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(Tenured Radical)

Sunday, June 18, 2006

There's no escaping universities...

...for University Diaries. Went to see Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida last night, featuring my cousin Karen as dried up old prune professor Lady Blanche.




(This is Contralto Evelyn Gardiner, a much earlier Lady Blanche.)

I didn't know this operetta -- I know Patience, Pirates of Penzance, and Pinafore pretty well, but I didn't know Princess Ida. The plot revolves around the princess's effort to establish a women's university...

As I watched the show, I thought about the many musical types in UD's family - my grandfather was a small-time vaudevillian, my father a member of the Johns Hopkins Glee Club (circa ... what? -- 1940's?), my daughter's got an interesting alto voice, my older sister is a serious singer, and regular readers know I am too.
Posted at: 6/18/2006 05:23:00 PM