"RUDDIGORE" - The Stanford Savoyards (Full Show)
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2013
- I had the honor of directing this wonderful show for The Stanford Savoyards. Fantastic group of people (cast list below), a real pleasure to work with. Music direction by Paul Zawilski. Loosely themed on the style of Tim Burton. Cast list below...
Robin Oakapple - Richard Copperwaite
Rose Maybud - Sophie Christel
Richard Dauntless - Gerar Mazarakis
Dame Hannah - Ewa Nowicki
Sir Despard Murgatroyd - Greg Anderson
Mad Margaret - Lara Palanjian
Sir Roderic Murgatroyd - Graham Roth
Old Adam - Jeremiah Lee
Costume Designer - Rachel Whalon
Makeup Designer - Kacey Marton - Zábava
This may be nine years old now, but the wonder of CZcams is that, for some of us, this can still be the first viewing! I know Ruddigore well but this is the first American production I've seen or heard. A really impressive effort!
Thanks for your kind words! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
WWWWOOOOOAAAAhhhh I worked on this production as the costume designer (and some set painting lol) I cannot believe this many people have seen this video. The mad margaret and despard of this show were so fun to work with. heck, they all were. And this crew has the best cast parties.
Sorry, I missed this comment somehow until now. You did such an AMAZING job with these costumes!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the hard work you poured into this!!
This was one of my most favourite shows to perform in in the Savs pit orchestra. This brought back some wonderful memories 🥰
Thank you for playing! You guys did such a beautiful job with the music! I'm glad the video brought back good memories for you.
You’re welcome!! It was a fantastic group of musicians, am still in touch with a few :)
Love your channel, thank you for sharing the arts with all ✨😊
Ruddigore has always been my favorite G&S opera, but I had never seen a performance that was as good as I imagined it could be when I read the libretto. Until I saw this one. It's absolutely wonderful. I always imagined it with a Tim Burton-esque style, and to see it performed as such was a dream come true. All the performers are marvelous--incredible talent on display here!
A Ruined Chapel by Moonlight Wow, thank you for sharing that! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!!
It is many years since I visited the delightful village of Redherring. I attended boarding school in an old, gold-mining town noted for its many schools, asylums and aged care facilities - the perfect place for Gilbert and Sullivan's operattas, now that I come to think of it!
Each year the larger schools would put on a full scale production and tour it around the larger towns. They were very popular, and the talent they brought to the fore was astounding. I was in the chorus of bridesmaids, and loved it, the music, the fun, the whole experience. Thank you for bringing back the memories with your first-class performance. 🇦🇺
That's an awesome story! Thank you for sharing!
I really like this Despard and Maragaret. He's so smarmy and charmingly dull, and she's so amusingly insane and eccentric. They work very well together.
All of the characters are done very well.
My favourite G&S Opera. Despard & Mad Margaret stole the show and Rose Maybud had a great voice. Shame about Dick Dauntless, but not his fault really as he is obviously not a tenor - but his dancing was great. All in all a really good production. Thank you everyone involved.
A couple of the pieces in Ruddigore are wonderful and the rhyming text is cleverly constructed if one actually listens carefully. I was a chorus member in this show in college in 1980. It was fun to perform.
Great production.....I love Ruddigore. This particular Despard and Mad Margaret have terrific chemistry!
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! This cast was a pleasure to work with. The folks who played Despard and Margaret (Greg Anderson and Lara Palanjian) were as delightful off the stage as they were on it. It was a lot of fun exploring these wonderfully eccentric characters with them. :)
This production was actually my first exposure to Ruddigore, and I have definitely fallen in love with it. I'm amazed it isn't as well known as Pinafore/Mikado/Pirates. Such a shame. People don't know what they're missing.
@@AStageForTheKingdom I'd heard some people have the nerve to refer to it as 'Bloody Bore'. I strongly suspect they've never heard it. Thanks for posting!
