A READING music group is preparing to entertain audiences with its April concert.
Members of Mostly G&S promise to bring a ‘delightful celebration of the music of Sullivan and his contemporaries’ at their next performance.
Called the Best of British, the group’s programme will include music from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, with works from Edward German, Lionel Monckton and Alfred Cellier, and a performance of Sullivan’s first two-act comic opera The Contrabandista.
The concert will offer audiences a rare chance to hear this charming early work.
Set in the mountains of Spain, The Contrabandista’s typically absurd plot concerns a gang of bandits and smugglers arguing over who should be their new leader.
When an English tourist wanders into the camp he is forced at gunpoint to become their captain and will have to marry the recently widowed queen of the gang.
“To give you some idea of the characters, imagine that the Penzance pirates have become the smugglers in Act 3 of Carmen and that the Major General has arrived and found he has to marry Katisha,” says Mostly G&S.
“Add to this a disguised hero trying to rescue his abducted sweetheart, a sacred hat, a large case of dynamite and the compulsory dancing of the bolero and you have a funfilled rarity with Sullivan’s masterful music.”
Amongst the other items in the concert will be the Brindisi from The Rose of Persia; Charming weather from The Arcadians; and The Yeomen of England from Merrie England.
The event will take place at The Oakwood Centre, Woodley, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 23, 24,and 25.
Performances start at 7.30pm, with tickets available for £17.
For tickets and information, visit: mostlygands.co.uk
