By Jinwoo Chong
In several months, the Princeton High School Choir will embark on its bi-annual tour, taking place this time in Italy and its surrounding regions.
Keeping in tradition with previous tours, the choir will perform at several music halls in Venice and other cities, not only singing but living and breathing Italian culture.
So it was only logical that when choir directors Vincent Metallo and Sarah Pelletier began planning this year’s season, they looked to Italy for inspiration.
As such, last Friday night marked the premier of the PHS Choir’s first major performance of the season, a production of Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert’s opera, “The Gondoliers,” which premiered in London in 1889.
”The Gondoliers” is not the first opera the choir has performed, the most recent being Johann Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus” last year, but it is one of the first productions associated with and based in Italian culture.
”Ms. Pelletier and I had considered having the choir perform ‘The Gondoliers’ mostly because we wanted to try a Gilbert and Sullivan piece,” said Mr. Metallo, “In addition to that, the story takes place in Venice, which is only fitting for us because that’s where we’ll be going later this year.”
The opera was originally considered Gilbert and Sullivan’s last great success, a story of a young bride and heir to the throne of a fictional republican kingdom, who ventures to Venice to find her arranged husband, suspected to be one of two charismatic gondoliers, Marco and Guisseppe. The opera’s plot centers around the frantic search for the true heir to the throne and future king of Barataria in the wake of the previous king’s sudden death.
Preparations for the first performance began with the school year, in which the choir learned the music, divided into chorus and lead parts, and finally learned and practiced choreography leading up to opening night.
”We’ve pretty much been working on it every day since September,” said senior Faridah Laffan, a lead role in the production, “Normally, the leads worked individually, so we didn’t see how the entire show would look until the last few weeks, so it was interesting to see how everything fell into place.”
”The last week was about putting it all together,” said Mr. Metallo, “We had already prepared the chorus, the leads, the tech crew, the sound and lighting, as well as costumes, and took the last week to unite the parts.”
”We had rehearsal twice, for three hours each in the last week, to put everything together,” said senior Patrick Cines, a member of the chorus, “The leads had a separate rehearsal, but it was still all about bringing everything together towards the end of the week.”
”The Gondoliers” premiered on Friday, Oct. 19, and was performed once more the next day. While still part of the choir’s official season schedule, the main goal for “The Gondoliers” was to raise money for the tour of Italy.
The opera, called an operetta because the choir performed an abridged version, marked a technical departure from previous choir performances in that it featured very few individual solos, instead comprising duets, trios and quartets.
”It allowed us to get more of the ensemble involved throughout the production,” said Mr. Metallo.
”It’s very comfortable, actually, to have so many ensemble numbers,” said Faridah. “I usually get stage fright, but only when I’m singing alone. There wasn’t so much of that this time, so I didn’t really feel nervous.”
The form of the opera similarly allows the choir to branch out from traditional performances and pieces.
”It’s different from musicals because it’s features a lot more of the Choir,” Faridah said. “But it’s not very much like any regular choral performance because of the acting and plot.”
”One of the main themes of ‘The Gondoliers,’ as with many operas, is mistaken identity,” said Mr. Metallo, “Which is always interesting to interpret. On a more practical level, it was a fun production because it allowed us to show off the talent that we had.”

