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Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers / D'Oyly Carte Opera


Release Date: 10/19/1993 
Label:  Sony   Catalog #: 58895   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Arthur Sullivan
Performer:  Richard Suart,  Philip Creasy,  John Rath,  David Fieldsend,   ... 
Conductor:  John Pryce-Jones
Orchestra/Ensemble:  D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus,  D'Oyly Carte Opera Orchestra
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 35 Mins. 

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This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.

Notes and Editorial Reviews

It's...over 14 since the previous Gondoliers. Of recordings currently available (conducted by Isidore Godfrey on Decca) or due for early reissue (the Glyndebourne performances under Sargent on EMI), none is less than 30 years old. The most obvious attraction of [this release], then, is a vastly superior quality of sound, offering a welcome clarity, spaciousness and lack of tape hiss. Orchestral detail is the most immediate beneficiary, and...also serve to demonstrate John Pryce-Jones's lively tempos and lightness of touch—both notably lacking from Sir Malcolm Sargent in EMI's Gondoliers. Among the singers in the new recordings, I particularly liked John Rath, who...gives Don Alhambra's "I stole the prince" and "There lived a Read more king" real character. I would also commend Jill Pert, a slightly lightweight but nevertheless...formidable Duchess of Plaza-Toro. Moreover, Richard Suart not only provides the leading comedy [role] with the same clear articulation as in the new Telarc Mikado, but is here allowed to add far more character to his [portrayal]... and "I am a courtier grave and serious" is a winner.

David Fieldsend and Alan Oke provide attractive portrayals... The leading soprano and soubrette roles are likewise agreeably enough done here without quite matching up to what has gone before... In The Gondoliers, seasoned listeners will note numerous changes of detail as a result of the purging of the performance material of changes made to the parts around the time of the 1920s Savoy Theatre revivals... Overall, among recordings without dialogue, I'd probably stick with EMI's lolanthe, but I'd certainly go for this new Gondoliers.

-- Gramophone [5/1992]
reviewing the original release of this recording, TER 1187
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Works on This Recording

1. Gondoliers by Arthur Sullivan
Performer:  Richard Suart (Bass), Philip Creasy (Tenor), John Rath (Bass),
David Fieldsend (Tenor), Alan Oke (Baritone), Tim Morgan (Baritone),
David Cavendish (Tenor), Toby Barrett (Bass), Gareth Vaughan (Baritone),
Jill Pert (Alto), Elizabeth Woollett (Soprano), Lesley Echo Ross (Soprano),
Regina Hanley (Alto), Yvonne Patrick (Voice), Pamela Baxter (Mezzo Soprano),
Elizabeth Elliot (Soprano), Claire Kelly (Alto)
Conductor:  John Pryce-Jones
Orchestra/Ensemble:  D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus,  D'Oyly Carte Opera Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1889; England 
 Date of Recording: 1991 
Language: English 

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