Sullivan: The Sorcerer & Utopia Limited (highlights)

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Isidore Godfrey’s performances capture D’Oyly Carte at its vintage best. — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2018, 3 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 18th May 2018
Catalogue No: ELQ4825363
Label: Eloquence
Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

Sullivan, A: The Sorcerer

Work length1:23:35

$29.70

$40.50

Donald Adams (bass), Beryl Dixon (mezzo-soprano), Jeffrey Skitch (baritone), Fisher Morgan (bass), Muriel Harding (soprano), Ann Drummond-Grant (contralto), Peter Pratt (baritone), Yvonne Dean (mezzo-soprano), Neville Griffith (tenor)
New Symphony Orchestra, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus
Isidore Godfrey

Overture

Track length5:39

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$1.50

1. Ring forth, ye bells

Track length1:48

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2. Constance, my daughter

Track length2:22

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3. When he is here, I sigh with pleasure

Track length1:48

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4. The air is charged with amatory numbers

Track length1:14

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5. Time was, when love and I were well acquainted

Track length2:48

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6. Sir Marmaduke...Minuet

Track length2:29

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7. With heart and voice

Track length2:13

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8. My kindly friends...Oh, happy young heart

Track length2:47

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9. My child, I join in these congratulations

Track length0:54

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10. With heart and with voice

Track length0:51

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11. Welcome joy! adieu to sadness!

Track length4:05

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12. All is prepar'd for sealing and for sighing

Track length2:35

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13. Love feeds on many kinds of food

Track length2:50

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14. My name is John Wellington Wells

Track length2:11

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15. Sprites of earth and air

Track length4:02

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16. Now to the banquet we press

Track length7:40

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17. 'Tis twelve, I think

Track length6:41

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18. Dear friends, take pity on my lot

Track length4:51

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19. Thou hast the pow'r....It is not love

Track length2:41

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20. I rejoice that it's decided

Track length3:31

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21. Oh, I have wrought much evil with my spells...

Track length4:25

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22. Alexis! Doubt me not...The fearful deed is done

Track length2:22

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23. Oh, my voice is sad and low

Track length2:55

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24. Oh, joyous boon

Track length3:19

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25. Prepare for sad surprises

Track length0:42

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26. Or he or I must die

Track length3:52

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Sullivan, A: Utopia Limited (highlights)

Work length17:03

$5.50

$7.50

Donald Adams (bass), Ann Hood (soprano), Thomas Round (tenor)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus
Isidore Godfrey

3. O make way for the Wise Men ! (Chorus)

Track length3:07

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12. Oh maiden rich in Girton lore (Chorus, Zara... Cpt...

Track length4:10

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18. O Zara my beloved one

Track length3:40

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19. Words of love too loudly spoken (Zara, Cpt.)

Track length3:38

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23b Eagle high

Track length2:28

$1.10

$1.50

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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 than in later works) on Victorian-era English country manners and the obsession with matters supernatural which held much of middle-class England in its thrall at the time.

Indeed, at the time of this, its first complete recording made in 1953, The Sorcerer had been out of the repertoire of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company since before World War II, and would remain under wraps until 1971. Nevertheless, this premiere version has many distinguishing features, first among them being a vividly dramatic portrayal of the title role by Peter Pratt, principal D’Oyly Carte comedian from 1951 until 1959. In particular, Pratt gives a barnstorming rendition of the fiendish patter-song ‘My name is John Wellington Wells’. The cast is further enhanced by splendidly rich-voiced, aristocratic contributions from Fisher Morgan as Sir Marmaduke and, as Lady Sangazure, Ann Drummond- Grant, who was the wife of conductor Isidore Godfrey and something of a mother-figure within the company.

By the time of Utopia Limited in 1893, Gilbert and Sullivan were nearing the end of their hugely successful but often acrimonious partnership. Although the operetta ran for 245 performances, it never entered the repertory of the D’Oyly Carte company, and indeed had to wait until 1975 for its first complete recording. Until then, the curiosity of aficionados had to be satisfied with this set of excerpts, recorded in August 1963 and first issued as a filler to the company’s 1964 LP of Trial by Jury.

‘I admired anew Jeffrey Skitch’s polished baritone in the Vicar’s songs and Neville Griffiths’s lyrical tenor in one of Sullivan’s rare waltz songs … It is this Sorcerer recording that is the only one worthy of consideration as a competitor to other recordings.’ Gramophone, July 1979 (The Sorcerer)

‘This record is quite a remarkable bargain … The book is full of wit and the music has great charm … these excerpts are doubly welcome …The stereo effects are very well judged.’ Gramophone, April 1964 (Utopia Limited)

Reviews

Christmas Issue 2018

Isidore Godfrey’s performances capture D’Oyly Carte at its vintage best.

Sullivan: The Sorcerer & Utopia Limited (highlights)

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