Testimonial

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin is seeking a few words or a paragraph or an entire essay from anyone who has enjoyed a performance (e-mail may be sent to this address by May 20). Supplemental funding is being sought from the City arts program or from a corporation or a foundation or any combination of these. My first G&S was purely by chance, at the Capitol City Playhouse (where the first Ruta Maya later took up residence), Trial by Jury, with Jess Walters in the cast and a piano accompaniment. The performance was in the round and the audience sat on bleachers. That was the location of my first live opera performance, as well (again with a piano accompaniment, a Barber of Seville with a very youthful cast). And we started going to Dallas and Houston on the bus with a crowd of jolly people including the head of the UT continuing education program at that time and Bill Reber (now with the opera program at Arizona State) and Dr. Walter Ducloux and Joe McClain. Grand opera and G&S are just two of the many varieties of live music that Austin has brought and continues to bring to make hearts merry.