles of acting.

While Puls admitted that teaching the basics was not something they did every day, especially during production, the team was still able to overcome the challenge. Music theater majors would help vocal performance majors, who would be able to catch on fairly quickly.
“Everyone in the cast just did a phenomenal job,” Puls said. “It was wonderful to watch everyone on stage being themselves and doing the things we’ve been working on for the past, like, four months.”

Look forward to more events from our conservatory and theater program on their events page.