Posts tagged as "william-schwenck-gilbert"

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Sorcerer; Utopia Limited

April 18, 2018

Bookends from the most successful partnership in the history of English light opera, in newly remastered Decca recordings. As the first full-length operatic collaboration between W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, The Sorcerer has never achieved the popularity of its immediate successor, H.M.S. Pinafore, yet there is much to enjoy in this satire (more gentle […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: HMS Pinafore

April 18, 2018

An atmospheric Decca Phase 4 stereo recording of a much-loved Savoy opera. The work of the Australian musician, James Walker, can be found on many Eloquence releases but he appears here in an unfamiliar guise. He trained as a pianist both in his native Australia and at the Royal Academy of Music in London and […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida; Gilbert & Sullivan Spectacular

April 18, 2018

The first full-length D’Oyly Carte company recording of a late Savoy opera, newly remastered and generously coupled with a Phase 4 album featuring hit songs and numbers from the unequalled partnership of W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Princess Ida is unusual among Savoy operas for having a pair of tenor leads and it is […]

Gilbert & Sullivan Favourites

May 25, 2016

All the popular songs and choruses from five G&S favourites performed by the most renowned interpreters of their music.

Sullivan: Overtures & Choruses

April 20, 2016

A 2CD set of Overtures from the D’Oyly Carte recordings made over several years by Decca, together with some of Sullivan’s ‘concert overtures’ – Macbeth, Marmion and Di Ballo. Also included is an extremely rare 1969 Decca recording of Sullivan Choruses conducted by James Walker, better known in musical circles as one of Decca’s key recording […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers

March 7, 2016

‘The Gondoliers’ is the sunniest of all the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas and was one of the most harmonious collaborations between two such temperamentally incompatible yet artistically well-matched men. The morning after the rapturously received opening night in December 1889, Gilbert wrote to Sullivan: ‘I must thank you for the magnificent work you have […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard

March 7, 2016

With its roots in the mid-nineteenth century English opera tradition of Balfe and Wallace, ‘The Yeomen of the Guard’, is an integrated hybrid of operetta and romantic opera that combines the sparkling essence of previous Savoy successes with heightened drama and emotion while its score is also free from the earnestness in which much of […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance; Cox and Box

March 7, 2016

This 1957 traversal of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ marked the start of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’s second cycle of the major Savoy Operas for Decca. It followed just eight years after the previous version but the improvements in sound quality – in stereo for the first time and wonderfully vivid – and performance values […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: Iolanthe

March 5, 2016

The D’Oyly Carte Company began its association with Decca after World War II, embarking on a series of recordings in the late 1940s and early 50s of the major Savoy Operas. A subsequent stereo-era cycle, begun in 1957, was followed in turn by a new series of which the present 1974 recording of ‘Iolanthe’ is […]

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado; Trial by Jury

March 5, 2016

Bursting onto the scene with a sensational two-year run at the Savoy Theatre (672 performances commencing on 14 March 1885), it was not long before ‘The Mikado’ was playing around the world in myriad different productions and translations – and it continues to be greeted with unparalleled global enthusiasm today. This October 1957 recording of […]