The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/114745
π W pirate talk The Very Model of a Modern Major Production Sir Arthur Sullivan Society gets on board with WPI's Pirates of Penzance ROBIN GORDON-POWELL, librarian/archivist and trustee of the Sir The mess hall at the Mandi campus of the Indian Institute of Technology sachusetts. They will face a very different culture (including three vegetarian meals a day in IIT's student cafeteria) and landscape. Monsoons, extreme altitudes, and rural infrastructure combine to create challenging road conditions, Shockey notes. "In India they keep bulldozers at the ready the way we have snowplows here in New England." Vaz sees great opportunities for WPI and IIT to collaborate with local government and community agencies. "Everyone we met seemed eager to work with us," he says. "They see the WPI-IIT student teams as a wonderful opportunity to address a long list of issues and make positive contributions." Arthur Sullivan Society (SASS) in London, crossed the Atlantic to hoist his baton as guest conductor for WPI's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. His visit, orchestrated by professor and director of choral music John Delorey, also included a lecture ("Learn How to Talk Like a Pirate!") prior to the performance. Gordon-Powell, whose love affair with conducting and with Sullivan's music began in high school, is founder and orchestral conductor of Chamber Orchestra Camerata Santa Dorotea. His lecture provided background on the collaboration between librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. He also highlighted performance conventions prevalent at the time Pirates premiered in 1880. The comic opera was presented by VOX, WPI's musical theatre organization, in association with the Department of Humanities and Arts. The cast and crew featured WPI students, faculty, and community members. WPI touches included references to goats, and QR codes in the program linking to the SASS website. Gordon-Powell was impressed with what the WPI community bared to the audience. He said, "Given that almost everyone involved in the WPI production was not a professional performer, and the obvious constraints of budget and theatre and technical facilities, I felt that the production was a tremendous triumph, extremely well and inventively produced, technically staged and performed." Delorey was equally pleased. "Robin Gordon-Powell added a sense of historic relevance to this production," he said. A leading scholar on Sir Arthur Sullivan, he brought his extensive conducting expertise to these students, who responded dramatically." Adhering to a traditional reading of the music in Pirates of Penzance, Gordon-Powell's conducting presented WPI's community with a performance echoing the opera's first productions, thereby serving the timeless piece its deserved honor. honor World War II Veteran Fields a Special Recognition BARTLETT HASTINGS '51 was honored by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Sept. 21, 2012. A World War II veteran of the Army 84th Infantry, 335th Regiment, Company I, he spent almost six months as a prisoner of war in Neubrandenburg, Germany, and was awarded the Bronze Star. Hastings, a resident of West SpringƂeld, Mass., is the last survivor of seven former POWs who lived there. He was proƂled in The Republican and interviewed on television— sporting his vintage Red Sox hat—by NESN's Jenny Dell. A loyal Sox fan, Hastings says it was a humbling experience and a great thrill to stand on the Ƃeld and to visit the dugout. Winter 2013 15