Somebody’s birthday?
This is the question that Don Alhambra asks in Act 1 of The Gondoliers, and gets the unexpected reply that it’s everybody’s birthday, this “curious coincidence” being explained by the fact that the two couples have just been married!
Today is the Society’s 50th birthday – as you’ll read at this link, DGASS was formed at a public meeting held on Wednesday, 13 May 1970. And today would also have been Sir Arthur Sullivan’s birthday – Radio 3 remembered this year, and played the music for one of the tableaux for his 1897 Victoria and Merrie England – though sadly he died in 1900.
Funny sort of birthday it will be, given the current epidemic, but at least we’ll get a chance to meet on-line, and perhaps raise a glass to the continuing prosperity of the Society!