The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company Appearance at the Minnesota State Fair 2024

August 30 and 31, 2024

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company performed for a third year at the Minnesota State Fair, in its Arts A’Fair series. As in the previous two years, company members performed multiple short sets in the round performance space at West End Market, with shops and food and drink stands all around, and fairgoers stopping to listen on nearby benches. The space is wide open to late-summer sun and heat, but this year’s weather was perfect, in the high 70s to mid-80s.

The company members performed primarily numbers from the upcoming fall 2024 production of The McAdo and the spring 2025 production of Patience. The company hit new highs in the number of performers and in audience engagement. There were twenty singers, plus our accompanist Jean Orbison van Heel. The performers sang multiple solos, along with the duets, trios, quartets, and quintets.

A guaranteed favorite of fairgoers, not from The McAdo or Patience, is the “Regular Royal Queen” quartet from The Gondoliers. This song always gets people clapping and swaying, and the two women and two men get to strike poses and dance like pop stars.

Waldyn Benbenek did his customary yeoman’s job organizing the performances and serving as Master of Ceremonies, while Josh Zapata-Palmer, as a second Master of Ceremonies, whipped up the crowd at the end of each set.

The performers ended each set with “Now to the Banquet We Press,” from The Sorcerer. This year, however, that members replaced Gilbert’s ode to heavy English wedding-breakfast food (“the eggs and the ham and the strawberry jam”) with a tribute to wacky State-Fair food, written by Maureen and Tom Berg:

Now to the food at the fair
Now for the beer batter brats
Now for the lobster eclair
Now for the dill pickle tots

Now to whatever you pick
Now for the sweet cookie jar
The corn or the cheese on a stick
And now for the fried candy bar
The corn or the cheese on a stick
And now for the fried candy bar!

The beer batter brats and the dill pickle tots
The sweet cookie jar and the fried candy bar
The beer batter brats and the dill pickle tots
The sweet cookie jar and the fried candy bar

The beer batter brats and the dill pickle tots and the fried candy bar!
The fried candy bar and the sweet cookie jar and the dill pickle tots!
Tots! (Bar!) Tots! (Bar!)
Oh the dill pickle, dill pickle tots!
Bar! (Tots!) Bar! (Tots!)
Oh the fried candy, fried candy bar!

Participants

Waldyn Benbenek, Maggie Benham, Tom Berg, Sarah Brickeen, Alyssa Ehlen, Alexander Gerchak, Scott Gorman, Trenton Johnson, Ella Rose Katzenberger, Mary Kettlewell, Anna Maher, Wendy Matsutani, Blanka Melbostad, John Orbison, Matt Polum, Mallory Rabehl, Seth Tychon Steidl, Alessio Tranchell, Sam Vinitsky, Josh Zapata-Palmer

Accompanist

Jean Orbison Van Heel

Masters of Ceremonies

Waldyn Benbenek and Josh Zapata-Palmer

Event Coordination

Waldyn Benbenek

Logistical Assistance

Mary Mescher Benbenek, Brian Chan