Hippo Manchester
November 17, 2005

Q &A: Baton tactics
By Bill Copeland   news@hippopress.com

With understated panache, acclaimed British-born conductor Royston Nash is enjoying his 26th year as a New England resident, not to mention as a local hero and celebrated maestro. Since 1980, he has served as musical director and conductor of the Cape Symphony Orchestra and since 1986, he has been conductor of the Nashua Symphony. On November 19th, Nashua gets its own British Invasion as the Nashua Symphony honors Nash on his 20th anniversary with “Maestro’s Riches,” an evening of Gilbert and Sullivan selections at Nashua’s Keefe Auditorium.

Your celebrating your 20th season with the Nashua Symphony. What changes have you witnessed  over the past two decades?

Well, from an orchestral point of view, the growth of the orchestra has resulted in playing works of far greater difficulty than before. Talent-wise, we have grown immensely. We recently performed The Red Violin from the film of the same name, which is a very difficult piece of music to play. Interestingly enough, we have not grown in size and we don’t have more members simply because we cannot fit them on the stage. And considering how restricted our funds are, the orchestra has made wonderful leaps forward.

How do the people of Greater Nashua impact the symphony?

Well quite simply, an orchestra without an audience isn’t an orchestra. I believe the people of Nashua and Greater Nashua bring it to a new standard. And with public backing, a new concert hall would be nice.

You live on Cape Cod and serve as musical director and conductor of the Cape Symphony Orchestra. New England must be a rustic if not drastic change from your native United Kingdom.

Well I’ve been conducting the Cape Symphony orchestra since 1980 and actually, before the Cape, I was the director of D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and we traveled throughout most of England, Scotland and Wales. So this area is not completely unlike the places that we toured.  Islington, Cardiff and Eastbourne Brighton. I covered a lot of the British Isles. Another thing about living in New England and on the Cape is that it’s seaside community, so the change wasn’t extreme. Had I moved to Georgia or something like South Carolina, the transition might have been more noticeable. You adjust to things just as people have had to adjust to me I suppose.

How do opera audiences differ from orchestral or symphony audiences?

Opera does attract a different audience but the bottom line is if you like music, you like music. And by the time you’re done the overture, you know whether things are going well and if the audience is with you or not.

After your eight years with London’s D’Oyle Carte Opera Company, you took a self-imposed exile from performing Gilbert and Sullivan.

True. When I first came here, I said no to Gilbert and Sullivan. I wanted to stay away from operas. But concert versions are different. There are no costumes and the orchestra is not in the pit. Plus a concert offers highlights, little snippets. On the 19th, the program will feature songs from almost all of their operas throughout the evening.

How did the idea of performing G&S come about?

This started when I heard that a friend of mine Geoffrey Shovelton, a marvelous tenor whom I worked with in the company, had moved to Maine. So I rang him and said ‘Welcome to New England. Would you like to do a concert together?’ On the 19th there is a trio of vocalists performing. Geoffrey, Deborah Clague, who happens to be his wife, and Richard Conrad. The evening will be a good introduction to G&S, with some of their best arias and dialogue. I have performed with this trio before and it is very satisfying to the audience. We’ll perform the overture to Cox and Box, The Mikado and Iolanthe.

A lot of people are introduced to classical music or opera through movies and movie soundtracks. It’s sort of a shortcut. Did you ever see The Pirates of Penzance with Kristy McNichol? Quite bad.

I have not seen it but I believe you. You know, there was a performance of Pirates in Boston with Linda Rondstadt and I was invited. It was enjoyable and I met the press afterwards and they asked me what I thought. I said the audience was brimming. If you can do that, bring them to life, then you’re doing something right. But I think people need to see something like this against a knowledge of the original. You can’t say if it’s better or worse if you’re seeing it through a vacuum. Without seeing the original, you can’t completely judge the new version.

—George Pelletier