Audio CD review:
Arthur Sullivan, Malcolm Sargent, Bertha Lewis, Charles Goulding, Darrell Fancourt, Derek Oldham, Dorothy Gill, Elsie Griffin, George Baker, Henry A. Lytton - Pirates of Penzance/H.M.S. Pinafore

Arthur Sullivan, Malcolm Sargent, Bertha Lewis, Charles Goulding, Darrell Fancourt, Derek Oldham, Dorothy Gill, Elsie Griffin, George Baker, Henry A. Lytton - Pirates of Penzance/H.M.S. Pinafore

Band: Arthur Sullivan, Malcolm Sargent, Bertha Lewis, Charles Goulding, Darrell Fancourt, Derek Oldham, Dorothy Gill, Elsie Griffin, George Baker, Henry A. Lytton Title: Pirates of Penzance/H.M.S. Pinafore Rating: Release Date: 07 April, 2003 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Pirates of Penzance: Overture: - Light Opera Orchestra 2: Pirates of Penzance: Pour, O Pour, The Pirate Sherry - Male Chorus, Stuart Robertson 3: Pirates of Penzance: When Fred'ric Was a Little Lad - Dorothy Gill 4: Pirates of Penzance: Oh, Better Far to Live and Die - Peter Dawson, Male Chorus 5: Pirates of Penzance: O, False One, You Have Deceived Me - Dorothy Gill, Derek Oldham 6: Pirates of Penzance: What Shall I Do?/Climbing Over Rocky Mountain - Nellie Briercliffe, , Derek Oldham, Nellie Walker, 7: Pirates of Penzance: Stop, Ladies, Pray - Nellie Briercliffe, , Derek Oldham, Nellie Walker, 8: Pirates of Penzance: Oh! Is There Not One Maiden Breast - Elsie Griffin, Derek Oldham, 9: Pirates of Penzance: 'Tis Mabel! - Elsie Griffin, 10: Pirates of Penzance: Poor Wand'ring One - Elsie Griffin, Derek Oldham, 11: Pirates of Penzance: What Ought We to Do, Gentle Sisters, Say? - Nellie Briercliffe, Nellie Walker 12: Pirates of Penzance: How Beautifully Blue the Sky - Elsie Griffin, Derek Oldham, 13: Pirates of Penzance: Stay, We Must Not Lose Our Senses - Derek Oldham, 14: Pirates of Penzance: Hold, Monsters! - George Baker, , Elsie Griffin, Stuart Robertson, Chorus 15: Pirates of Penzance: I a the Very Model of a Modern Major General - George Baker, , Chorus 16: Pirates of Penzance: Oh, Men of Dark and Dismal Fate - George Baker, 17: Pirates of Penzance: You May Go, For You're at Liberty 18: Pirates of Penzance: Oh! Dry the Glist'ning Tear - Elsie Griffin 19: Pirates of Penzance: Then, Fred'ric, Let Your Escort, Lion Hearted - George Baker, Derek Oldham 20: Pirates of Penzance: Now for the Pirates' Lair - Peter Dawson, Dorothy Gill, Derek Oldham 21: Pirates of Penzance: When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold - Peter Dawson, Dorothy Gill, Derek Oldham 22: Pirates of Penzance: Away, Away! My Hearts on Fire - Peter Dawson, Dorothy Gill, Derek Oldham 23: Pirates of Penzance: All Is Prepared!/Stay Fred'ric, Stay! - Elsie Griffin, Derek Oldham 24: Pirates of Penzance: Ah, Leave Me Not to Pine! - Elsie Griffin, Derek Oldham 25: Pirates of Penzance: No, I Am Brave! - Elsie Griffin, Male Chorus, Leo Sheffield 26: Pirates of Penzance: When a Fellon's Not Engaged - Male Chorus, Leo Sheffield 27: Pirates of Penzance: A Rollicking Band of Pirates We - Male Chorus, Leo Sheffield 28: Pirates of Penzance: With Cat-Like Tread - Male Chorus, Stuart Robertson 29: Pirates of Penzance: Hush, Hush! - George Baker, , Derek Oldham, Chorus 30: Pirates of Penzance: Softly Sighing - George Baker, Male Chorus 31: Pirates of Penzance: Now What Is This, And What Is That? - George Baker, , Elsie Griffin, Derek Oldham 32: Pirates of Penzance: To Gain a Brief Advantage - George Baker, Peter Dawson, , Dorothy Gill, Elsie Griffin, Leo Sheffield 33: H.M.S. Pinafore: Overture - Symphony Orchestra 34: H.M.S. Pinafore: We Sail the Ocean Blue - Male Chorus 35: H.M.S. Pinafore: Hail! Men-O'-Wars'-Men - Bertha Lewis 36: H.M.S. Pinafore: I'm Called Little Buttercup - Bertha Lewis 37: H.M.S. Pinafore: But Tell Me Who's the Youth - Sydney Grainville, Bertha Lewis 38: H.M.S. Pinafore: The Nightingale Sighed - Charles Goulding, Bertha Lewis, Male Chorus 39: H.M.S. Pinafore: A Maiden Fair to See - Charles Goulding, Male Chorus 40: H.M.S. Pinafore: My Gallant Crew, Good Morning! - George Baker, Male Chorus 41: H.M.S. Pinafore: I Am the Captain of the Pinafore - George Baker, Male Chorus 42: H.M.S. Pinafore: Sir, You Are Sad - George Baker, Bertha Lewis 43: H.M.S. Pinafore: Sorry Her Lot - Elsie Griffin 44: