OLO Premiere
OH, LADY! LADY!! (1918)
Music by Jerome Kern
Lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse
Book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse
Between 1915 and 1924, composer Jerome Kern teamed with librettists/lyricists Guy Bolton and famed British author/humorist P. G. Wodehouse on a series of intimate musical comedies - the so-called Princess shows (four of the shows opened at Broadway's 299-seat Princess Theatre). They featured not the exotic locales and the dukes and duchesses of operetta, nor the lavish spectacle of the Ziegfeld Follies, but rather the romantic and comic entanglements of everyday Americans, in current dress and modern dialogue. These shows forever changed the landscape of Broadway; Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and numerous others credited these musicals with inspiring their own development and quest for a theatrical style. Among American songwriters, Kern was the supreme melodist - no more convincingly showcased than in his 1918 Princess musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! The story focuses on wedding plans of Mollie Farrington and Willoughby "Bill" Finch, which are temporarily derailed by the objections of Mollie's mother, the arrival of Bill's old flame May, and the heist of the Farrington family jewels by the ex-girlfriend of Bill's valet Spike. Wodehouse was at his wittiest and most playful, introducing characters named May Ann Ayes, Lettice Romayne, and Cassie Roll. And Kern's score bristles from beginning to end with catchy, sentimental tunes, including the song "Bill," which was eventually dropped from the score, but resurfaced a decade later in Show Boat.
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
or The Slave of Duty (1879)
Music by Arthur Sullivan
Libretto by William Gilbert
No Gilbert and Sullivan stage work boasts as many walk-away tunes as their 1879 The Pirates of Penzance, whose official world premiere took place in New York City under the supervision of G&S themselves. Building on the success of the previous year's H.M.S. Pinafore, but trading - as their satirical focus - the rigors of naval discipline for the obligations of duty, G&S manage to burlesque their normal share of popular institutions, including the army, the police, and operatic sopranos. Pirate apprentice Frederic, at age 21, has faithfully served out his indentures and, replete with a sense of duty, joins the police force, determined to exterminate his old mates. He falls in love with Mabel, the first girl he sees, but the daughter of Major-General Stanley, who himself is the target of a pirate revenge plot. Plans go awry when it is revealed that, thanks to a leap-day birth, Frederic is really only five and one-quarter years old. The engaging musical score includes some of the catchiest music in operetta: Mabel's pyrotechnic "Poor Wandering One!;" the tongue-twisting patter song "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General;" "A Policeman's Lot;" "Climbing over Rocky Mountain" - a survivor from Thespis, G&S's lost first stage work; and "With Catlike Tread," which, more than a quarter-century later, was given new words as "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here."
Steven Daigle has served as part of the artistic staff for more than 300 lyric theater productions, along with calling over 400 professional operatic performances as a production stage manager.
Daigle's experience as a stage director encompasses a large range of repertory for the lyric theater stage. Directing credits include Norma, Assassins, Jubilee, the Rape of Lucretia, Madama Butterfly, The Connecticut Yankee, Pelléas et Mélisande, Carmen, La Finta Giardiniera, Of Thee I Sing, The Gondoliers, The Firefly, The Music Man, Claudia Legare, Der Zarewitsch, Der lustige Krieg, L’Étoile, Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha, La Rondine, The Cabaret Girl, South Pacific, A Little Night Music, The Music Man, The Gondoliers, Susannah, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Il Turco in Italia, Cosi Fan Tutte, Transformations, La Bohème, Passion, Suor Angelica, The Goblin Market, Le Nozze di Figaro, Candide, Xerxes, The Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, Die Fledermaus, Patience, The Tender Land, Porgy and Bess, L'Elisir d'Amore, Die lustige Witwe, The Sorcerer, Robinson Crusoe, The Desert Song, The Grand Duke, Gräfin Mariza, Die Csárdásfürstin , Angelique, Gianni Schicchi, Trouble in Tahiti, Christopher Sly, Signor Deluso, Riders to the Sea, Camelot, and Annie for the Ohio Light Opera Company, Eastman School of Music, Intermountain Opera, Mercury Opera of Rochester, The Lyric of Atlanta, Oberlin Conservatory, Louisiana State University, Florida State Opera, South Georgia Opera, Columbia Theater Players, Kent State Opera Workshop and Operetta Foundation of Los Angeles.
