SAN MARINO
30th Anniversary Production by Tettenhall Operatic Company
A little bit of history
In 1988, Chas Rimmer and Olwynne Hutt revived the Tettenhall Operatic Company
with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance at the Towers Theatre, Tettenhall College.
There has been an annual production every year since then including some very well known operas and operettas as well as a number of revivals.
Our 2018 show
In 2018 we performed a comic opera called San Marino written in 1932 with music by Alfred J Silver and book and lyrics by Stanley Guise. It ran from Thursday 31st May to Saturday 2nd June.
Virtually no one had heard of San Marino! Having got hold of a vocal score and libretto from a production over 50 years ago, it has proved impossible to find anything else regarding previous productions, orchestral arrangement or copyright. We were therefore not so much staging a revival as starting with a blank piece of paper!
The Music
The first thing we did was to secure the services of Ian Stephenson who many of you will know as an extremely accomplished pianist and musician who has played for us on a number of occasions over the years.
He arranged the operetta for orchestra and clearly was very impressed by the music:
San Marino is a beautiful score, reminiscent of Lehar, containing some lovely ‘Viennese-style’ waltzes and delightful melodies. It is difficult to imagine the original sound of the piece, having no record of the orchestral parts and no indication in the vocal score as to which instruments are assigned to which parts. However, I do hope you enjoy my re-imagining of a lost gem from a bygone era.”
The Plot
San Marino is a fictitious island in the Caribbean that is ruled by an unpleasant and tyrannical (but suitably comic) dictator called General Martinez who is constantly attacked by pirates led by a mysterious character called The Vengeance. He sends to England for a private detective to try discover the identity of The Vengeance and so Dicky Travis arrives. Meanwhile a party of Americans also arrive on the island, including the beautiful film star Lola Gonzalez (a native of the island), her secretary and her guardians. Her father’s will states that on his death she should go to San Marino and marry a certain Carlos Santez. There are other terms and conditions but first of all they need to find Carlos and so approach General Martinez.
There then follows a series of quarrels, misunderstandings, mistaken identities and romantic interludes
all moving towards the happy ending expected on these occasions.
Cast list:
General Pedro Martinez (Dictator of San Marino) Julian Souter
Gaspar (His Lieutenant) Mac Hammond
Carlos Santez ('The Vengeance', a Pirate Chief) Stephen Harper
Luis (A follower of Carlos) Rob Lees
Dicky Travis (An English Private Detective) Mike Rawlings
Paola (An Innkeeper) Vi Hurdley
Hiram Spink (An American millionaire) Adrian Peakman
Lola Gonsalez (A film star, Ward of the Spinks) Phaedra Nicholls
Riquette Fronsac (Lola's English Secretary) Jane Souter
Annabel Spink (Wife of Hiram) Lisa King
Rosita ( A Dancing Girl) Janette Clough
Pepita (A Dancing Girl) Shelagh Dimmock
Chiquita (A Dancing Girl) Kim Currie
Dolores (A Dancing Girl) Julia Southall
Chorus of Citizens and Pirates:
Janette Clough, Kim Currie, Shelagh Dimmock, Caroline Hammond, Vi Hurdley, Lisa King, Angie Lloyd, Elaine MacFarlane, Phaedra Nicholls, Jane Souter, Julia Southall.
John Belcher, Alan Berks, Mac Hammond, Stephen Harper, Rob Lees, Bruce MacFarlane, Stephen Peacock, Adrian Peakman, Nick Poole, Mike Rawlings, Stephen Robotham, Rex Simpson, Julian Souter
Produced and Directed by Julian Souter
Music Director - Terry Green
Choreographer - Jane Souter
Rehearsal Accompanist - Ben Batt
