The New D'Oyly Carte Gondoliers (1991)

Cast Duke of Plaza-Toro Richard Suart Luiz Philip Creasy Don Alhambra John Rath Marco David Fieldsend Giuseppe Alan Oke Antonio Tim Morgan Francesco David Cavendish Giorgio Toby Barrett Annibale Gareth Vaughan Duchess of Plaza-Toro Jill Pert Casilda Elizabeth Woollett Gianetta Lesley Echo Ross Tessa Regina Hanley Fiametta Yvonne Patrick Vittoria Pamela Baxter Giulia Elizabeth Elliott Inez Claire Kelly Chorus and Orchestra of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Conductor: John Pryce-Jones

Koch 340 332

Sony S2K-58895

This Gondoliers was a recording of the infamous production Tim Hopkins directed for the New D'Oyly Carte, featuring corrugated yellow scenery and such atrocities as the Duchess of Plaza-Toro eating a live rat on stage (or at least appearing to). Mercifully, none of this is evident on the recording, except for the production photographs reproduced on the accompanying booklet. The orchestration is prepared from a critical edition by David Lloyd-Jones (who also edited the Eulenberg Edition of the score). Like all the New D'Oyly Carte recordings, the musical values here are superb.

This recording has been issued on both CD (both by Sony and TER) and cassette. The CD version on TER (but not on Sony) also includes a new recording of Sullivan's Overture di Ballo, with the traditional cuts opened for the first time on record. I am assuming this was included on the cassette issue, but this is not certain.