Victor's Gilbert and Sullivan Addiction
Background:
Although only twelve years of age, Victor was pretty
much "fully grown" at the begining of
World War II. As a result he benefited from the fact that his
older brethren were off serving their country and there was a great
shortage of young males for nearly every activity. In the context
of
this note, it meant that he had the opportunity to sing with several
adult choirs and musical theater groups. In particular, Victor
became a member of quite a good group called (what else could you
imagine) The Victory Players which
performed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at local military facilities
and other "semi-patriotic" venues.
This was the start of Victor's addiction to the great masters and
musical theater.
He continued to do musical theater - particularly Gilbert and
Sullivan - through high school and
early college. In high school he wrote, produced, directed and
appeared in three or four short, but pretty good, musical reviews.
Then career, life and family intervened and for over
fifty years he did not perform in any musical theater. However,
over
these years, Bernice and Victor were ardent fans of Gilbert and
Sullivan groups in Britain and the Boston area. As retirement
approached, Victor decided to have one last crack at the masters and
joined a wonderful group called the Savoyard Light Opera Company (SLOC)
for a decade of great fun and camaraderie.
A 2004 SLOC Program Note says it all:
In recent years, Victor has
appeared in The Savoyard
Light Opera Company (SLOC) productions of The Mikado (2002),
The Pirates of Penzance (2000),
The Gondoliers (1998), Ruddigore (1996) and The
Yeomen of
the Guard (1994). He also appeared in the 1995 Mes Amis
production
of The Pirates of Penzance. He will soon appear in SLOC's
production
of Iolanthe. In an earlier epoch, he appeared, among others, in John
Falls's
Victory Players productions of The Gondoliers, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, Trial by Jury,
and The Pirates of Penzance (Oakland, California,
1942-45). When
not venerating the Gilbert and Sullivan aesthetic, Victor spends his
time
professing the elegant beauties of electromagnetic theory at a college
in
Cambridge.
The Gondoliers
Victory Players, 1944
(with Francis Falls)
|
The Savoyard Light Opera
Company (SLOC), 1998
|
The Mikado
|
(with Philip Drew)
|
|
The Savoyard Light Opera
Company (SLOC), 2002
|
Yeomen of the Guard
The Savoyard Light Opera
Company (SLOC), 1994
|
The Pirates of Penzance
As Major-General in non Victory Players productions, 1946
Sometime Venue of Victory Players of Oakland California
|
