Utopia Opera Presents THE GRAND DUKE, 3/3-3/11

On March 3, 4, 10, & 11 at 7:30pm,, Utopia Opera presents THE GRAND DUKE (words by W.S. Gilbert, music by Arthur Sullivan) in a fully-staged production performed with an 20-piece orchestra at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College (695 Park Avenue). Utopia founder and artistic director, and Gilbert & Sullivan specialist, William Remmers, stage and music directs.

THE GRAND DUKE, the rarely-performed final Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration, features a discontented troupe of actors-come-revolutionaries planning a coup d'état to replace their despotic leader with their theatre's manager. He's the most qualified man for the job because 1) he already knows how to run a business (and surely that's the same thing) and 2) because he has agreed to give his troupe the highest positions in his court in exchange for their support. The modern relevance should be self-apparent. Along the way, we see two duels, one ghost, four weddings (all with the same groom), a rigged roulette table, and bottles upon bottles of free wine. "It pulls out all the stops," says director William Remmers. "It's a show about performance, in theatre and in life, and it takes this theme to those two opposite ends: On one hand, given that most of the characters are actors, the jokes are faster, funnier, more stylized, and more dependent on the manipulation of language than in Gilbert's earlier work; the political satire is still bitingly relevant, but the soul of the show's humor lies in vaudeville routines and Wildean displays of repartee, all too believable coming out of the mouths of these thespians. On the other hand, the philosophical implications of subscribing to your role and committing to your part pose dark questions: must we always stick to the script that life has given us, even when we know it will have negative effects on the lives of others? The show's adventurous duality is matched, or perhaps even exceeded, by Sullivan's music. The score features late romantic harmonies, Viennese waltzes, French chanson, and comedy numbers that anticipate, with telescopic clairvoyance, the advent of modern musical theatre. It's pure fin de siècle decadence and a both a fitting send-off to the greatest musical Theatre Partnership of the 19th century and a sign of things to come in the 20th."

About Utopia Opera

Utopia Opera was founded in 2011 by artistic and musical director William Remmers. Striving to present the most entertaining operatic performances possible (for audiences and performers alike) while also maintaining a high standard of musical integrity, Utopia Opera is quickly establishing itself as a young and vibrant addition to New York City's vast operatic landscape, and was recently featured with two other indie companies on the cover of the August 2016 issue of Opera News.

In addition to providing young singers with performance opportunities, Utopia aims to share opera with a general audience and to reveal its modern relevance. A central part of that mission is realized through giving its audience and performers a stake in the direction of the company. Now in its sixth season, the company's past four seasons were chosen through votes cast on its Facebook page. Their 6th season began in September with Sondheim's ASSASSINS, which received more votes than any show in the company's history, and will conclude with Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The seventh season vote is currently active on Utopia's Facebook page.

Tickets ($20 for general admission) are available online (with card) and at the door (card/check/cash). Tickets are available online at: TheGrandDuke.brownpapertickets.com

For press tickets, please contact info@utopiaopera.org

CAST

Ludwig: Ben Cohen
Lisa: Kat Liu
Julia: Hannah Spierman
Ernest: Matthew Hughes
Dr. Tannhäuser: Kevin miller
Grand Duke Rudolph: Martin Everall
Baroness von Krakenfeldt: Hanne Dollase
The Prince of Monte Carlo: David Tillistrand
The Princess of Monte Carlo: Allyson Herman
The Herald: Evan Henke
The Costumier: Gary Slavin
Gretchen: Ali Roselle
Elsa: Emily Hughes
Bertha: Nicholle Bittlingmeyer
Olga: Catherine Leech
A Hildebrand Noble: Ben Spierman
A Windsor Noble: Roman Laba
A German Noble: Matthew Walsh
A D.C. Noble: Johari Frasier
An Italian Noble: Eric Lamp
An Aesthetic Noble: Sarah Marvel Bleasdale

Production Staff:
Stage & Music Director: William Remmers
Production Consultant/Wardrobe: Eric Lamp
Stage Manager: Lauren Gismondi