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1951 Gilbert & Sullivan Pirates Of Penzance Vinyl 2-LP Record Gatefold VG+
Record Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+
Gilbert & Sullivan, The Glyndebourne Festival Chorus*, Pro Arte Orchestra* Conducted By Sir Malcolm Sargent – The Pirates Of Penzance
THE CAST Major-General Stanley ............ George Baker, baritone Sergeant of Police ... .............Owen Brannigan, bass The Pirate King ............... , James Milligan, bass Samuel, his Lieutenant......John Cameron, bass-baritone Frederic, the pirate apprentice ....... Richard Lewis, tenor Mabel General .....Elsie Morison, soprano Stanley’s................ Heather Harper, soprano daughters.............Marjorie Thomas, contralto ....... Monica Sinclair, contralto Edith Kate Ruth, a piratical maid-of-all-work Chorus of Pirates, Police, and General Stanley’s Daughters Pro Arte Orchestra Glyndebourne Festival Chorus (Chorus Master: Peter Gellhorn) SIR MALCOLM SARGENT, conducting Gilbert and Sullivan The two names are linked inex- orably together in the language of everyone who cares for music and satire. Though each achieved success on his own, their lasting fame depended entirely on their collaboration. Surprisingly enough, the two men did not par- ticularly like each other and after 21 years and 14 Savoy operettas, Gilbert quarreled with Sullivan and the relationship broke up in 1896. Sullivan, born in London in 1842, was a well- trained composer, the winner of the first Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in 1856 He was expected to compose only “respectable” works, and in fact, he did turn out a symphony, oratorios, stuffy church music (including Onward Christian Soldiers), an opera, and ballads such as The Lost Chord. Yet it was the operettas that came from his part- nership with Gilbert that provided the money for his expensive tastes. And it is these same operettas that have kept his name alive in music. But he never felt they were quite worthy, nor did his contemporaries. From Queen Victoria down, they urged him to compose something worthwhile. After working as a civil servant and a barris- ter, W. S. Gilbert found his true vocation as a satirist in the 1860's. In 1875, Richard D’Oyly Carte brought him together with Sullivan for “Trial by Jury.” The produc- tion was such a huge success, D’Oyly Carte formed the Comedy Opera Company to stage their works. Despite their quarrels, the irascible Gilbert real- ized how indispensable Sullivan was to him. In 1903, three years after Sullivan's death, he wrote, “A Gil- bert is no good without a Sullivan, and I can'tfind one.” Indeed, the world has never found a comparable partnership. We are the richer that they found each other. The Pirates of Penzance had a make-do premiere at Paignton, Devon, where D’Oyly Carte's touring company happened to be, on December 30, 1879, thus establishing the British copyright. Gilbert and Sullivan gave the work its New York premiere the following day, in order to forestall the pirates of Broadway, who had enjoyed a thieving holi- day with H.M.S. Pinafore the year before. (There were no effective international copyright laws at the time.) The following year, on April 3, the full-scale London opening took place at the Opera Comique Theatre. Sullivan thought that musically The Pirates of Penzance was “infinitely superior in everyway to the Pinafore." His preference was sound....



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