Front Row Reviewers – Interview: Christopher Clayton and Brian Stucki on Utah Opera’s Gentleman’s Island by Joseph Horovitz at the Capitol Theatre

by Kathryn Olsen

In Salt Lake City‘s Capitol Theatre, Utah Opera is bringing live opera back to the stage this upcoming week. In the second of the one-act operas being featured in the program, Christopher Clayton and Brian Stucki play strangers who must survive a shipwreck while unable to communicate with each other. They graciously took some time to discuss the work and this production of Joseph Horovitz’s Gentleman’s Island

Kathryn: I understand that Gentleman’s Islandis based on poetry by William Schwenk Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan?

Christopher: Yes, he wrote a lot of poems and this one is a satire on English social conventions and how they are ridiculous.

Kathryn: I think that describes everything written by Gilbert. Can you give us some background on the opera itself, since he’s more commonly associated with Sir Arthur Sullivan and this may be one people are not as familiar with?

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