Gordon College Students Perform Satirical Opera

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2014

MEDIA CONTACT
Amy Ouellette, PR Intern
Office of College Communications
978.867.4235

WENHAM, MA—The Music and Theatre Departments of Gordon College are collaborating to offer audiences a satirical look at British society in the opera The Mikado.

Two performances will take place, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 24 and Saturday, Jan. 25 at the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel on the Gordon College campus. The production is directed by Jeffrey S. Miller and conducted by Michael Monroe.

Created by the legendary team of Gilbert and Sullivan and premiered in 1885, the show is set in an imperial Japan that reveals the European colonial fascination with the Far East; but the exotic setting is really just a background for a satirical look at the absurdities of British society, especially the inefficiencies and social inequities that are inevitable in a land overrun by ridiculous laws and mystifying bureaucratic processes.

The story hinges on a son who doesn’t want to marry the terrifying woman he’s been promised to by his father, the Mikado of Japan, a ruler more interested in the amusing peculiarities of the law than in their horrifying consequences. When it turns out that the son is really in love with a woman who’s obligated to marry the comically unqualified Lord High Executioner, the plot spins itself out in a series of topsy-turvy scenes. Gilbert’s wickedly clever wordplay and Sullivan’s lighthearted tunes somehow intersect with all of this to create theater magic.

This is the third Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration in the last few years for the Music and Theatre departments, following 2011’s The Pirates of Penzance and 2012’s H.M.S. Pinafore.

Ticket prices range from $15 for general admission to $5 for children under 12. For more information, visit the Gordon College website http://www.gordon.edu/mikado

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Gordon College is a multi-denominational Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences on Boston’s North Shore, offering majors in 36 fields with graduate programs in education and music education. Gordon is nationally recognized for excellence in academics and in character building, and ranks as one of the nation’s top Christian colleges. www.gordon.edu

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