Release Date: 06 January 2003
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943123126
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: SULLIVAN
Description
William Schwenk Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan(1842-1900)Iolanthe (or The Peer and the Peri)\...Nothing, I thought, could have been happier than themanner in which the comic strain of the piece was blended with its harmonies ofsight and sound, so good in taste from beginning to end.(Gladstone's letter to Sullivan, December 1882) Although a noted amateur of literary genius, the politicalsatire in Iolanthe may have eluded Queen Victoria's Prime Minister. Afteralready parodying holders of high office - the navy (in Pinafore and Pirates),the Aesthetic Movement (in Patience) and jurisprudence (in Trial By Jury)- inGilbert's ingenious new libretto Sullivan had found another sure vehicle forcaricature of the British peerage, not least Captain Shaw, the Chief of theLondon Fire Brigade. Continuing the popular 'fairy' genre he had alreadyexploited in such pre-Sullivan farces and burlesques as The Palace of Truth(1870), The Happy Land (1873) and Fogerty's Fairy (1881), Gilbert transferredthe House of Lords to fairyland. The result, a new kind of feerie opera mademore atmospheric by the new innovation of electric light. Iolanthe was thefirst G&S work to be staged in D'Oyly Carte's newly-built Savoy Theatre, on25th November 1882, under the composer's baton) where it ran for 398performances. Opened on the same night on Broadway under the conductor AlfredCellier, over the years it enjoyed various successful resurrections and wouldremain a favourite with New York audiences (notably in 1926 with 355performances) as well as in Australia and other British colonies. At Sadler'sWells, in 1962, it was the first Savoy work to be awarded a large-scale Londonproduction and in 1987 was the opera chosen to launch the revamped D'Oyly CarteOpera Co. One of the most musically integrated and fluent of the Savoy operascores, in its use and development of recurring musical themes Iolanthe is, asArthur Jacobs observed "...the work in which Sullivan's operetta style takes adefinite step forward".Ann Drummond-GrantThe wife of D'Oyly Carte conductor Isidore Godfrey and astalwart in G&S contralto r?â??les, Ann Drummond Grant (1904-1959) began hercareer as a soprano in opera, both amateur and professional, prior to joiningthe D'Oyly Carte chorus in 1933. A member of the company for five years, during1938 her r?â??les included Patience, The Plaintiff (in Trial By Jury), Josephine(in Pinafore), Aline (in The Sorcerer), Fiametta (in Gondoliers) and Elsie (inYeomen) and Celia and Phyllis in Iolanthe. Later, she branched into operetta(appearing notably in Waltzes From Vienna) and also sang in summer seasons butin 1950 she returned to D'Oyly Carte, where she assumed the leading contraltorepertoire previously sung by Ella Halman. Martyn GreenBorn William Martyn-Green in London, Martyn Green(1899-1975) studied singing first with his father, the distinguished Englishtenor William Green, and later with Gustave Garcia (1837-1925) at the RoyalCollege of Music. After active service d
Tracklisting
William Primrose
William Primrose
Vinay:Nbc So&Chorus:Toscanini
Vienna Po:Knappertsbusch
Vienna Po:Furtwangler
Vienna&Berlin Po:Furtwangler
Various Composer
Various (1923-1955)