@@AStageForTheKingdom Ruddigore is my second favourite. It was mocked when it first came out as 'Not So Good as the Mikado' - but I like it better! Not that I don't LOVE Mikado, but - Mad Margaret! And the ghosts! And Rose's waltz! And 'blow your own trumpet or trust me you haven't a chance!' And above all, cheating at income tax is not a crime! 😂 It's utterly golden. And this particular production is amazing.
If anyone is looking for "My eyes are fully open", it's @ 1:59:10. The ghost scene @ 1:36:40.
Not a bad effort, but oh dear Dick`s accent. It changes from Cornish to Cockney then to a funny Irish, and back again with a touch of Norfolk twang in there somewhere. This tar has certainly travelled about a bit. :-)
I enjoy the Tim Burton touch. Very original! Very nice! :)
1:13:30 First "Hail Poetry", now the madrigal here in Ruddigore. Ya'll are really good at the acapella choral sections. Especially love Richard's extra "fa la la la la". I love this. I love the Tim Burton theme. I love Mad Margaret.
Thanks Kayleigh! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I live in hopes for the day my local society puts on Ruddigore so I can try out for her. I am a soprano not a mezzo, but for Margaret I will change that! 😆
Going by "The Battle's Roar", apparently Gerar isn't really a tenor but a light baritone.
You are correct. At least at that time, he was best suited for baritone roles. However, in this case he was the closest thing to a tenor that showed up for auditions, and of the few male auditionees, he was also the one best suited for this role from an acting/personality standpoint.
I thought the old woman was really an old woman, so I thought it was odd at one point with a young looking man pretending to be in love with someone so much older..
I later realized..that makeup rocks.
:D
That bothered me a bit at first, too. But then it hit me... Dame Hannah would've aged 10 years that Sir Roderic didn't, so of course he'd be younger!
I have yet to find an American who can do a convincing English accent, it is probably the same for us Brits doing an American accent. The common mistake is to believe that there is one English accent, there are many. The difference between a Birmingham (the one in the UK) and a Norwich accent as say between a Bronx and an Atlanta. On the other hand, Margaret and Rose both do pretty well, in fact I would love to hear more of them.
Incredible performance 🎭 fantastic work ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Thanks Richard! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
My absolute pleasure guys 👍👍👍👍👍
This story is utter balderdash and I enjoyed it immensely. The high point is 1:50:49 "I once was a very abandoned person...". The orchestra plays top quality throughout.
Brilliant acting by Richard Copperwaite as Robin! He reminds me a lot of David Tennant in Doctor Who.
Also thoroughly enjoyable acting from Lara Palanjian as Mad Margaret. Gerar Mazarakis is a good actor too, but it's a shame he was cast in the wrong voice part...
The costumes and stage design are also original and delightful. Well done, everyone! :)
Seems like Mazarakis had direction to sing as sour as he could, in part to portray a somewhat unreliable and possibly drunk seafaring tar. That's parallel to the deliberate mispronunciations written into the script/libretto.
I read through some of the other comments and AWorldWithoutTenors states clearly that Gerar was simply cast out of his vocal range due to lack of suitable Tenors at audition. I thought it was a defensible directorial decision as a play on his character, but now I don't know what to think. Ah well.
The young lady playing Mad Margaret very nearly stole it!
I disagree, Margaret in my eyes should be eccentric and mad and all the rest, but I would prefer a deep husky mezzo soprano sound. Instead we get thin very childish sort of sound and phrases that are sung far too quickly in the opening intro scene. All in all very amateurish.
Dragan Atanasov ...Aaaand that's exactly what makes theatre so great! It's art! It's a subjective medium. What is great art to one person is terrible to another (and vice versa). I'm sorry this production didn't meet your approval.
AWorldWithoutTenors Who says it didn't meet my approval? It's a great production overall. My preferences don't mean I dislike something, it just means they are my preferences.
