DVD Videos

This compendium of rare television performances (1957-1963) features legendary Savoyard Martyn Green in songs and scenes from HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and others. Also included are the two Tennessee Ernie Ford specials devoted to scenes from The Mikado and HMS Pinafore, and although a country music legend, Ford had begun his studies as a classical bass-baritone. Among the other highlights are excerpts from made-for-TV Productions of The Yeoman of the Guard (1957), with Alfred Drake and Barbara Cook.

Running time: 96 minutes.

For the legendary comic actor Groucho Marx, playing the role of Ko-Ko in The Mikado “fulfilled a lifelong ambition.” The Mikado was Groucho’s favorite among the works of his beloved Gilbert and Sullivan, and the 1960 Bell Telephone Hour production was adapted for television and directed by Martyn Green, a man Groucho revered as an authority on interpreting the role of Ko-Ko. The score is condensed to fit into The Bell Telephone Hour's 60-minute format (allowing room for commercials), but the adaptation was done with great ingenuity and finesse by Gilbert and Sullivan authority Martyn Green. The strong supporting cast features distinguished veterans like Helen Traubel, Stanley Holloway, Robert Rounseville, and Dennis King, as well as young artists like the lovely soprano Barbara Meister as Yum-Yum and Groucho’s 13-year-old daughter, Melinda, as Peep-Bo.

Special features [46 minutes] include audio interviews with Dick Cavett, Melinda Marx, and Barbara Meister; Martyn Green in excerpts from H.M.S. Pinafore (Bell Telephone Hour, 1963, in color), cast bios, the commercials from the original telecast, and more!

B&W, 4:3, 52 minutes, All Regions

Designer: Tim Goodchild

Choreographer: Carole Todd

Lighting Designer: Derek Coutts

Perhaps the most widely-loved and hilarious of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Savoy Operas, this classic production by Opera Australia creates a fantastical, imaginary Japan. With amazingly detailed sets, lavish costumes and a fabulous cast astutely directed by Stuart Maunder, this comic operetta sparkles from beginning to end. The music is pure joy, with an amazing performance drawn from Orchestra Victoria by the superb conductor Brian Castles-Onion.

Audio DVD/2.0 LPCM/5.1 DTS

Picture format NTSC

Audio BD LPCM stereo and 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio

John Cranko (1927–1973), choreographer at Sadlers Wells ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, collaborated with Charles Mackerras to create Pineapple Poll, a light hearted comedy. This was closely followed by a further joint effort, which resulted in another comic ballet, The Lady and the Fool. David Blair, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in the 50s and 60s, plays Captain Belaye in Pineapple Poll – a role he also danced at the ballet’s premiere in 1951. The Lady and the Fool was reworked for Covent Garden in 1955, four years before this studio production, with Beriosova playing La Cappricciosa in the year she became Prima Ballerina at Sadlers Wells. Both these ballets are examples of rare studio performances from the BBC’s earliest television archives and are released here for the first time on DVD.

1DVD

Sound format: Ambient Mastering

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 89’

Subtitles: F/G

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

A live and televised recording from this year's BBC Proms performance on 5th August by the most famous a cappella group ever: the King's Singers. Regularly performing in excess of 100 concerts every season complemented by recording and teaching, The King's Singers delight audiences around the world with their incomparable musicianship, charm and wit.With the recent album release Landscape and Time having been described as possessing "singing of rare distinction", and "stunningly high musical standards", they have maintained their place at the apex of a cappella singing, and are counted amongst the world's elite classical performers. Continuing Signum's release series in celebration of the group's 40th Anniversary year, Simple Gifts (SIGCD121) and a 5-CD ‘best of’ (SIGCD120), this performance was in many ways a retrospective of the groups musical history, encompassing some of the earliest arrangements that the original line-up performed right up to contemporary works that they recently commissioned. Available on CD and DVD, the DVD includes extra interviews with the group from Suzy Klein and Gareth Malone, star of BBC series The Choir, and can also be enjoyed in 5.1 surround sound.

CONCERT REVIEW:

"In an exquisitely programmed concert, there was music ranging from the Renaissance to the present, including the opening selection of Poulenc's witty “Chansons françaises" and various Victorian parlour songs "in the biggest Victorian parlour ever built." …the pure quality of the vocal balance is quite extraordinary. The King's Singers had travelled back in time some 400 years (who needs Dr Who at the Proms?). Then followed an example of the many works the group has commissioned, John McCabe's haunting evocation of American wastelands, "Scenes in America deserta", based on the writings of architectural historian Reyner Banham. McCabe took his bow. The evening ended with folksongs arranged by Gordon Langford and members of the group, Bob Chilcott (who left in 1997) and current baritone Philip Lawson. Langford's "Widdicombe" Fair played to the group's effortless resource of funny voices and genial comedy. The encore was Arthur Sullivan's arrangement of "The Long Day Closes", apposite for a concert finishing at fifteen minutes short of midnight and perfectly judged in this performance." Classical Source

The Savoy operas of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan have some of the most memorable music of all time written for the English language. Using DVD technology you can easily be the star of these great songs as the words are presented on the screen. The joys, sorrows, ecstasy and anguish of Opera are here for you to create your own performance. Using DVD technology, the words are displayed for optimum ease so that you can be the opera star with full orchestral and choral accompaniment.