Composer: Arthur Seymour Sullivan
Performer: Donald Adams, Thomas Round, Peter Pratt, Kenneth Sandford, Alan Styler, Jean Hindmarsh, Beryl Dixon, Jennifer Toye, Ann Drummond-Grant, Julia Goss, Colin Wright, Michael Rayner, John Reed, John Ayldon, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
Orchestra: New Symphony Orchestra of London, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Isidore Godfrey, Royston Nash
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Eloquence
Catalogue: ELQ4807090
Release: 2015
Size: 558 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Overture
02. 1. If You Want To Know Who We Are
03. 2. Gentlemen, I Pray You Tell Me Maiden…
04. 3. A Wand’ring Minstrel I
05. 4. Our Great Mikado, Virtuous Man
06. 5. Young Man, Despair
07. 6. And I Have Journey’d For A Month
08. 7. Behold The Lord High Executioner
09. 8. As Someday It May Happen That A Victim…
10. 9. Comes A Train Of Little Ladies
11. 10. Three Little Maids From School Are We
12. 11. So Please You, Sir, We Much Regret
13. 12. Were You Not To Ko-Ko Plighted
14. 13. I Am So Proud, If I Allowed
15. 14. With Aspect Stern And Gloomy Stride
16. 15. The Threaten’d Cloud Has Pass’d Away
17. 16. Your Revels Cease! Assist Me, All Of You!
18. 17. Oh Fool, That Flee-est My Hallow’d Joys!
19. 18. For He’s Going To Marry Yum-Yum
20. 19. The Hour Of Gladness Is Dead And Gone
21. 20. Ye Torrents Roar! Ye Tempests Howl!
22. 21. Braid The Raven Hair, Weave The Supple Tresses
23. 22. The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze
24. 23. Brightly Dawns Our Wedding Day
25. 24. Here’s A How-De-Do!
26. 25. Miya Sama, Miya Sama, O N’mma No Maye Ni
27. 26. From Ev’ry Kind Of Man Obedience I Expect
28. 27. A More Humane Mikado Never Did In Japan Exist
29. 28. The Criminal Cried As He Dropp’d Him Down
30. 29. See How The Fates Their Gifts Allot
31. 30. The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring, Tra La
32. 31. Alone And Yet Alive
33. 32. Hearts Do Not Break! They Sting And Ache
34. 33. On A Tree By A River A Little Tom Tit
35. 34. There Is Beauty In The Bellow Of The Blast
36. 35. Fanfare
37. 36. For He’s Gone And Married Yum-Yum
38. Hark The Hour Of Ten Is Sounding
39. When First My Old, Old Love I Knew
40. All Hail Great Judge
41. When I Good Friends Was Called To The Bar
42. Swear Thou The Jury
43. Where Is The Plaintiff?
44. Oh, Never, Never, Never
45. May It Please You My Lud!
46. That She Is Reeling
47. Oh, Gentlemen Listen I Pray
48. That Seems A Reasonable Proposition
49. A Nice Dilemma
50. I Love Him
Bursting onto the scene with a sensational two-year run at the Savoy Theatre (672 performances commencing on 14 March 1885), it was not long before The Mikado was playing around the world in myriad different productions and translations – and it continues to be greeted with unparalleled global enthusiasm today.
This October 1957 recording of the opera marked the start of a new, and for many collectors ‘golden’, era for the D’Oyly Carte company on record. Made only seven years after a very fine post-war LP set, this remake benefits from remarkably present stereo sound. The orchestral playing is of an appreciably higher standard than in the previous version and, following a major changing of the guard with company principals in the mid-1950s, the set features a strong array of soloists.
Performed 300 times in its first two years, Trial by Jury was an acclaimed success that cemented the symbiotic relationship between composer and librettist. This 1974 recording, part of the D’Oyly Carte’s last cycle of Savoy Operas for Decca, was released the following year in a busy season celebrating the centenary of the work’s first performance and the foundation of the company. As with its 1963 predecessor, most of the principal roles in this Trial recording are taken by the company’s leading lights – notably star patter-man John Reed, on sparkling form as the Judge – rather than the artists who routinely played them on stage.