The 1907 Odeon Mikado

Cast The Mikado Harry Dearth Nanki-Poo Walter Hyde Ko-Ko Walter Passmore Pooh-Bah Harry Thornton Harry Dearth Pish-Tush Harry Dearth Yum-Yum Elsa Sinclair Pitti-Sing Ada Florence Peep-Bo Maude Perry Katisha Ada Florence With chorus and orchestra, Conductor unknown Recorded in London Autumn 1907

Pearl GEMM 198

Walter Passmore was the second in a long line of great D'Oyly Carte patter baritones, filling the gap that had remained for about four years after George Grossmith's departure. He joined the Company in 1893 for the ill-fated Jane Annie, played Tarara in the original production of Utopia Limited, and first played Ko-Ko in the 1895-6 revival of The Mikado. In The Grand Duke he was cast as Rudolph, and later roles in the G&S revivals included Jack Point (Yeomen), Don Alhambra (Gondoliers), the Usher (Trial), Wells (Sorcerer), Sir Joseph (Pinafore), the Sergeant of Police (Pirates), Bunthorne (Patience), the Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe), and of course more Ko-Ko's. Passmore is in the select company of performers who recorded a role that they played under Gilbert's and Sullivan's personal direction.

As the cast list shows, there is little consistency in the assignment of parts, but that was typical for a recording of this period. The opera is musically complete, aside from the overture, two sections of the Act I finale, and (most curious) "The Sun Whose Rays." The recording was re-issued on LP by Pearl Records (GEM 198). Four tracks of it have been re-issued on CD, as part of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Sesquicentenial Commemorative Issue, Volume 2.

Issue History

Recording Details

Notes:

1. Harry Thornton sings Pooh-Bah in "See how the fates" and "The flowers that bloom in the spring." Harry Dearth sings Pooh-Bah on all other sides. Francis says that Thornton sings Pooh-Bah in "Young man despair," but other sources suggest it could be Dearth. Francis also says that Thornton is singing in "Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted," which is clearly erroneous.

2. In column #1 of catalog numbers, those sides marked with a * were replaced with different takes in some later copies of the set, according to Francis.

Recording Sessions