The Golden Ticket

Saturday March 03, 2012
Tuesday March 06, 2012
Friday March 09, 2012
Sunday March 11, 2012

Saturday March 03, 2012 at 8:00PM
Tuesday March 06, 2012 at 7:30PM
Friday March 09, 2012 at 8:00PM
Sunday March 11, 2012 at 3:00PM

A Comic Opera Based on the Book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl

Music by Peter Ash
Libretto by Donald Sturrock
Commissioned by American Lyric Theater, Lawrence Edelson
Producing Artistic Director and Felicity Dahl

A young boy named Charlie finds a “golden ticket” admitting him into Willy Wonka’s top-secret chocolate factory where he encounters chocolate rivers, inflating blueberries, magic elevators and other delights.
The Golden Ticket is a poignant tale about wishes coming true.

Premiered by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, June 13, 2010 • Developmental Support for The Golden Ticket was provided in the United Kingdom by the Royal National Theatre Studio and The National Endowment for Science Technology and The Arts • Presented by arrangement wih American Lyric Theater Center, Inc., in partnership with Music Link International, copyright owner.

Sets from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Approximate Running Time: 2.5 hours
At Cobb Energy Centre (map)

Audio Clips

Introduction to The Golden Ticket
Introduction to Fit or Fat?
Fit or Fat?
Introduction to A Wonka Welcome
A Wonka Welcome
Introduction to Act I Finale
Act I Finale
Introduction to The Inventing Room
The Inventing Room

Cast & Credits

Willy Wonka/Mr. Know ..... Daniel Okulitch
Charlie (March 9 & 11) ..... Ruben Roy
Charlie (March 3 & 6) ..... Benjamin P. Wenzelberg
Grandpa Joe ..... Keith Jameson
Grandma Georgina/Mrs. Gloop ..... Kristin Clayton
Grandma Josephine/Mrs. Teavee ..... Jamie Barton
Grandpa George/Mr. Beauregard ..... Jason Hardy
Mike Teavee ..... Gerald Thompson
Violet Beauregard ..... Ashley Emerson
Augustus Gloop ..... Andrew Drost
Veruca Salt ..... Abigail Nims
Lord Salt ..... David Kravitz
Candy Mallow/Squirrelmistress ..... Krista Costin

Conductor ..... Peter Ash
Director ..... Michael Shell
Set Design ..... Bruno Schwengl
Costumes ..... Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting ..... Christopher Akerlind
Chorus Master ..... Walter Huff

With The Atlanta Opera Orchestra & Chorus
All cast subject to change without notice.


Daniel Okulitch	Benjamin P. Wenzelberg	Ruben Roy	Keith Jameson	Kristin Clayton


Jamie Barton	Jason Hardy	Gerald Thompson	Ashley Emerson	Andrew Drost


Abigail Nims	David Kravitz	Krista Costin


Peter Ash	Michael Shell	Bruno Schwengl	Walter Huff	Donald Sturrock

Synopsis

The Golden Ticket is a two act opera based on Roald Dahl's classic children's story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is set in an unknown but familiar city, some time in the recent past, when factory automation was less commonplace and technology more haphazard than it is today.

Before our story begins, Willy Wonka, the secretive confectionary wizard, has sacked all the workers in his factory because one of them was stealing his recipes. The factory however mysteriously still continued to function. Now, twenty years later, Wonka has suddenly announced that he will reveal all its secrets to the winners of five golden tickets he has hidden under the wrappers of five ordinary bars of chocolate. As the action of the opera begins, three of these tickets have already been discovered.

ACT I opens outside Wonka's factory. It is winter. Atop the walls, as in a mediaeval castle, a line of gargoyles stands guard. Embedded in a gigantic buttress is a candy store, run by the eccentric Mr. Archie Know. A tiny boy, aged about nine years old, questions him. He is Charlie Bucket, the hero of our story. The scene shifts to the interior of the hovel where the Charlie lives alone with his four grandparents. Three of them are bed-ridden, but the fourth, Grandpa Joe, is still able to walk. Charlie does his best to look after them, but all they can ever afford to eat is cabbage soup. They dream each day of eating something more delicious, but Grandpa Joe is the only one who truly believes that one day their situation will change.

