W. S. Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea

The Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island will present a staged reading of W. S. Gilbert’s classic comedy, Pygmalion and Galatea. The play is the fourth in an annual series of staged readings that began with The Palace of Truth in 2005, and continued with The Princess in 2006 and Tom Cobb in 2007. First produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1871, Pygmalion and Galatea is the story of a sculptor, Pygmalion, who specializes in statues of beautiful women–always using his beloved wife, Cynisca, as his model. However, the statues are even more beautiful than the real woman–a difference that becomes important when the gods deem Pygmalion’s greatest work, Galatea, so lovely that they bring the statue to life as a real woman. Soon Pygmalion is at odds with his wife, who can’t help being jealous even of the marble itself, while the innocent Galatea, who knows nothing of human life or society, sows havoc wherever she goes. This is a terrific opportunity for anyone who loves Gilbert’s operas to get acquainted with another side of the man who most people considered the most important English dramatist of the 19th century