{"id":1853,"date":"2007-07-06T00:22:51","date_gmt":"2007-07-06T06:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conradaskland.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/brigadoon-comes-to-skagit-valley\/"},"modified":"2007-07-06T00:22:51","modified_gmt":"2007-07-06T06:22:51","slug":"brigadoon-comes-to-skagit-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/brigadoon-comes-to-skagit-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigadoon Comes to Skagit Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c2 \"brig-wageman-chenovick.jpg\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Troy Wageman and Megan Chenovick from Brigadoon<\/p>\n

Mists of the Highlands Reach Skagit<\/strong>
\nby Bev Crichfield – Skagit Valley Herald
\nwww.GoSkagit.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00c2 Mount Vernon, WA <\/strong>– Welcome to the Scottish Highlands, where the mists of the moors hide a magical town called Brigadoon, and weary travelers can spend a day enjoying good music, friendship and even find the ever-elusive true love of their lives.<\/p>\n

But be careful \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it can only happen one day out of a century.<\/p>\n

Everything about the Broadway musical \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brigadoon\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is enough to make a woman swoon, said Brenda Mueller, director of the Lyric Light Opera\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s production of the 1947 Lerner and Loewe classic set for three weekends in July at McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You cannot find any more beautiful music from a musical than in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBrigadoon,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mueller said, while preparing to lead the chorus through a scene last week during rehearsals.
\nThe romantic storyline continues to satisfy the imaginations of audiences years after it was written, Mueller said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s magical. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the mists of the Highlands; you enter it and it just sweeps you away.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The production is the perfect fit for the Scottish-themed lineup of events throughout July in Skagit Valley, Mueller said. Lyric Light Opera is collaborating with the Skagit Valley Highland Games, set for July 14-15 at Edgewater Park in Mount Vernon.<\/p>\n

Part of that collaboration has meant a few professional bagpipers who will compete in the games have offered to add the uniquely Highland sound of their instruments to the 23-member orchestra, which includes violins, woodwinds and a more classical style of music than most Broadway musicals.<\/p>\n

Although it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually performed as a typical stage musical, Brigadoon has been considered borderline opera, and sometimes is performed by opera companies, Mueller said.<\/p>\n

Standing in the hallway of the church where the 45-member cast was rehearsing last week, opera singer Megan Chenovick, who plays the female lead Fiona, said she was excited by the opportunity to do some \u00e2\u20ac\u0153classical\u00e2\u20ac\u009d singing for her part.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some great music and so many standards that people are going to recognize,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chenovick said, including the romantic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Come To Me, Bend To Me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Love Of My Life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Some of the tunes were so well-written that there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much a singer has to do to make them new and fresh, said Tim Glynn, who plays the young, energetic Charlie.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCome To Me, Bend To Me\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 makes me feel so not needed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Glynn said. The emotions that flow out of the lyrics and music are enough by themselves to sway an audience, he said.<\/p>\n

Glynn is one of five professional performers hired by Lyric Light Opera for the $100,000 show. Those leads come from Seattle and have performed with such large theater companies as the 5th Avenue in Seattle and the Village Theatre in Everett and Issaquah.<\/p>\n

Many cast members in the Stanwood-area based group are from Anacortes, Arlington, Bellevue, Camano Island, Marysville and Mount Vernon.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brigadoon\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the second big Lyric Light Opera production since the group was formed in 2006 out of the remnants of the Northwest Civic Light Opera. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a larger, more elaborate \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and costly \u00e2\u20ac\u201d endeavor than the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first show last July, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Annie Get Your Gun.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

And despite the hiring of five professional performers, Mueller said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sticking firmly to the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aim to provide opportunities for local young theater hounds to learn the ins and outs of theater production.<\/p>\n

The professional actors were hired on the condition that they serve as mentors to other, less-experienced members of the cast \u00e2\u20ac\u201d an arrangement that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already reaping benefits, Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have a high level of excellence in our shows, and this is a part of that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mueller said.<\/p>\n

She said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to stay as true as possible to the Scottish tradition.<\/p>\n

Despite its Scottish backdrop, the real story of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brigadoon\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is based on a fairy tale from Germany, written by Friederich Gerstacker, about a mythical cursed village. In 1947, when the musical was written for Broadway, the United States had just come out of World War II and American audiences weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fond of Germany. So the location of the story and its character names were changed to reflect a Scottish theme.<\/p>\n

But the fairy tale edge was kept mostly intact.<\/p>\n

In the story, two New Yorkers, Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas, travel to the Scottish Highlands and get lost during a hunting expedition. They hear faint music, and follow it through the heavy mist to a village where everything harkens back to a simpler time. The foreign visitors arrive just in time to witness the wedding of Charlie and his fianc\u00c3\u00a9e, Jean.<\/p>\n

Through the day they meet a list of colorful characters: The aggressively lovelorn Meg, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s searched high and low for a husband; Harry Beaton, who is in love with the beautiful Jean; Angus McGuffie, who employs Meg and the gentle and good-hearted Fiona.<\/p>\n

Oh, and did we mention that Fiona is beautiful? That goes without saying \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this is, after all, a fairy tale at heart.<\/p>\n

As the day goes on, Tommy finds himself falling in love with Fiona. The mystery of the village is revealed, too. Turns out, a parish priest 200 years prior to their arrival made a pact with God to make the village disappear only to become visible once every 100 years to protect it from the evils of the outside world. If someone leaves the village, it will disappear into the mist forever.<\/p>\n

As the story continues, the future of the village is threatened, jealousy leads to tragedy, and Tommy and Fiona discover they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a perfect match.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The reason I like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBrigadoon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 so much is that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a really broad emotional spectrum,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ryan Edwards of Arlington, who plays the jealous and self-absorbed Harry Beaton. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They explore a lot of difficult emotions that makes the play sentimental, a bit moody, tragic and a bit elated, in back-to-back scenes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Aside from the rigorous dancing that incorporates hopping, twirling and some ballet \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a totally new challenge for Edwards \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the other big challenge for the cast has been adopting an authentic, but intelligible, Scottish brogue.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know anything about the Scottish accent (before the show),\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Jeannette d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Armand of Seattle, who plays the bubbly and flirtatious Meg.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dress up, you dress oop,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added, laughing.<\/p>\n

Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the constant rolling of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that keeps the actors constantly thinking about their words, she said.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been fun for me \u00e2\u20ac\u201d something new to learn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2 Troy Wageman and Megan Chenovick from Brigadoon Mists of the Highlands Reach Skagit by Bev Crichfield – Skagit Valley Herald www.GoSkagit.com \u00c2 Mount Vernon, WA – Welcome to the Scottish Highlands, where the mists of the moors hide a magical town called Brigadoon, and weary travelers can spend a day enjoying good music, friendship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3C0LX-tT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}