New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players Present GALA Opening Concert 10/16

America's foremost Gilbert & Sullivan repertory ensemble, the New YorK Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP), is happy to announce that its new fall, winter and spring season will kick off with a Season Gala Opening Concert on Sunday, October 16th (5PM) at Peter Norton Symphony Space (2535 Broadway at 95th Street). The schedule will also include afternoon presentations of: The Grand Duke (November 13th), Patience (March 11th) and Iolanthe (May 19th & 20th), as well as a week-long engagement of The Pirates of Penzance (December 28th - January 1st) which includes a gala New Year's Eve performance on December 31st. All performances will feature the full score and dialogue with NYGASP's cast and orchestra in staged productions.

Under the artistic and music direction of Albert Bergeret, the company has presented over 2,600 performances throughout the United States, Canada, and England. Incorporating a 25-piece orchestra, its productions feature contemporary energy while retaining a traditional respect for each of the G&S masterpieces. New YorK Gilbert & Sullivan Players is considered by many to be the nation's "leading custodian of the G&S classics."

The Season Gala Opening Concert on Sunday, October 16th (5PM) will highlight an afternoon of fun when NYGASP Artistic Director Albert Bergeret and his merry crew present a champagne gala performance of favorite G&S scenes, songs, parodies, overtures, and the ever-popular tour-de-force challenge - audience requests performed impromptu with full orchestra. Audience members will enjoy a complimentary glass of bubbly at intermission.

The tangled plot of The Grand Duke, or The Statutory Duel involves an acting troupe engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow the miserly and mean spirited grand duke of a small German duchy. When the troupe's leading comedian, Ludwig, accidentally discloses the conspiracy to the Grand Duke's detective, only by means of a rigged statutory duel, fought with cards rather than weapons, is a mass execution avoided - with Ludwig installed as Grand Duke for a day. Then a series of weddings ensues for Ludwig, the first to the love of his choice and thereafter to women with legally binding and over-riding claims on the unwitting new Grand Duke, winding up with the arrival of The Prince of Monte Carlo and his daughter The Princess who was betrothed to The Grand Duke in infancy. Through his invention of roulette The Prince has escaped from poverty and come to claim The Grand Duke's hand for his daughter. When it is revealed that the rigged statutory duel, won by an ace over a king, was incorrectly ruled upon because the statute explicitly states that the ace shall count as the lowest - not the highest - card, all are restored to their proper loves and a truly joyous multiple wedding celebration occurs.

The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty centers on the dilemma of young Frederic who, as a child, was mistakenly apprenticed to the pirates until his twenty first birthday. Helping Frederic to deal with this unusual predicament are the brash Pirate King, Ruth - the pirate maid-of-all-work, romantic Mabel, and the delightfully stuffy Major-General Stanley. On the rocky coast of Cornwall, England a band of tenderhearted pirates celebrates the coming of age of their apprentice, Frederic. Although Frederic's apprenticing to pirates was the mistake of his nurse maid Ruth, he has dutifully served, but he now announces his plan to devote his life to the extermination of piracy. The naive young man meets a group of beautiful girls, their father, the delightfully dotty Major-General, and enlists the help of some bumbling and diffident policemen. But Ruth and the Pirate King tell Frederic that his apprentice papers state that he won't be of age until his 21st birthday, which won't occur until the distant date of 1940 because Frederic was born in leap year on the 29th of February. Frederic is doomed to remain the pirate apprentice. The policemen try to capture the pirates on their own, but are easily defeated. Everyone is happy to discover that the pirates are really all "noblemen who have gone wrong", so all is forgiven in the end.

Patience or, Bunthorne's Bride features the sweet and vivacious village milkmaid of the title who cannot comprehend the languid infatuation of all the other ladies in town with Reginald Bunthorne, a self-styled disciple of the aesthetic movement. In true Gilbertian fashion, Bunthorne's only true interest is Patience, the one woman who does not fall for his overblown pretensions. In stark contrast is a band of Dragoon Guards, stuffy military men, who come home looking for their former sweethearts only to find them inexplicably enamored of the newly minted aesthete. When Patience decides it is her duty to take Bunthorne off the market, all of the former lovers are temporarily reunited, until the appearance of Archibald Grosvenor, another self-absorbed aesthete whose fatal curse is "to be madly loved at first sight by every woman" he comes across. The ladies immediately switch their affections to this new apostle, even though Grosvenor is really in love with his former childhood play fellow, the confused milkmaid. Bunthorne is devastated by the loss of his star status until he convinces Grosvenor to renounce aestheticism, but this backfires when the women all decide that if Archibald the All-Right "chooses to discard aestheticism, it proves that aestheticism ought to be discarded". The Dragoons all claim their former loves, Patience rejects Bunthorne in favor of the now common Grosvenor, and Bunthorne is left with nothing to admire but his mirror and a lily - one of the symbols of the aesthetic movement.

Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri centers on the burning question, can a man who is half a fairy find happiness in a world where to marry a mortal is a capital offense? When the Fairy Queen's best friend, Iolanthe, returns to fairyland after a 25 year banishment for having committed such a crime, she tells her fairy sisters that she has a son, Strephon, a man who has the mixed blessing of being half a fairy. When Strephon is thwarted in his attempts to marry the beautiful Phyllis by a group of stodgy politicians from the House of Lords and a deliciously conflicted Lord Chancellor, he calls upon the supernatural powers of his newly discovered "aunts". The ensuing impasse results in a riotous battle of the sexes which cannot be resolved until Iolanthe, following her motherly instincts, puts her life on the line to reveal that the Lord Chancellor is her husband and Strephon's father. But all fairy tales have happy endings, so the fairy law is amended, allowing everyone to get married and perhaps change their minds afterwards. As Strephon says, "That's the usual course!"

The NYGASP 2011-12 season is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties.

Performance times for The New YorK Gilbert & Sullivan Players' 37th season at the Peter Norton Symphony Space (2535 Broadway at 95th Street) are as follows: Season Gala Opening Concert - Sunday, October 16th (5PM); The Grand Duke - Sunday, November 13th (5PM); The Pirates of Penzance - Wednesday, December 28th (3PM); Thursday, December 29th (7PM); Friday, December 30th (8PM); Saturday, December 31st (3PM & 8PM ~ ticket price for the evening performance includes complimentary champagne toast!); Sunday, January 1st (3PM); Patience - March 11th (5PM); Iolanthe - Saturday, May 19th (3PM & 8PM) & Sunday, May 20th (3PM).

The week-long engagement of The Pirates of Penzance will be filled with exciting events and activities for the whole family including "Bring Your Grandparents Day" on Wednesday, December 28th; a pre-show Savoy Dialogue on Thursday, December 29th; a pre-show Family Overture on Saturday afternoon, December 31st; and the annual New Year's Eve Champagne Gala on Saturday evening, December 31st.

G&S FEST tickets are priced from $87 to $67, with $8 off for seniors and half prIce Tickets for children 12 and under. All prices are $10 more on New Year's Eve. Information and tickets can be obtained by phoning (212) 864-5400 or by visiting www.nygasp.org Discounted multiple buy ticket packages are available only through the NYGASP office at 212-769-1000.

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