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Carl Mathis may describe his current occupation as “gondola traffic director in Venice,” but he is, in fact, still icebound here on PEI with the rest of us. His traffic direction and dreams of Venice are aimed at the stages and orchestra pits where he serves as music director for this year’s A Community Theatre (ACT) production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, The Gondoliers.
It was opera that originally drew Carl into a career teaching and performing music. “When I was a kid I thought I would be a chemical engineer. But I ended up singing in operas on campus, and it captured me,” he says. He dropped chemical engineering in favour of music, and after completing a graduate degree in church music (“There’s lots of opera in church music,” he insists), he moved to Canada from the U.S., arriving on PEI in 1972 to teach “voice, choral music, theory, composition and all sorts of stuff” for 25 years at the University of Prince Edward Island.
It wasn’t until he retired that he had time to get back to his old passion. “I wasn’t looking forward to retiring,” he confides. “Teaching was too much fun. Why would you want to stop something that‚s that much fun?” Fortunately for the Professor, getting back to opera also brought him back to teaching, since directing The Gondoliers is, he insists, a teaching exercise.
It also requires a great deal of learning. “Directing anything,” he says, “you have to know all the layers of the music, then somehow you project your musical thought to others. The hand is one weapon. The eyes [he flashes his eyes dramatically] are another. The idea is to bring all the parts together musically and stylistically…I can’t describe all the layers or how it happens when it comes together—but it’s awfully fun when it happens.”
The Gondoliers has “been exciting for at least a year now,” he says, and he is excited about all aspects of the production, from the complexity of the music to the complexity of the collaborations behind the production.
He explains the enduring popularity of Gilbert and Sullivans music as originating with “two geniuses who didn’t get along—one very clever with language, another very clever setting music around that language.” He continues to explain, “There are little twists of words that Sullivan wraps little twists of music around…I don’t know how to explain it except to say he writes puns in the music.
“It’s very appealing music,” he says. “And that’s if you just stood and played and sang it. Then you start wrapping the acting around it…Movement joins the words and music—so words, music, and motion: all move together.”
Carl marvels at what it takes for ACT to put words, music, and motion together as he describes Terry Pratt’s direction of the acting and Julia Sauve’s choreography. An ACT member recently put together a list of 91 people involved in the production—”almost double the number of people on or under the stage,” Carl notes, and adds that countless others have provided other assistance.
Then there’s the audience: “I would hate to do this to an empty house,” Carl says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s opera or art song or piano . . . there’s something that comes back from the audience that’s part of what you need to do this.”
When The Gondoliers has finished its run, Carl Mathis will not lapse into inactivity. Already, there are stirrings at cast parties about possible “next shows.” And in the meantime, Carl will continue with ongoing activities, including singing in the St. Peter’s Cathedral choir (as presenter) and conducting the Indian River Festival Chorus.
Carl will, he hopes, remain unhindered by his “retired” status. “I am very happy doing silly things like this,” he confesses.” I’ve been conducting a long, long, long time and been an instrumental musician and singer longer than that. It seems like a normal way to live.”