Dragan Atanasov My apologies. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Happy New Year and all the very best!! :)
As Ruddigore is not on of my top five in G&S, I have to say this was most amusing. It does have some wonderful music, and I am very fond of the hornpipe number as well as " When the Night Wind " This production would have looked a lot better if the director got rid of th eTim Burton look. Have the cornish fishing villiage in the first act and the gallery of ancestors in the second act as intended. The traditional costumes would have looked very nice on stage, and enhanced the company even more. It was a good, thoght.....
Ruddigore is one of my favourite. Just had my fill at the 23rd International G&S Festival in Harrogate/UK - a great annual event, usually in August - highly recommended :) Those of you who want to know more, you can check on www.gsfestivals.org :)
Some instruments in the orchestra sound painfully out of tune.
and for the singers (male leads especially) pitches, pitches, pitches!
Not the easiest of Operettas. Forgiving the Americanisms that crept in, an entertaining production. A little more solemnity required at times and less clowning perhaps - it was breaking the pomposity (cf Poo Bah in the Mikado) which Victorians found funny. Well done. It must have been great fun to do.
I spy Madeleine on the cello and the incomperable Joel on the oboe, no wonder it's the orchestra is so good!.
This is to be Savoy's next opera down in Philadelphia. I hope our director has something to match the Tim Burton-stylized theme of this one. I loved how they tortured Robin with a shrill rendition of "Poor Wandering One". But nowhere does it say who plays old Adam.
Sorry I didn't see this sooner! Thank you for pointing out that the description didn't list the actor who played Old Adam. His name is Jeremiah Lee. I have updated the description. Hope your production went well!
i have to say that Sophie Christel acts and sings the role of Rose the best I have seen......
I only just discovered that this recording exists - and am so flattered to see your comment! It was a terrifically fun role to play. Thanks so much for your kind words.
Anyone else see the Nightmare Before Christmas' Hill?
But I agree - although it's quite drole, but Dick's accent collection is quite something - would have been better for him to stick to plain English - yes m'dear :)
Does Sir Despard remind anybody else of Richmond from 'The IT Crowd'?
love Americans doing English accents so much
Is it more, or do those opening few bars draw heavy influence from Camille Saint-Saëns's _Danse macabre_ ? And to think, John Williams gets all the hate for stealing from past composers, when that's exactly what composers have been doing for centuries now.
1:15 Similarly, I think Andrew Lloyd Webber may have been a big fan of Sullivan's work, since he appears to have stolen this bit when writing "Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat".
1:32:10 Huh... I noticed they cut the second verse of "Happily coupled are we", presumably because it made Rose seem like a clingy jealous girl. (Basically, she expresses paranoia that Richard will flirt with other women.)
Those are some really interesting observations! You may well be right! Thanks for sharing!
It would be nice to tell us the names of the cast, after all the singers are more important then the conductor!
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm in performances for another show at the moment but I'll add the names in the description box as soon as I get a chance.
I'm sure why the character who played Richard was chosen for his speech defect that produced such pronunciation, but for the life of me I can't understand why he was chosen when he couldn't sing in tune with the orchestra or his colleagues. Apart from that it's an easy way to have music in the background. Pease, all amateur dramatic and choral societies everywhere, no matter how sorry you feel for someone never be tempted to put them in a public singing role if they can't sing !!!!
00diddyeckerslike The performer in question can sing, but at this time he was most definitely not a tenor, which the role calls for. He was perfect for the role as far as acting goes, and we had nobody else who could sing the part better. Vocally, it was a bit unfair of us to cast him this role, buf we really didn't have any other choice, and like I said, he was a really good fit from an acting perapective.
At the time, we were drastically short of male performers. We were very lucky to be able to fill all of the roles. This was a very small amateur/volunteer production. None of these people were professional performers. Some had theatrical training/experience, some didn't. We didn't even have a full production staff. Personally, I had never directed anything like this and was in way over my head, especially given the lack of production staff, but the group was desperate and I was technically available despite working on two other shows at the same time. What we achieved was not perfection, but I believe it was at least entertaining. At the end of the day, that's all you can expect from any theatre production at any level. I am very proud of all of these performers for persevering through tremendously difficult circumstances. I really believe what we achieved was the best we could possibly have done with what we had under the circumstances.
