About the Cornell Savoyards

During Queen Victoria's reign (about one hundred years ago or so), two Englishmen who really didn't like one another very much were joined together for the purpose of creating popular comic operas. The results were works of such brilliance that they are still being performed all over the world. You are probably familiar with the names of some: The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance. Today, the people who perform the works of these two men are known as Savoyards, named after the Savoy Theatre in London where many of these works were first performed.

The Cornell Savoyards have been delighting Ithaca audiences since 1953 and have performed every opera written together by Gilbert and Sullivan (except for Thespis, for which much of the music has been lost forever). We are a registered student organization at Cornell University and we are also a community theatre group for the greater Ithaca community. Although about half of the Cornell Savoyards are Cornell students, we also enjoy having many Cornell staff and faculty members and Ithaca College students involved in our productions and on our board of directors, as well as community members from Ithaca, Binghamton, Cortland, Dryden, Elmira, and Owego.

We usually perform two shows per year, one each during Cornell University's fall and spring semesters. With a long tradition of large cast productions with full orchestras, the Cornell Savoyards have performed regularly in the Ithaca community and have toured regionally in upstate New York, performing in Binghamton, Cortland, Geneva, and Trumansburg. In addition to these full productions, you can also catch the Cornell Savoyards performing in smaller productions during the summer months and singing selections from the G&S songbook at the Apple Harvest Festival and the Ithaca Festival on the Ithaca Commons every year.

We were also featured in a video production of Princess Ida at Cornell co-produced in 1989-90 by the Cornell Savoyards and Cornell University's Media Services Educational Television Center. This video has aired regionally on PBS affiliate WSKG. In addition to our collaboration with the Media Services Education Center, we have also collaborated on productions with the Cornell Dramatic Club, the Binghamton Summer Savoyards, and The Firehouse Theatre. And in May 2002, the Cornell Savoyards made our national television debut when excerpts from the fall 2000 stage production of Patience were shown on PBS as part of Commanding Heights, a documentary on globalization. This PBS special is now available for purchase from PBS for home viewing on VHS and DVD.

In the late 1960s, the Cornell Savoyards branched out from an exclusive focus on Gilbert & Sullivan, producing the light operas Histoire du Soldat and La Périchole. In recent years, the Cornell Savoyards have again branched out and the spring productions for the past few years have been selections from the musical theatre repertoire. So far we have produced The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Little Night Music, Man of La Mancha, Candide, Kiss Me, Kate, and Guys and Dolls.

We encourage members of the greater Ithaca community to become involved in our activities and our productions. For more information on how to become involved, please feel free to use the links below to explore our website and/or please contact us using the information given below. We are always looking for more people to join us.

About the Cornell Savoyards    Contact the Cornell Savoyards    Getting involved

About our current show    Ticket information    Music from the current show    Plot synopsis

Sponsor the Cornell Savoyards    Advertise in our upcoming programme(s)

Production history and photo gallery    Constitution and By-Laws

Links to G&S sites    About this Website

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The ongoing design evolution of this website owes much to prior webcreatures Sera J. Harold, Michael R. Keegan, and Rice Murray Majors. Questions and comments about the Cornell Savoyards' website should be directed to the current webcreature.