The Desert Song - 1966
by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd.
Music by Sigmund Romberg
Book and Lyrics by Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II and Frank Mandel
Production Team
Producer - Jack Tait
Musical Director - T. Maxwell Griffin L.R.A.M.
Dancing Mistress - Margaret Lewis
Characters
Sid el Kar - Ernest Dodds
Mindar - David Hughes
Hassi - William Stuart
Hadji - Rennie Campbell
Neri - Jeannette Burns
Pierre Birabeau (The Red Shadow) - Leonard Johnson
Benjamin Kidd - Angus Henderson
Azuri - Barbara McElroy
Capt. Paul Fontaine - Denis Hannigan
La Verne - James Caullay
Susan - Ina Fotheringham
Edith - Elizabeth Rennie
Margot Bonvalet - Nan Tait
General Birabeau - Robert McCrae
Clementina - Olivia Rae
Ali Ben Ali - Steven Russell
Ladies of the Chorus
Frances Doyle, Janice Jones, Margaret Kelly, Betty
McKay, Margaret McRuvie, Anne McSherry, Marjorie Miller, Elizabeth Rennie,
Olivia Rae, Jeanette Semple, Chrissie Stirling, Doris Strang, Kathleen Stuart.
Gentlemen of the Chorus
Roy Butterworth, Norman Carroll, James Caullay,
Alistair Currie, John Hackett, Jerry Hodgson, David Hughes, James Jenkins,
Tom Kelly, John Lane, Matthew Lang, Robert McDermott, lan MacDonald,
James McNair, Alex. Robertson, Steven Russell, William Struthers, William
Stuart, David Waters.
Dancers
Mary Brownlie, Jeanette Burns, Susan Burns, Margaret Hay, Isobel
Hind, Dorothy Hornal, Isa Hornal, Ann Struthers, Elizabeth Struthers, Alison
Wallace.
Performance Details
28th February - 5th March 1966
Duncanrig Secondary School,
East Kilbride
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Synopsis of Music and Scenes
Act I
Scene 1 - Mountain Hideout of The Red Shadow - Evening
Scene 2 - Outside General Birabeau's House - Same evening
Scene 3 - Room in the General's House - A little later
Prelude and Opening Chorus - Sid el Kar and Riffs
"Riff Song" - Red Shadow and Riffs
"O Pretty Maid of France" - Paul and Soldiers
"I'll be a Buoyant Girl" - Susan
"Why did we marry Soldiers?" - Girls
"French Marching Song" - Margot, Chorus and Dancers
"Romance" - Margot and Girls
"Then you will know" - Pierre, Margot and Chorus
"I want a Kiss" - Margot, Paul, Chorus and Dancers
"It" - Benny, Susan and Dancers
"The Desert Song" - Red Shadow and Margot
Finale Act I - Ensemble
Act II
Scene 1 - The Harem of Ali Ben Ali
Scene 2 - A Corridor in the Harem
Scene 3 - The room of the Silken Couch
Scene 4 - The Edge of the Desert
Scene 5 - Courtyard of the General's House
"My Little Castagnette" - Clementina and Girls
"The Song of the Brass Key" - Clementina, Girls and Dancers
"One good boy gone wrong" - Bennie and Clementina
"Eastern and Western Love" -
(a) "Let Love Come" - Ali Ben Ali
(b) "One Flower" - Sid el Kar
(c) "One Alone" - Red Shadow and Riffs
"The Sabre Song" - Margot
"Farewell" - Red Shadow and Riffs
"All hail to the General" - Girls
Dance of Triumph - Azuri
Finale - Ensemble
Stage Manager - Ken Denton
Hon. Accompanist - Campbell Burns
Lighting - David Roberts
Property Master - Jack McElroy
Wardrobe Mistress - Edna Porter
Leader of the Orchestra - Bert Dudman
Prompter - Irene Roberts
Make-up - Jean Waters
East Kilbride Light Opera Club Committee
Hon. President - Alex McWilliam
Hon. Vice-President - N.J.M. Tait
President - Alistair Currie
Vice-President - Hugh Gray
Secretary - Robert McCrae
Treasurer - Andrew M. Ferguson
Committee
Isa Hornal, Barbara McElroy, Ken Denton, William Struthers, Jack Tait.
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In French Morocco the French are having trouble with the Riffs. Some
years before, Pierre Birabeau, son of General Hirabeau, was struck by a superior
officer for protesting against the treatment of the natives. In revenge he organizes
a band of Arabs to avenge the wrongs committed by his countrymen, and assuming
a disguise, quickly becomes known as the Red Shadow. To the French army the
Red Shadow is a mystery, for the simple reason that Pierre spends a fair part of
his time in their midst posing as a simpleton with a passion for picking wild flowers.
Naturally this sort of duplication leads to complications, and two are particularly
awkward for Pierre. One is that his own father has recently been appointed the
General in Command of the Army, with a special commission to root out the
bandit chief, and the other is that the girl he loves, Margot, only knows him as
a gentle, half-witted creature who brings her posies. Margot's imagination has
been taken captive by the deeds of the mysterious Red Shadow, and Pierre, in
his capacity of the Riff Chieftain, gives her the desired surprise of being carried
off by the desert warrior, on the eve of her betrothal to Captain Paul Fontaine,
and conveyed to the harem of his Arab Chief, Ali Ben Ali. Here he tries to win
the affection of the romantic maiden, and Margot, while straining at her captivity,
succumbs to the wooing of her desert lover. The Red Shadow then finds himself
in trouble with his Riff associates, but he defies and cows them. When, however,
his father the General appears on the scene, summoned by the jealous Azuri,
past-time lover of Paul - and bids him draw and fight, he submits to the ignominy
of being branded a coward, and is driven forth into the desert without arms to
defend himself or the wherewithal to nourish himself. In the last scene General
Birabeau learns from Azuri that his son is the Red Shadow - but only after the
soldiers have gone out with orders not to spare his life if he is found. They return
with the news that the bandit is no more—the famous Red Shadow having been
killed off by Pierre. The final curtain falls on Margot in the arms of the Sheik-like
lover, Pierre having adopted his disguise for the last time.
