Video now free to the public featuring songs from favorite operettas over the years
To celebrate Pride Month, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston has released the 2021 hit concert video, “About Face,” where singing roles are swapped all in good gender-bending fun. Viewers will experience a concert of Gilbert and Sullivan favorites with a twist: Tenors, Baritones, and Basses trade places with Sopranos, Mezzos, and Contraltos to mix it up Gilbert and Sullivan-style.
Society singers bravely venture out of their usual repertoire in the name of a good time, with lady pirates and bearded maidens. Hear “Three Little Maids” as you’ve never heard it before.
“We thought Pride Month would be an ideal time to revisit this unique concert where our singers have great fun in role reversals by performing works meant for the opposite sex,” says Joe Carl White, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston board member, singer and participant in “About Face.” “Although we are serious about our art form, it’s important to have fun and not take ourselves too seriously. ‘About Face’ was a terrific vehicle to blend humor, opera and merrymaking.”
Songs from 10 of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston’s past performances are represented in ”About Face,” including HMS Pinafore, Ruddygore and The Mikado. Each summer, the organization presents a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, with The Pirates of Penzance coming up this year at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts the last two weekends of July.
As an example, in “About Face,” you will hear Stuart Aron playing Josephine in HMS Pinafore singing “A Simple Sailor, Lowly Born,” while Sarah Lee becomes the Pirate King when she performs “I am a Pirate King.”
The full “About Face” program includes:
When First My Old, Old Love (Trial By Jury) – Megan Stapleton
Thou Has the Power (The Sorcerer) – Kaitlyn Stavinoha
When I Was a Lad (HMS Pinafore) – Sarah Lee
Poor Wand’ring One (The Pirates of Penzance) – Joe Carl White
O False One! (The Pirates of Penzance) – Sarah Lee and Cris Perez
A Simple Sailor, Lowly Born (HMS Pinafore) – Stuart Aron
I am a Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance) – Sarah Lee
Long Years Ago – Fourteen, Maybe (Patience) – Stuart Aron and Joe Carl White
I Am So Proud (The Mikado) – Megan Stapleton, Kaitlyn Stavinoha and Sarah Lee
My Lord, A Suppliant at Your Feet (Iolanthe) – Cris Perez
Love, Unrequited (Iolanthe) – Megan Stapleton
Cheerily Carols the Lark (Ruddygore) – Joe Carl White
The Sun Whose Rays (The Mikado) – Stuart Aron
Alone, and Yet Alive! (The Mikado) – Cris Perez
Hereupon We’re Both Agreed (Yeomen of the Guard) – Megan Stapleton and Kaitlyn Stavinoha
Take A Pair of Sparkling Eyes (The Gondoliers) – Kaitlyn Stavinoha
Three Little Maids (The Mikado) – Stuart Aron, Cris Perez and Joe Carl White
Hail, Poetry! – (The Pirates of Penzance) Company
The accompanist is Catherine Schaefer, while Joseph Rawley serves as Artistic Coordinator.
To view “About Face” on YouTube, click here or go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4q_oucChwI.
To buy tickets to the Society’s July performance The Pirates of Penzance, please visit https://gilbertandsullivan.org/pirates.