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Offer,Leigh, W: Jolly Roger

Neilson Taylor (Sir Roderick Venom), Alan Dudley (Sir William Rowlocks), Vernon Midgley (Jolly Roger), Leslie Fyson (Bold Ben Blister), Gordon Faith (The Bloody Pirate), Marietta Midgley (Amelia), Helen Landis (Miss Flora Pott), Patricia Whitmore (Prudence Wary)

The Ambrosian Singers & BBC...

The exotically spiced, generous melodies of the ‘Sunset’ duet for Roger and his faithful beloved Amelia are well served by the brother-and-sister team of Maryetta and Vernon Midgley. Alan Dudley’s... — Opera, November 2015 More…

Release Date: 18th May 2015
Catalogue No: REAM2116
Label: Lyrita
Series: Itter Broadcast Collection
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

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Leigh, W: Jolly Roger, Act I

Work length1:01:19

$16.00

$20.80

Neilson Taylor (bass), Alan Dudley (tenor), Helen Landis (contralto), Vernon Midgley, Gordon Faith (baritone), Leslie Fyson (bass), Maryetta Midgley (soprano), Patricia Whitmore (soprano)
BBC Concert Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers
Ashley Lawrence
Recorded: 21 December 1972
Recording Venue: BBC Broadcast, London, United Kingdom

Jolly Roger, Act I: Overture

Track length3:17

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Shanty

Track length4:11

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Welcome Home

Track length4:38

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Oh, What's the News?

Track length1:43

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Dramatic Air in Favour of Clemency

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Farewell to Life

Track length7:07

$2.00

$2.60

Jolly Roger, Act I: Barratry, Arson, Rape and Slaughter

Track length3:12

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Ranzo

Track length4:00

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: A'Sleuthing We Will Go

Track length3:40

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: The Hills of Home

Track length4:22

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: The Kingdom of the Heart

Track length4:19

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: How Many the Innocent Joys of Jamaica

Track length3:12

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: The Myrtle Tree

Track length4:47

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: Sunset

Track length5:24

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act I: In Praise of Boating - Finale

Track length5:27

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II

Work length46:14

$11.00

$14.30

Recorded: 21 December 1972
Recording Venue: BBC Broadcast, London, United Kingdom

Jolly Roger, Act II: Hymn in General Support of Morality

Track length2:46

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: My Obsession Is Oppression

Track length7:41

$2.00

$2.60

Jolly Roger, Act II: Sweet William

Track length5:45

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: Jamaica Is the Island

Track length3:25

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: Romance and Richard the Dago

Track length6:59

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: Horror! Distraction!

Track length2:12

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: What May We Do?

Track length3:11

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: Love the Gaoler

Track length4:35

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act II: Ensemble

Track length9:40

$2.00

$2.60

Jolly Roger, Act III

Work length29:08

$8.00

$10.40

Recorded: 21 December 1972
Recording Venue: BBC Broadcast, London, United Kingdom

Jolly Roger, Act III: Fiddle and Fife and Drum

Track length3:43

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act III: Hymen! Swift Prepare My Throne

Track length4:25

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act III: My Heart Lies Drowned

Track length2:56

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act III: The Britisher Wins Through

Track length2:33

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act III: The Proposal

Track length3:05

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act III: S'Body, Who's Here?

Track length4:50

$1.00

$1.30

Jolly Roger, Act III: The Explanatory Air - Finale

Track length7:36

$2.00

$2.60

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About

In 1942 The Musical Times reported a ‘grave loss’ referring to Walter Leigh’s tragically early death, killed in action whilst serving in a tank regiment near Tobruk, just before his thirty-seventh birthday. Though during his lifetime he was more than once compared to Sir Arthur Sullivan, from a contemporary standpoint an equally pertinent analogy could be drawn with a composer from a later generation, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Both men approached film music and ‘light music’ with the same seriousness of purpose and invested it with the same impeccable craftsmanship they brought to their concert pieces.

With a cast headed by George Robey, known to audiences as ‘the Prime Minister of Mirth’, the comic opera in three acts, Jolly Roger or ‘The Admiral’s Daughter’ opened at the Opera House, Manchester on 13 February 1933. Running for over six months, it transferred to the Savoy Theatre, London on 1 March 1933 and moved from there to the Lyceum Theatre on 5 June 1933, accruing a total of 199 performances. Jolly Roger enjoyed a critical success from the outset. The Morning Post referred to the ‘delicious grace’ of Leigh’s music, whilst another contemporary review demonstrates that Leigh was highly prized in his own lifetime for his gifts as a melodist: ‘Here, at last, is an English composer who can write light music with style and finish. Yes, a second Sullivan is not too high praise’. It is likely that the plaudit Leigh himself would have prized most highly came from Constant Lambert, who commented, ‘I know of no music that is more enjoyable both intrinsically and satirically than the music of The Pride of the Regiment and the recently produced Jolly Roger. One has the rare and enjoyable sensation of both having one’s cake and eating it’. The BBC radio broadcast presented here was first aired on Radio 3 on 21 December 1972. Heard again, more than forty years later, its seagulls, splashes of water and pirate accents make it something of a period piece in its own right. Nonetheless, it is the deftness and allure of Leigh’s music that makes the strongest impression.

Artists

The Ambrosian Singers & BBC Concert Orchestra, Ashley Lawrence

Reviews

November 2015

The exotically spiced, generous melodies of the ‘Sunset’ duet for Roger and his faithful beloved Amelia are well served by the brother-and-sister team of Maryetta and Vernon Midgley. Alan Dudley’s fuddy-duddy, sentimental Admiral raises an occasional, watery smile; but Neilson Taylor’s distinguished baritone is wasted on the villain of the piece, Sir Roderick Venom.

Offer,Leigh, W: Jolly Roger

2 CDs

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