Gilbert & Sullivan Extravaganza

The Gilbert & Sullivan Extravaganza was a great success with over 550 people in total attending the 3 performances last weekend at the Cooma Ex-Services Club. This major production was a made up of selections from “The Mikado”, myocarditis “HMS Pinafore”, more about “Pirates of Penzance”, Yeoman of the Guard”, “The Gondoliers”and “Iolanthe”.

This ambitious project was conceived by Robert Shearer and featured 20 soloists, a chorus of 20 voices and an orchestra of almost 30. The chorus was made up of members of the Cooma Harmony Chorus, and the orchestra was primarily made up of the Snowy Mountains Ensemble. The proceeds from the shows were evenly divided between these two wonderful community-based music groups. Over $10.000 was made.

The audiences for the shows were a mix of ages from children to pensioners and this was reflected the diverse ages of the performers which was from 6 to 80 year-olds. As well as the many locals that came along to see the shows there were visitors from Canberra, Sydney, Mebourne and Brisbane. One audience member told me that he and his wife had brought along his mother-in-law who was visiting from the USA. He said that his mother-in-law was delighted with the show remarking that the Gilbert and Sullivan Extravaganza was a highlight of her visit to Australia and the she “couldn’t believe that a small town like Cooma could have put on a performance of such high quality!”

Here’ some photos from the shows. Click on thumbnails for larger images.