History
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company was founded in 1979, by Dick Fischel and Jim Hart. That year, the company produced its first operetta, Gilbert & Sullivan’s one act, Trial by Jury.
Since then, in its thirty-plus year history, the company has presented fully staged productions of all thirteen of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, ranging from perennial favorites, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Pirates of Penzance, to the lesser-known The Grand Duke and Utopia, Limited.
The company has also gone outside the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire and performed Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach, The Zoo by B. C. Stephenson and Arthur Sullivan, as well as a concert version of The Rose of Persia by Basil Hood and Arthur Sullivan, and a semi-staged production of the comic Gilbert and Sullivan parody, The Da Vinci Coda.
In addition, the company regularly appears with the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra, at the Lake Harriet Bandshell, in the summer, to present a concert version of one of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.
Past and Future Productions
The following is a listing of The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company’s productions, from the future back to the company’s founding:
| In 2014! The Grand Duke | 2014 |
| Upcoming! The Yeomen of the Guard | 2013 |
| Patience | 2012 |
| The Pirates of Penzance | 2011 |
| The Sorcerer | 2010 |
| Ruddigore | 2009 |
| Utopia, Limited | 2008 |
| The Mikado | 2007 |
| Princess Ida | 2006 |
| The Gondoliers | 2005 |
| Iolanthe | 2004 |
| The Grand Duke | 2003 |
| Patience | 2002 |
| H.M.S. Pinafore | 2001 |
| Orpheus in the Underworld | 2000 |
| The Yeomen of the Guard | 1999 |
| The Pirates of Penzance | 1998 |
| The Sorcerer | 1997 |
| Trial By Jury / The Zoo By B.C. Stephenson and Arthur Sullivan |
Fall 1996 |
| The Mikado | Spring 1996 |
| Ruddigore | 1995 |
| The Gondoliers | 1994 |
| Princess Ida | 1993 |
| Iolanthe | 1992 |
| The Grand Duke | 1991 |
| Patience | 1990 |
| H.M.S. Pinafore | 1989 |
| Utopia, Limited | 1988 |
| The Yeomen of the Guard | 1987 |
| The Pirates of Penzance | 1986 |
| The Sorcerer | Fall 1985 |
| The Mikado | Spring 1985 |
| The Gondoliers | 1984 |
| Ruddigore | 1983 |
| Princess Ida | 1982 |
| Iolanthe | 1981 |
| Patience | 1980 |
| Trial By Jury | 1979 |
“A many years ago, when I was young and charming …”
H.M.S. Pinafore