The Gondoliers
The Fraser Valley Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s latest musical, the classic light opera The Gondoliers, opens tonight (May 11, 7:30 p.m.) at the Surrey Arts Centre’s Studio Theatre, and runs to May 21.
Producer Reginald Pillay, artistic director Christina Wells Campbell, music director Vashti Fairbairn and choreographer Carol Seitz have gathered a stellar troupe of popular company favourites and promising newcomers for the show, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s last great success.
Pillay himself stars as Luiz, drummer boy to the Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro (Roger Hussen and Jacquollyne Keath), members of the Spanish aristocracy, who have travelled to Venice with their daughter Casilda (Laura Luongo) – summoned by the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, Don Alhambra del Bolero (Robert Newcombe).
A confused and complicated comic plot involving attempts to locate the rightful heir to the throne of Barataria (married in infancy to Casilda, who secretly loves Luiz) draws in two Venetian gondoliers, the brothers Marco (Russell Robson) and Giuseppe (Dann Wilhelm), and their new brides Tessa and Gianetta (Katie Collins and Tamara Wilhelm).
Tickets are available from the Surrey Arts Centre box office (604-501-5566) or online at https://tickets.surrey.ca
Community orchestra
The White Rock Community Orchestra will present a concert evening this Friday, May 13 at 7 p.m. at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 2350 148 St.
In addition to the orchestra, the concert will include the Trio Lumina (violin, cello and piano) and Mark Awan (organ).
The orchestra, founded some 30 years ago, has grown both in size and the ambition of its players, said Roger Wecker now in his third year as director of the group.
The orchestra is always on the lookout for new players – particularly in the string, bass and brass sections, Wecker said (drop-ins are welcome, or, for more information, call Bryce at 604-536-5170).
The friendly, all-ages ensemble rehearses every Saturday morning from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Masonic Hall.
Range of ages for the highly inclusive group goes from high school students to 93, he said, and many members are either revisiting earlier musical skills later in life, or fulfilling unrealized ambitions to play an instrument.
Tickets ($10 for adults, $5 for students and free for children under 12) are available at the door or by calling 604-536-8527.
Surrey Symphony
The Surrey Symphony Society’s 35th anniversary concert will take place Saturday, May 14, 7 p.m. at the Bell Centre for the Performing Arts, 6250 144 St.
The concert, featuring the society’s Surrey Youth Symphony, the Junior Strings and the Intermediate Strings, will be followed by a reception celebrating Youth Symphony director and founder Lucille Lewis, who has led the orchetra since ’82 and is retiring following this season.
The program includes Tchaikovsky’s music for the ballet Swan Lake, and Aaron Copland’s rousing Hoedown, as well as Respighi’s Bergamasca (Intermediate Strings) and a lyric section from Stravinsky’s Firebird (Junior Strings).
For tickets ($17.50 adults, $10.50 students, seniors and alumni) and information, call 604-572-9225.
Kiel Magis
The Stella Maris Concert Choir will present an afternoon of music by Kiel Magis and Friends, Sunday, May 15, 3 p.m. at Good Shepherd Church, 2250 150 St.
A combination of both sacred and secular music highlighting the versatile, wide vocal range of Magis, 21, the concert will also feature piano accompanist/composer Trevor Hoffmann, singer/composer Anna Boots, 20, and the concert choir (which joins Magis on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah).
Boots’ composition Home, will be performed by a quartet of voices, while Hoffmann will perform his piano piece Andromeda.
The Schola Cantorum girls choir will perform the Cesar Franck Panis Angelicus, as well as Mozart’s Laudate Dominum (with guest soloist Ursula Lee of the Stella Maris choir).
The concert is a fundraiser for a group of young adults who are attending World Youth Day events in Madrid this July (including Magis and Boots, both Douglas College music students transferring to UBC this fall).
It’s also a follow up to a well-received concert by Magis a year ago at Good Shepherd Church.
Admission is $10 at the door.
Johnny Cash tribute
The music of the famed “man in black” returns with a new ‘what-if’ tribute – The Johnny Cash TV Show – onstage at the White Rock Elks Club, 1469 George St., Thursday (May 19) at 8 p.m.
Starring as Cash is entertainer Gary Kehoe, who will be joined on the fantasy show by guests Merle Haggard (portrayed by Jess Lee), Ian Tyson and George Strait (both played by Neil Convey) and The Judds and The Dixie Chicks (Dandelion Wine). Tickets ($23, Elks members $20) are available at the club daily 3-7 p.m., 3-6 p.m. on Sundays, or call 604-538-4016.
Trad jazz
White Rock Traditional Jazz Society’s popular schedule of Sunday sessions continues this Sunday, 3-6 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion Crescent Branch 240 (2643 128 St.). Admission is $10 ($8 for WRTJS members).
For details, visit www.whiterocktradjazz.com
Poetry reading
Semiahmoo Arts has scored a coup: award-winning poet, educator, and scholar Susan McCaslin (Lifting The Stone) will read from her latest volume of poetry, Demeter Goes Skydiving at the ongoing literary series Readings By The Salish Sea, Wednesday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pelican Rouge, Central Plaza.
In the new book, McCaslin revisits the Demeter-Persephone myth of Ancient Greece and finds within it a profound mother-daughter trauma which she reclothes with unapologetic modernity.
In this sequence of poems Hades steals away the maiden Persephone into a not-unfamiliar culture full of distorted body images, addiction, high anxiety and rampant consumerism.
McCaslin’s lyrics have been described as “by turns profound, hilarious and devastating” as Demeter – an enduring symbol of motherly love – searches for her daughter in a spiritual winter wasteland of health clubs, paparazzi and so-called reality shows. Admission to the reading is free. For more information, visit www.semiahmooarts.com or call 604-536-8333.
Murder mystery
Another one of Trevor Jenkins’ Grim Reaper interactive murder mystery evenings will come to Beecher Street Cafe in Crescent Beach on Thursday, May 26.
Audience members are invited to demonstrate their Academy Award-winning skills as actors in the new plotline, continuing Jenkins’ trend of putting a slightly risque spin on the English drawing room murder mystery.
The last two shows, in September and February, drew a total of 135 people to the restaurant to participate in the fun.
The show is at 7 p.m.
For reservations ($55 per person, plus tax and or gratuity) call 604-538-1964.