Context is important.
He is an entertaining actor though, and well suited to the role in other ways......
@@AStageForTheKingdom My society is ALWAYS so short tenors we sometimes have to beg, borrow, bribe or outright STEAL one, so anyone who has experienced this in musical theatre will completely understand and empathize. Richard had a great voice even if some of the notes were a bit high for him (our Frederic in Pirates had the same difficulty so no judgement here), and his acting was a delight and brought the role to life for me, which is what really matters!
I forget which actor it was Gilbert specifically told - 'We didn't write this part so you could sing it WELL.' The humour of the show is enhanced and made more meaningful when not everyone sings it like grand opera! It's supposed to be fun! And this certainly is.
You really need mature voices for Gilbert and Sullivan.
pitches, pitches, pitches!
Impressive band for an amateur show.
Thanks! Glad you liked it! :)
You can't get away from it, the American accented English just doesn't feel right for Gilbert & Sullivan. We Australians strive to loose our accents for G & S. In fact the Australian Opera company is one of the best, but then that is a professional company.
Gilbert always shrived for correct pronunciation of words and believe me there is a correct way of speaking the English language, Americans do not unless coached properly.
Robert Scott Ironically, one of these actors is actually from England and has a very natural English accent. :)
There are English accents and English accents, Gilbert strived for correctly pronounced English, there is a way of speaking English without accents. You must remember English underwent a great deal of change over the centuries. Elizabethian English is hard for modern English speakers to understand.
Well, back when I lived in the US, the audience could barely understand our very FAKE British accents; I don't think a lot of American audiences would enjoy the show if proper accents were used - no one would understand the words! It's difficult enough to get the British humour across.
I love the music, but the Richard Burton looks has to go. I prefer the costumes the way Gilbert and Sullivan meant them to be.
Erica Ryon While I agree that the Tim Burton theme is very much "love it or hate it", it's very close-minded and arrogant to think that you know what way Gilbert And Sullivan would have wanted this show to be done. They wrote shows making fun of stuffy old establishments, of people who insisted there was only one right way to do things. G&S were about as open-minded as playwrights get. I'm sure they would be delighted to see people continuing the tradition of shaking things up, of making bold and unusual decisions. Beyond that though, G&S (and any show really) would get very boring if it was always done the exact same way with the exact same settings, costumes, props, etc. Sometimes it's good to re-envision the look of a show, while still keeping the characters, music, script, etc, as written. That is art. If everybody painted the same way, we'd never have gotten Van Gogh. If everyone wrote music the same way, we'd never have gotten the breathtaking array of composers and styles that have come about throughout history. Art should NEVER be done the same way twice, because that isn't true art. Anyone can learn to copy those who have come before. But it takes a true artist to boldly step out and do something totally different. Thank God for productions like this one! Art isn't dead! People can still use their imaginations and think for themselves.
I partially agree with you, but IMHO Ruddigore is not suitable for the Tim Burton look, since unlike most G & S, which is set in what were then contemporary times, Ruddigore was deliberately written as a period piece. I like to think that were he alive today, Gilbert would think of Ruddigore as being a satire on the likes of Poldark!
IMHO an opera that WOULD work with the Tim Burton look would be The Sorceror, a story which is more up Tim's street & would look good with a Burton inspired staging.
@@maxadamescu5297 Interestingly, I just went to see a production of the Sorcerer set 'In the Present Day' - because that is LITERALLY what Gilbert wrote in the libretto. So it was staged in the present day; and it was actually fascinating how everything fit into a 'modern' English village that looks exactly like where I live now - things haven't changed as much from the 19th century as some think! The pub, the church, the village green, everybody eager for a block party and all the latest gossip - and the vague contempt for the 'Londoner' sorcerer that really can only be understood if you live in the English countryside . . .