Savoy opera crew to celebrate 80 years

A VOCAL group dedicated to performing savoy opera classics is marking a milestone birthday with regional shows this month.

With Savoy Opera Company having turned 80 years old last year, the troupe will travel to five venues across the state to celebrate the occasion, kicking off with a show at Buninyong Uniting Church tomorrow.

Company director Stee Cordelia has been with the group for more than 50 years and said it’s incredible to acknowledge its longevity.

“It’s amazing for a company which started so small in 1943 to still be going and putting on two shows per year and totally self-funded,” she said.

“I came to Australia from Scotland to teach for a year in 1972. I did Gilbert and Sullivan in school and wondered if anywhere in Melbourne did it. Savoy’s such a welcoming, modest group and I’ve been here since 1973.

“This will be a birthday show representing all the shows we’ve done over the last 80 years. It’s not a typical show with dialogue and songs throughout, it’s like a best of.”

The performance will showcase over a dozen savoy productions developed during the late 1800s by the style’s originators, English composing duo Gilbert and Sullivan.

Savoy Opera Company features nearly 30 members based throughout Victoria, three of whom, including Cordelia, are in Ballarat.

With about half a dozen costume changes between each performer, tomorrow’s show will see former principal artist with Savoy, Barry Fry serving as MC while a raffle will also take place.

The troupe began putting on regional Victorian tours 10 years ago, and Cordelia credits this expansion to a well-received show in Ballarat.

“We actually did H.M.S. Pinafore and Trial By Jury at Her Majesty’s and we didn’t realise we were on the same night as A Boy From Oz at Wendouree,” she said.

“We had over a three-quarter full house and we thought the people in Ballarat must want to see some Gilbert and Sullivan so we started looking at smaller venues and touring from there.”

As a self-gifted birthday present, company-owned props and costumes, some of which were imported from England in the 1950s, are set to be refurbished with cash to be received via a GoFundMe page.

The Buninyong performance starts at 2pm and will be followed up with one-off shows at Kyneton, Ballan, Bunyip, and Clayton throughout May.

Tickets are $35 adult and $10 children and can be booked at bit.ly/3Wm0STs