Sullivan On Shore and Sea & Kenilworth

[Alan Howe]

Just announced by Dutton:
http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7310&cat=385

[Jimfin]

Great, been looking out for this more than anything. I had heard it was to be Naxos, but even better if it's Dutton. There doesn't seem to be any pre-order option yet, but I suppose that will change soon enough.

[semloh]

Thanks for that, Alan.  Any addition to the Sullivan CD corpus is welcome, and this will be especially fascinating.... a couple of rarities, and under Richard Bonynge no less. I wonder if this is a first complete recording of both works...  the Sullivan discography seems to confirm that. (http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/sullchoral.htm#on_shore_and_sea)

[Mark Thomas]

Whilst his G&S pieces are, of course, justly famous, it's a great shame that Sullivan's more serious works have been so overshadowed by them. A great recording of his opera The Beauty Stone was released last year by Chandos to resounding indifferance, and yet is a really fine piece of of work. 

[Alan Howe]

A great recording of his opera The Beauty Stone was released last year by Chandos to resounding indifference

I was one of the indifferent, I'm afraid. But then, I didn't much enjoy Ivanhoe. finding it peculiarly 'toothless'. Should I try again with The Beauty Stone? And if so, why?

[Mark Thomas]

Yes you should, Alan. Although it has the same harmonic landscape as Ivanhoe, I find it much more memorable melodically, the music for the principal characters is more strongly differentiated (with some use of leitmotiv), and it has some of Sullivan's most impressive, attractive and varied orchestral effects. It is a much tauter piece of work musically than Ivanhoe. There are cuts in the recording, to be sure, and this no doubt helps, but they are only of spoken dialogue, not music. Overall, I found it a much stronger piece than Ivanhoe, in which I too was disappointed.

[Alan Howe]

spoken dialogue

Is there much of this, Mark?

[Mark Thomas]

In the recording, which lasts 2 hours 9 minutes, there is no spoken dialogue at all. In the original there was so much that the whole work lasted over 4 hours! After adverse reviews, which confirmed all his misgivings about the wordy libretto, Sullivan cut the opera drastically, including some of the music. This recording (as best I can understand a rather confusing account in the booklet) restores all the cut music and omits all the spoken passages, summarising those essential to moving on the plot with a few sentences in the libretto. The work comes across as through-composed in the recording.

[Alan Howe]

Brilliant. I'll order it!

[Mark Thomas]

Now I'm worried 

[Jimfin]

Regarding the Kenilworth/Shore release: there has been a recording of Kenilworth before, on the Symposium label, but On Shore and Sea is a premiere recording.

So far as I know this is the first time a note of Sullivan has been put on Dutton, and a most welcome thing it is too. Sullivan has often suffered from indifferent or poor quality recordings, but Dutton's standards are invariably high. They don't often venture into opera, but a Dutton recording of 'The Emerald Isle' or 'Haddon Hall' would be very welcome.

[semloh]

Quite right, Jim. I should have said of the On Shore work - as indicated in the Dutton blurb. However, I am at a loss to match the parts of the Kenilworth on the Dutton CD with those listed in the discography and on the Symposium CD - I find it all very confusing.