Composer: Sir Arthur Sullivan
Orchestra: RTÉ Sinfonietta
Conductor: Andrew Penny
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naxos
Catalogue: 8555216
Release: 2021
Size: 339 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Victoria and Merrie England
Scene 1
01. Britannia Asleep
02. Sacred March of the Druids
03. Rites of the Mistletoe – Britannia Awakes
Scenes 2 & 3
04. Festivities on the Village Green
05. Procession of Mummers and Revellers
06. Warriors’ Dance
07. Morrice Dance
08. Mazurka
09. Robin Hood and Maid Marian
10. Friar Tuck and the Dragon
11. Two Hobby Horses
12. Six Women Morrice Dancers
13. General Dance
14. Solo Variation
15. Maypole Dance
Scenes 4 & 5
16. Windsor Forest – Storm
17. Entrance of the Hunters
18. Waltz of Wood Nymphs
19. Procession of the Yule Log
20. Galop – Dance of Nymphs and Hunters
Scene 6
21. Castle Hall
22. Procession of the Boar’s Head and Roast Beef
23. Comic pas de quatre
24. Drunken Jester’s Dance
25. Blind Man’s Buff
26. Entrance and Procession of Father Christmas
27. Mistletoe Dance
Scene 7
28. Tableau “Imperial March”
Scene 8
29. English, Irish, Scottish & Colonial Troops – Military Maneuvers
30. Sailors’ Hornpipe
31. Pas redoublé
32. Finale. Britannia – The Albert Memorial – God Save the Queen
Feted for his Savoy operas with librettist W. S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan also regularly produced music for important royal or national occasions. In 1897, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, he was commissioned to write a ballet for the Alhambra Theatre in London. Conforming closely to the theatre’s established style, this single-act ballet was a spectacular pageant, featuring “speciality” dances, startling dramatic effects and grand “tableaux”, notably military ones. Significant research and reconstruction of the score has made this recording possible.