Gilbert & Sullivan Operas Scheduled for O.C. Center

The reconstituted D’Oyly Carte Opera Company of Great Britain will present Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” and “The Pirates of Penzance” Oct. 16 to 21 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Center officials announced Monday.

The exclusive U.S. engagement will be the troupe’s first visit to this country since 1978 and is part of the “Festival of Britain Orange County--1990,” a combination retail promotion and arts festival co-sponsored by the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa and the British consulate in Los Angeles.

The festival is paying for the company’s transportation, while the Center is assuming presentation costs, Center President Thomas R. Kendrick said Monday. Center officials declined to specify how much the engagement will cost.

Originally formed in 1876 by W.S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan and impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, the company was considered the bastion of authentic G&S; tradition for 107 years.

But criticized for increasingly stagnant productions and declines in vocal and musical standards, as well as box-office and subsidy woes, the company closed in 1982.

The present company, run by Richard Condon, was launched in 1988 with part of a $1.7-million bequest from the late Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte, the granddaughter of Richard D’Oyly Carte. She died in 1985.

Kendrick said Monday that “Mikado” and “Pirates” will be presented to American audiences because “they are the two operas the company resumed production with (in 1988) and . . . these were the only two available for export.”

Kendrick said the Center would be interested in bringing the D’Oyly Carte company back but could not afford to sponsor another exclusive visit.

“We’re obviously subsidizing (this engagement) to a larger extent . . . than we would if they were on a national tour,” Kendrick said. “We could not do this again. There would have to be a national tour.”

Four performances of both operas will be presented in Orange County: “The Mikado,” directed by John Wells, at 8 p.m., Oct. 16 to 19; “Pirates,” directed by Keith Warner of the English National Opera, at 2 and 8 p.m. on Oct. 20 and 21.

Tickets, priced at $12 to $39, will go on sale about six weeks before the engagement. Information: (714) 556-2787.