Important Dates

Aside from our usual rehearsal schedule commencing on June 29th, here are dates to keep open:

• Saturday May 30 - time TBD Tentative date for our Florodora read through, familiarization session and potluck BBQ at my house. More information very soon.
• Saturday July 25 1-4pm (time tentative) Sitzprobe at the Lyric Warehouse.
• Friday July 31 - In-venue dress rehearsal at the MVCPA. Call at 6pm. Note that Thursday July 30 is currently scheduled as no rehearsals dark night for the produciton.

Owen Hall, librettist (or, OK, One More Florodora Background Tidbit)

The standard references in the literature about the Florodora librettist Owen Hall (real name: James Davis, 10 April 1853 - 9 April 1907) are sparse, and on the whole, rather offhand. The pseudonym "Owen Hall" was an ironic nod ('owing all') towards his extensive debts. Another of his pseudonyms was "Payne Nunn." In fact, the was astoundingly prolific during the late Victorian and Edwardian era, and going from the text of our show, quite a good humorist and obviously a well-read literate fellow (as one might expect from a University of London graduate).

As evidence, Neil Midkiff writes of the lyrics in the clerk's sextet in act 1: "In reading a biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson, the English lexicographer, I was surprised to find a reference to "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" in a quotation from a 1782 letter from Boswell to another friend of Johnson. I had thought those names were invented by Lewis Carroll for _Through the Looking-Glass_, but it turns out that they date back at least to 1725, when an English poet and diarist compared Handel and Bononcini (then in rivalry for superiority in London's musical scene) to these indistinguishable pair of puny rivals from a traditional nursery rhyme."

Well, it has been a while...

No blog updates in a while, sorry. I've been busy with that pesky day job and logistics surrounding the Florodora performances. This blog will soon start to change direction a little with a director's ramble and more specific information about our revival production.