Productions include collaborations and premieres with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Robert Ward, legendary Broadway composer Charles Strouse, American opera composer Carlisle Floyd, along with conductors Louis Lane, Robert Spano, and Evan Whallon. Articles and reviews of Daigle's work have been published in Opera News, Opera London, Orpheus, American Record Guide, Gramophone, Fanfare, Classical Singer, and Opera Now.
With the Ohio Light Opera Company, he has served as stage manager (1990-93), assistant director (1994-95), and general director (1997-98) under the guidance of Dr. James Stuart. In 1999 he was appointed artistic director for the company. In the summer of 2008, the company celebrated its 30th anniversary and produced its 100th title. Over 50 titles have been added to the company’s repertoire during his tenure as Artistic Director. With the company he has directed over 50 titles and served on the artistic team in over 100 productions. As artistic director, he has produced and directed revivals of traditional operettas that have been given an American premiere in their original form: Kern’s The Cabaret Girl, Lehar’s Der Zarewitsch, Lecocq's Le Petit Duc, Künneke's Der Vetter Aus Dingsda, Strauss' Der Lustige Krieg, Kálmán's Zigeunerprimas and Ein Herbstmanover. Twenty-one historical recordings under Daigle's supervision can be heard on Newport Classic, Operetta Archives and Albany Record labels. These include seven of Daigle's historical reconstructions: Rudolf Friml’s The Firefly, Sigmund Romberg’s Maytime; Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta and Sweethearts; Kálmán's Die Faschingsfee (Miss Springtime - English Translation and first complete recording); Ein Herbstmanover (Autumn Maneuvers - English translation and first complete recording); Das Veilchen vom Montmartre (The Violet of Montmartre - English translation and first complete recording); Der Gute Kamerad (A Soldier’s Promise - English translation and first complete audio and video recording); Marinka, based on the Mayerling Story (script rewrite and orchestra reconstruction – audio and video recording - released scheduled 2013); Die Faschingsfee (The Carnival Fairy - English translation and complete audio and video recording - released schedule 2013). In September 2003, the Ohio Light Opera was given an Award of Achievement by Northern Ohio Live for its role in preserving operetta during the past 25 years. In the Spring of 2006 he received the Outstanding Alumnus award from Southeastern Louisiana University.
As a champion of early American operetta and early musical theater, he continues to pursue the preservation of the art form. He has developed an on going relationship with one of the largest operetta and early American musical collections in the world – The Operetta Foundation in Los Angeles. For the past ten years he has created, written scripts and directed historic reviews that highlight the rare works of this collection. In 2006 he helped the foundation mount and reconstruct a production of Marinka – a 1940s musical that has not been produced since its Broadway premiere. In the spring of 2011, he collaborated on a historical reconstruction of rare Jerome Kern musical entitled Zip! Goes a Million. He is presently a historical reconstruction and script rewrite of Walter Jurmann’s 1946 musical Windy City.
He received his bachelor's degree in vocal education and performance from Southeastern Louisiana University 1987, where he studied voice with Gordon Ohlsson and Harriet Vogt. It was through his study with Scharmal Schrock at SLU that his interests in stage directing began to develop. He received his master of music degree in opera stage directing from Florida State University, where he studied with Lincoln Clark.
As a singer, he has performed major roles in productions of A Little Night Music, Hello Dolly, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Perichole, Die Fledermaus, Patience, Gianni Schicchi, The Medium, Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, and South Pacific, among others.
Mr. Daigle presently is Professor of Opera and Head of Opera at the Eastman School of Music. In 2008 he was named chairman of the voice and opera department. He has served on the faculty at the Eastman School of Music since 1997.
Daigle served on the faculty at Kent State University and as assistant director, associate professor (1989-96) and acting director (1994, 1996-97) of the Opera Theater Program at the Oberlin Conservatory. In the summer of 1998 he served on the faculty of the Oberlin in Italy program in Urbania, Italy