Charlie, still obsessed by Wonka's factory, switches on their broken-down television to see who has won the first three tickets. In the television studio, the presenter Candy Mallow is having problems. The first winner, Mike Teavee, when asked about what he has imagined, tells her that he does not dream. He only watches tv. Bored by her questions, he starts to vandalise the studio equipment. Inside the headquarters of Wonka's greatest rival Veruca Salt, the spoiled daughter of candy tycoon Lord Salt, is obsessed by winning a golden ticket. Her hen-pecked father tells her that every one of his employees is now opening Wonka bars as fast as they can in order to find her one. Veruca is unimpressed. Back in the television studio, Candy Mallow interviews the other two winners, a greedy boy called Augustus Gloop, and an ambitious child actress called Violet Beauregard. Once again, the interview gets out of control. In their respective homes, Charlie and Veruca are going to bed. Both long for a golden ticket. One of them however is dreaming of magic and adventure, the other only of ownership and power. Night passes into a new day: Charlie's birthday. It is the one day each year he gets a chocolate bar. Expectantly, he opens the wrapper. He knows this is his only chance to win. But there is no ticket. On his way to school, he passes Mr. Know’s shop and the two of them talk. Mr. Know encourages Charlie to invent a new chocolate recipe and assures him that his luck will change. Charlie cannot see that it ever will.

Inside Lord Salt's factory, the exhausted workers have failed to locate a golden ticket. Veruca is beside herself with rage. Suddenly, someone finds one. Veruca is ecstatic. At last she has what she wanted. For Charlie however, things have turned from bad to worse. Caught in a bitter snowstorm on his way home from school, he is knocked to the ground by a bunch of marauding bullies outside Mr. Know's shop. Then, hidden in the snow, he finds a dollar bill. He hesitates for a moment before going to buy another Wonka bar. As he opens it he sees - glittering beneath the wrapper - his golden ticket.

A bright new day has dawned. A huge crowd is gathered outside the chocolate factory to see Willy Wonka. The first four winners appear, each with one of their parents. Charlie arrives last, with Grandpa Joe. Candy Mallow, trying to interview Charlie, is upstaged by Wonka when he sails over the wall of his factory in a hot-air balloon. Summoning the five children, Wonka warns them that his factory is an unpredictable place, and that - if they are to visit it in safety - they must always do exactly what he says. As they enter the factory, the crowd wonder what excitements lie ahead for the lucky winners.

ACT II opens inside the chocolate factory. There, Wonka reveals the first of his factory’s wonders: a vast candy field and a gigantic subterranean chocolate river. Augustus Gloop cannot resist drinking from it and falls in. His panic-stricken mother begs Wonka to do something because Augustus cannot swim, but Wonka cannot prevent the boy from being sucked into one of the factory’s pipes. Wonka then explains how he has kept his factory going. He has imported special workers: Oompa Loompas. Wonka instructs some of them to take Mrs. Gloop and look for Augustus. He hopes the boy has not been turned into fudge.

More Oompa Loompas arrive in a large pink boat made out of an enormous boiled sweet and the remaining passengers all get aboard. Wonka takes them on a hair-raising ride in total darkness down the chocolate rapids.The boat pulls up outside the inventing-room. There, Wonka demonstrates a machine he has developed to make three course meal chewing gum. Though he assures the children that the gum is not yet ready for consumption, Violet Beauregard cannot resist trying it. It is a big mistake. Very soon the terrified Violet finds herself turning into a gigantic blueberry and is taken away to be juiced. Wonka then takes his guests into a curious television studio. There he is experimenting with sending chocolate around the world by television. Despite Wonka’s warnings, Mike Teavee leaps into the complex apparatus and is instantly miniaturized. Wonka tells his nervous mother that if she wants her son back, she has only one option: to stretch him. Grandpa Joe, moved by her plight and convinced that Charlie is safe in Wonka’s hands, gallantly decides to stay with her.

Wonka takes the two remaining children into an oriental bazaar, where specially–trained squirrels are helping to make Turkish Delight by sorting out the good nuts from the bad ones. Veruca demands to take a squirrel home and, when Wonka refuses, she tries to grab one. Deciding that she is a bad nut, the squirrels take hold both of Veruca and her father and flush them both down the factory’s rubbish chute.

Wonka and Charlie are now alone in the factory. Wonka shows Charlie his magical glass elevator and Charlie presses the Up and Out button. The elevator smashes through the roof of the factory, stopping only when it is hovering high in the sky over the city. Wonka tells Charlie that he is retiring and that he has chosen him to take over. He gives Charlie the key to the factory. Charlie presses another button and the elevator falls out of the sky. It crashes straight through the roof of his home.

The grandparents are astonished when Charlie tells them what has happened. Initially reluctant to leave their little home, they agree to move when Charlie tells them they will now be able to eat as much as they want. Charlie goes to tell Mr. Know what has happened and is surprised to find that his little sweetshop has closed. He is perplexed. For a moment he wonders what to do. Suddenly however, the gates of the factory open. The grotesque children and their parents appear, accompanied by a host of Oompa Loompas and squirrels. Together with Wonka and Charlie’s grandparents they acclaim Charlie and celebrate his imagination. All look forward to a future filled with love and laughter.

Courtesy of American Lyric Theater