The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.

Opera Dog!

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How’s this for a dog duty?: opera dog. Awooooooooo!

It was reported in the Houston Chronicle (02 Feb 09) that Buddy, a young barking border collie, has been featuring in the Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Wonderful, wooferful news!

Buddy is at all times accompanied by Kee, a trained young opera singer. Buddy’s appearance in the Benjamin Britten opera is the dog’s Houston Grand Opera debut. Kee plays a tailor and would-be actor working with other common folk to put on a play within the opera. Buddy plays his dog.

Little feet’s been barking on to me about the possibility of a life on stage for yonks, and knows of quite a few of Shakespeare’s tales where dogs would fit the bill – including the Night Dream as well as Merry Wives of Windsor, that features quite a number of houndish references!

Little feet also confessed that as happy as she was to hear of this luck collie dog, she was a bit miffed, as hounds proper, and not collies, would be more textually correct an inclusion in any production – as Shakespeare specifically makes reference to find ‘dew-lapped hounds’ – which in point of fact would properly barking be the baying minstrels of the meadows – basset hounds (so melodious!) and beagles (the real ‘melody-makers of the meadows’). Woof!

If anyone in Theatre-Land has a hankering to feature ‘dew-lapped hounds’ in their upcoming productions, may I kindly request you fill out a feed-bark form and I’d be more than happy to grace the stage boards with my fine paws for an audition.

The duo’s moment in the spotlight comes in the opera’s final scenes when Kee must sing like the moon for laughs as Buddy howls on cue.

Needless to say, since opening night, Buddy’s been a big hit. (Though on the first opening night Buddy snuck in a few precocious and unscripted solos!)

Kee confessed that Buddy’s role has, as is not surprising, a bit “hit or miss.” “When it hits and he’s quiet, then people can focus on the play. And when it misses and he steals the focus, the audience loves it all the more. Either way, the audience is going to have a good time, and that is what it is all about.”

In another scene, Buddy scampers across an empty stage, an operatic feat that Saturday garnered scattered applause from the rear of the Wortham Center’s Brown Theater and some cooing from various opera patrons.

Though Britten’s Dream is Buddy’s first opera, Buddy does not pad onstage without previous show-business experience. His credits include a stint as Toto in The Wizard of Oz at South Houston High School, where his trainer and owner Katharine Dudley-Scott once worked. Officially Buddy belongs to Dudley-Scott’s husband, Andy Scott – and many dog/man hours have gone into getting him trained up for a life on stage. (Almost 9 years of training!) Woof!

For years, Buddy competed in canine agility events, which required him to run obstacle courses. After an injury sidelined him, Buddy entered show business.

“This is his thing,” Dudley-Scott said. “If he were offered another show, he’d bark at the chance.”

SuperWoof to Buddy the Opera Dog!

Awoof!

Archibald Esq. (a young dog about town still looking for his metier!)

Posted 20 Feb 09