H.M.S. Pinafore: Over the Bright Blue Sea 45: H.M.S. Pinafore: Sir Joseph's Barge Is Seen - Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 46: H.M.S. Pinafore: Now Give Three Cheers - George Baker, Nellie Briercliffe, Henry Lytton, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 47: H.M.S. Pinafore: When I Was a Lad - Henry Lytton, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 48: H.M.S. Pinafore: For I Hold That on the Seas - Nellie Briercliffe, Henry Lytton, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 49: H.M.S. Pinafore: A British Tar Is a Soaring Soul - Charles Goulding, Sydney Grainville, Male Chorus, Stuart Robertson 50: H.M.S. Pinafore: Refrain, Audacious Tar - Charles Goulding, Elsie Griffin 51: H.M.S. Pinafore: Can I Survive This Overbearing? - Nellie Briercliffe, Darrell Fancourt, Charles Goulding, Sydney Grainville, Elsie Griffin, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 52: H.M.S. Pinafore: This Very Night - Darrell Fancourt, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 53: H.M.S. Pinafore: Entr'acte - Symphony Orchestra 54: H.M.S. Pinafore: Fair Moon, To Thee I Sing - George Baker 55: H.M.S. Pinafore: Things Are Seldom Done - George Baker, Bertha Lewis 56: H.M.S. Pinafore: The Hours Creep on Apace - Elsie Griffin 57: H.M.S. Pinafore: Never Mind the Why and Wherefore - George Baker, Elsie Griffin, Henry Lytton 58: H.M.S. Pinafore: Kind Captain - George Baker, Darrell Fancourt 59: H.M.S. Pinafore: Carefully on Tip-Toe Stealing - George Baker, Darrell Fancourt, Charles Goulding, Elsie Griffin, Male Chorus 60: H.M.S. Pinafore: He Is an Englishman! - Sydney Grainville, Male Chorus 61: H.M.S. Pinafore: In Uttering a Reprobation - George Baker, Nellie Briercliffe, Darrell Fancourt, Henry Lytton, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 62: H.M.S. Pinafore: Farewell My Own - Nellie Briercliffe, Darrell Fancourt, Charles Goulding, Sydney Grainville, Elsie Griffin, Henry Lytton, 63: H.M.S. Pinafore: My Pain and My Distress - Bertha Lewis, Henry Lytton, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 64: H.M.S. Pinafore: A Many Years Ago - Bertha Lewis, Mixed Chorus & Orchestra 65: H.M.S. Pinafore: Oh Joy, Oh Rapture - George Baker, Nellie Briercliffe, Darrell Fancourt, Charles Goulding, Elsie Griffin, Bertha Lewis, Henry Lytton,

Customer Review Excellent historical Gilbert and Sullivan The original issues were on 78s and published in albums of twenty or more sides, each. Source: The first electronic recordings of "The Pirates of Penzance" (recorded February-May 1929) and "HMS Pinafore" (recorded February-June 1930). Sound: Considering the great age of the performances, the sound is generally amazingly good. No details are provided, but it sounds to me as though a set of near-pristine (with some notable exceptions) disks have been transferred onto CD with little or no re-mastering. The effect is that of listening to the 78s on a top-of-the-line phonograph with an absolutely silent record changing mechanism. There is some low but easy-to-ignore hiss that probably appeared in the original matrices, and moments of overloading on a few of the biggest ensembles. The voices of the soloists are mostly very well captured. The choruses sound fine, if a little distant and slightly compressed. The orchestra is a bit confined by digital era standards, but its sound is nevertheless good and full of detail. The CD tracks tend to follow the three- to four-minute takes of the original 78s. Reflecting the original sides, there is often a brief roll-off at the end of a number. In the finales, which extended over multiple 78 sides, the CDs contain brief pauses at the record breaks. Original 78s were often played out of sequence by their owners. Noticeably more wear is detectable on popular solo pieces than on the less often played choral sequences. Documentation: Minimal. No libretto. Cast list. Short plot summaries by act. Track list. Nothing on the performers. Text: No dialogue has been recorded. In "Pinafore," a short entr'acte, essentially an orchestral reprise of "I'm Called Little Buttercup," starts off the second CD. In "Pirates," the Sergeant's faux-churchly admonition to his men is, as usual, omitted. As the Sergeant, the beloved