My introduction to Gilbert & Sullivan was at The King’s School, Parramatta, NSW, the school I attended when the family moved from Perth to Sydney.
The Director of Music was also the Artistic Director of the Rockdale Opera Company, the only professional opera company in the city, other than the then, Elizabethan Trust Opera (later the Australian Opera).
After playing in the chorus for HMS Pinafore, I graduated to Rose Maybud (yes, that’s right!) in Ruddigore, to the Major-General in Pirates, to the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, to Jack Point in Yeomen.
Importantly, at the time and for the future, each Tuesday afternoon after school during first and second term, I was taken to the Balmain warehouses which stored and maintained all the theatrical costumes belonging to JC Williamson Theatres. Here, the Costume Manager was the former singer-actor, Len Gotting. In his younger days, Len was the understudy of the legendary G&S comic star for the D’Oyly Carte / Williamson Company, Ivan Menzies. Len was a most gifted actor-singer, and was also the guardian of all the prompt books of the operas from London, used in Australia, with Gilbert’s annotations all neatly within them! Len tutored me, first, in the comic roles; then all the production directions of all the operas. (I wonder what has happened to those prompt books?)
It was here that I was introduced to Evelyn Gairdner, the famous contralto from the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, who was, at this point, the formidable President of the Sydney G&S Society.
To Western Australia
While training at the Theatre Guild and after graduation, I auditioned for the WA G&S Society. Thus, I was cast as the Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe) the Major General (Pirates) KoKo (The Mikado) King Gama (Princess Ida) and The Duke (The Gondoliers). These were staged at His Majesty’s Theatre (with the WA Arts’ Orchestra) and at The Playhouse.
Following working as an actor in the UK, I returned to Perth and directed for the G&S Society, in the first instance at His Majesty’s. Then, after a period presenting and producing for the ABC in radio and television in Sydney, I returned again to my home city. Here, the then President of G&S Society WA, Margaret Kefford, contacted me and asked to meet. When I did, that dynamic lady told me that the Society was very worried about its future, from financial and ‘standards of productions’ situations and she had been given the permission of the Committee, to rectify things as soon as possible. Part of her strategy was to seek the directorial assistance of yours truly and John Milson, to direct at no fee; and would I join her to meet with Duncan Ord, the General Manager of the Playhouse to discuss the best financial pattern for the use of the Playhouse facilities with the lowest financial outlay possible, commensurate with the high production standards which were an essential. I believe we succeeded. Here, I must say that Duncan was more than helpful in every way.
Highlights for me
Of course, the on-stage roles I have played, as above, are some; and the series of comic roles in Concerts with WASO; also, performing with Glenys Fowles (who moved on to the Australian Opera, the New York and San Francisco Opera Companies); Greg Yurisch (Australian Opera, Covent Garden) Valerie Melrose, Frances Maber, Elisa Wilson, Justin Freind – the list goes on and on! As a director, there are so many wonderful G&S memories for me – The Sorcerer, which was the very first fully staged opera in the ‘new’ Perth Concert Hall, and then the production transferred to its season at Fremantle Town Hall; Pirates; The Gondoliers at His Majesty’s and later at the Octagon, (where we used back / forward projection of sea and city!); The Mikado at both The Regal and the Octagon with Yeoman at the Octagon.
And for the Midnite Youth Theatre – Yeoman, Pirates, Ruddigore and The Mikado, with His Majesty’s Theatre allowing for a wonderful ghost scene in Ruddigore, and a balloon fly-in for KoKo in Mikado. I also recall my Bijou Opera production of The Grand Duke, and the Buxton International G&S Festival UK production of Sam Atlas’ Trial Without Jury. I have been so fortunate to have worked with so many talented people, including musical directors such as Brian Barrett, Alan Woodend, Eric Prince, Max Page, Jon Tooby, Ian Westrip, Justin Freind – and so many more.
One final, lasting memory: singing the first solo in the refurbished His Majesty’s Theatre when it re-opened. I sang, “In Enterprise of Martial Kind” from The Gondoliers, in an opera excerpt directed by Gayna Donovan.
Anthony Howes OAM KCSJ, Perth, Western Australia.
