Talking a break from my semi-regular "Album of the Week" column, as well as my even less regular "Movie Review" column, comes now the even less regular "Operetta Review" column. And while I had the pleasure of hearing this music in the midst of a very fun concert by the Valley Chamber Chorale and a bunch of Stillwater-area middle school kids, I think I'll focus here on this piece.
The Reluctant Dragon is a children's operetta composed by John Rutter, and has words by David Grant. It's based off a short story by Kenneth Grahame, and it tells the tale of a poetry-loving, peaceful dragon, who finds himself face to face with St. George, England's legendary slayer of dragons. These two unlikely bedfellows are mediated by a young village boy, who befriends the dragon, and doesn't want to see him hurt. Since St. George actually thinks the dragon is quite a fine chap, he doesn't want to slay him, so they decide to stage a fake joust (which St. George wins). However, the dragon, wishing to recite some poetry, shows up at the celebratory dinner, so St. George has to convince the townsfolk that the dragon is indeed, not dangerous (which he does). It's a very delightful story, I think.
I went to this concert to hear a good friend of mine; I was also intrigued by the prospect of hearing/seeing such a tale about a poetic dragon. And although Stillwater is approximately 8,000 miles away from every other civilized place on the planet (i.e. 25 miles from St. Paul), I have to say the drive was completely justified. They had some pretty intense dragon/knight costumes borrowed from the Guthrie, and the singing, for a community group, was top notch. Most of what was so pleasant, was how funny it was. I spent most of the 20 minute or so performance laughing, be it pursuant to the ridiculously exaggerated British accents being bandied about, or the absurd lyrics about eating and chomping. Absolutely fantastic. If you ever have the opportunity to see this performance, I highly recommend you take it, juvenile as it may seem.
Maybe that's the most shocking thing. In an audience comprised in large part of young kids, they sat absolutely transfixed through the entire performance. When was the last time you saw little kids sitting through quietly, nay, enjoying a "classical" music concert? Exactly - never. To me, this just seems like an absolutely fantastic way to introduce kids to some more serious music than they may otherwise be exposed to. Plus, it's fun for adults too (but you can't take yourself too seriously).
I don't ever seem to have that problem though.
you know why that operetta sounded familiar? i directed it as a play my senior year of high school - i directed it as a reader's theater production for 9th graders. good play! (there was no singing in ours though!)
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