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The Cheam Operatic Society Haddon Hall (1981)
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The Parish of Cheam Operatic Society produced Haddon Hall on
13-16 May 1981. Whether by luck or design, opening night coincided with
Sullivan's birthday. Shortly after the production, the cast made this
recording in a studio. Several members of the stage cast were replaced
for the recording by singers with better voices. Interestingly, Valerie
Dibble, who plays Dorcas on the recording, was Dorothy on stage.
In the original production, Sullivan and librettist Sydney Grundy replaced No. 8 (Manners's song and duet with Dorothy) with No. 8a (Dorothy's Solo). Cheam made some libretto changes to allow the original No. 8 to be inserted into the score, while also retaining No. 8a. The order of the relevant numbers is: 7, 8a, 9, 10, 8, 11. Pearl Records published two recordings by the Cheam Operatic Society: Haddon Hall and The Grand Duke. It was a noble gesture by a commercial record label that cannot have expected to sell many copies. This is a better than average recording by amateur standards, and it gives a good account of the score's charms. A professional recording is still needed, however. (Many thanks to Philip Sternenberg and Stephen Turnbull for much of the background in this write-up.)
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Marc Shepherd, oakapple@cris.com Copyright ©1995-2005. All Rights Reserved. Last Modified: 31-Dec-99 URL: http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/hhpearl.htm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||