I Gondolieri (the Lifeguards)

Sunday, February 8, 2004 » music school thought

Last night we went to go see UCSB's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers, featuring the illustrious Bill Brown (as the swingin' Don Alhambra). I really didn't know what to expect, having never really been to an opera before, let alone a college opera. I was actually very impressed. The orchestra performed superbly, and the cast sounded amazing. I may not have been able to understand 90% of what they were saying, but it still sounded amazing.

That turned out to be a common problem, at least. After the show, both Morgan and Laura mentioned difficulty understanding all of the lines. It was very disorienting—when the gondoliers first appeared and began singing in Italian, I thought, What? Has everything been in Italian? There were definitely some words in English in the first song... right? The only performer I could consistently understand was, in fact, Bill. It must be the fact that he apparently spends around 27 hours a day singing.

The change of scenery from atop the traditional Venetian canals to Venice Beach was unexpected and allowed opportunities for a lot of surfer-related humor (although, it being a UCSB production, I have to admit I was ever-so-slightly disturbed). Also falling into the funny-yet-disturbing category is [ending revelation approaching] that the sunglasses-and-leather-clad Austrian bodyguard (another creative liberty, I'm assuming) ended up assuming the presidency of the state, and was even sworn in at a podium blatantly adorned with the Seal of California.

All in all, it was an excellent production. The only real unpleasantry was that sitting somewhere behind me was the person with the Worst Breath, and I was aware of it until the second act, for which he was fortunately absent.