Leo Sheffield chose to sing, "A policeman's lot is not an 'appy one," and the chorus responded with, "'Nappy one. " Since W. S. Gilbert very plainly wrote "A policeman's lot is not a happy one," he'd have launched a blazing thunderbolt along with a deduction from their weekly wages. Format: Four discs, with two disks per opera, one for each act. Each disk is in its own plastic case and all four cases are boxed together. These two comic operas were recorded at the transition point between the second and third generation of Savoyards. Some of the old-timers had been directed by W. S. Gilbert, himself. Sir Henry Lytton--imagine, being knighted for doing G&S!--Sir Joseph Porter in "Pinafore," was the chief comedy man of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He had joined the D'Oyly Carte chorus prior to the opening of "The Mikado" and had begun taking leads with D'Oyly Carte touring companies in the 1880s. HMV engineers did not care for the way his voice recorded, so he did not perform the Major General in "Pirates. " His place was taken in the studio by the articulate George Baker. Lytton's recorded voice sounds fine to me--and almost eerily like that of his D'Oyly Carte successor in the 1960s and 70s, John Reed. Fortunately, Lytton did not suffer from Reed's annoying need to mug in everything. These performances have the virtues of all D'Oyly Carte Company recordings: excellent, rigidly disciplined choruses and soloists with superb English diction. Alas, many of the soloists suffer from the curse of English vocal training. George Baker is good, if somewhat generic in his assumption of the Major General in "Pirates" and, unexpectedly, Captain Corcoran in "Pinafore. " Being accustomed to Baker-the-elder-statesman of the stereo sets of the 1960s, I found it fascinating to hear how strong he sounded in the 1930s. (Baker was never a member of the D'Oyly Carte Company. He appeared on stage in Gilbert and Sullivan only once, after his retirement, in a benefit performance as the Learned Judge in "Trial by Jury. ") It is given wisdom among many hardcore G&S fans that Derek Oldham was the best tenor who ever recorded a Savoy opera. Don't believe them. Oldham was all right, and better overall than his D'Oyly Carte Company successors of the 1960s and later, but the finest singing actor ever to take the lead tenor parts was Oldham's immediate successor, Leonard Osborn, and the finest singer was probably Richard Lewis, who recorded in Sargent's stereo series. Oldham is passable as Frederic in "Pirates. " The part of Ralph Rackstraw in "Pinafore" was assumed by Charles Goulding, a tenor with a sweet sound, but quite lacking in ping, ring or character. Dorothy Gill, Ruth in "Pirates," and Bertha Lewis, Little Buttercup in "Pinafore," were classic English hooting contraltos. Both give stand-out performances. The lead soprano in both comic operas was Elsie Griffin, whose rather thick voice was not very well captured on the "Pinafore" recording. Strangely, the contemporary reviewer in British magazine, The Gramophone, singled out her performance in "Pirates" above all the others. Standards in vocal sound, it seems, change over the decades. The other soloists are very, very British--markedly more so than their counterparts in later years. Malcolm Sargent leads the orchestra in both recordings, just as he would more than thirty years later, when he labored ponderously under the heavy weight of his knighthood. In 1929 and 1930, he was rhythmically sensitive and did a fine job keeping things moving. This set presents two G&S comic opera masterpieces at a rock-bottom price in surprisingly good sound. All my nitpicking to the contrary, the performances of the cast are excellent. It is a must-have for a serious lover of G&S. For those who must have DDD sound or suffer the vapors, walk away, this is not for you. . . You can see a complete list of all Arthur Sullivan, Malcolm Sargent, Bertha Lewis, Charles Goulding, Darrell Fancourt, Derek Oldham, Dorothy Gill, Elsie Griffin, George Baker, Henry A. Lytton discography, or go back to the Arthur Sullivan, Malcolm Sargent, Bertha Lewis, Charles Goulding, Darrell Fancourt, Derek Oldham, Dorothy Gill, Elsie Griffin, George Baker, Henry A. Lytton tabs