Stateside Savoyards

Sounds on CD VGS218 Cover art by Matt Bland

This CD from Chris Webster's Sounds on CD label features the 1942 Victor Light Opera Company recording of H.M.S. Pinafore, plus other vintage recordings of G&S from America.

These were Chris's comments on the recording:

This is the first in a planned series of CD reissues of American G&S recordings which I believe will be of great interest to G&S collectors. It is a packed CD with 50 tracks from various sources (transfers and restorations by myself), although the top of the bill item is the abridged Victor recording of HMS Pinafore from the early 1940s. This abridgement is quite a super little set, despite it's not wholly traditional performances and orchestrations, and it is well worth hearing. Several of the other items are US recordings which have appeared on either 78s or early British LPs without performer credits, and which give an interesting example of how some of the American recording companies handled G&S in the second quarter of the 20th century. The CD is rounded off with two absolutely wonderful tracks from either side of a 1921 78rpm record which featured original Dixieland jazz arrangements of selections from The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore, and these alone are worth the price of admission.