RCA VRL1-0232

RCA VRL1-0325

Starcall BPCD 5028

ABC Classics 480 4150

The material under discussion here began with two LP albums made with the same forces, issued in 1978 and 1979. A CD re-issue in the late 1980s included highlights drawn from the two LPs. An unusual double-CD issued in 2010 included a different set of highlights, mixed with excerpts from the D'Oyly Carte stereo-era sets.

Baritone Dennis Olsen and tenor Thomas Edmonds were the two featured performers, with Olsen being perhaps the slightly better known of the two. Olsen understudied John Reed with D'Oyly Carte for the 1970-71 season, but he left the Company when it became clear that Reed would not be retiring anytime soon. He then returned to his native Australia, and he has since appeared in a number of G&S productions for Opera Australia and State Opera of South Australia. (Several of these have been published on video.)

Concerning Olsen, correspondent Robert Morrison wrote:

In Australia, Dennis Olsen is held in as high esteem as a G & S comedian as, say, John Reed is in the U.K. (Or as Ivan Menzies was to an earlier generation of Australian G & S fans. Menzies was principal comedian with the J. C. Williamson Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Co. for all of their Australasian tours between 1931 and 1951.)

In fact Olsen was Reed's understudy, or deputy, during his tenure with the D'Oyly Carte on tour in 1970-71 and was touted to be his successor as principal comedian of the company during this period. However, to quote Olsen from his programme biography: "John Reed had a new lease of life, which is probably just as well because it enabled me to do all sorts of different things which I probably wouldn't have done....," and so Olsen returned to Australia at the end of the tour.

Australian G & S productions in which Olsen has appeared include Iolanthe (Lord Chancellor), for the Opera Australia in 1976 with Heather Begg as the Queen of the Fairies; (this production was broadcast on Australian television by ABC-TV, but has not, to date, been released on home video); H.M.S. Pinafore (Sir Joseph Porter), for the State Opera of South Australia in Adelaide; (this was also telecast by ABC-TV and simulcast on ABC FM radio in 1981 but has not been released on video to date); Patience (Bunthorne), for Opera Australia in 1980, 1983, 1987 and 1995, (the last production was simulcast on ABC-TV and ABC Classic FM radio and subsequently released on video); and The Gondoliers (Don Alhambra).

In 1991 Dennis Olsen toured Australia playing George Grossmith in the one-man show A Song to Sing, O! by Melvyn Morrow, (reworked from a version written for and performed by John Reed at the Savoy Theatre, London in 1981.) The premise of the play is a visit by a newspaper reporter to Grossmith's dressing room at the Savoy as he waits between the matinée and evening shows to give his last performance of Jack Point with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in The Yeomen of the Guard, which prompts Grossmith to grant an interview in which he reminsces about his stage career, interspersed with renditions of the G & S patter songs and his own self-penned humourous songs at the piano. The previous year Olsen had played Grossmith in a radio adaptation of the play broadcast by ABC FM, which was expanded to include a number of characters including Jessie Bond and Richard Temple, in addition to the reporter. (In the one-man version, Grossmith speaks directly to the audience, who assume the role of the unseen and unheard reporter.)

The first of these albums, issued in 1978, was called Gilbert and Sullivan Highlights, and it included the following numbers:

Side 1

Side 2

The Gondoliers, Overture "Take a pair of sparkling eyes" (Edmonds) The Judge's Song (Olsen & Chorus) "The battle's roar is over" (Knight, Edmonds) "Tit Willow" (Olsen) "We're called gondolieri" (Edmonds, Dawe) "I have a song to sing, O" (Knight, Olsen & Chorus) "If you go in" (Edmonds, Olsen, Dawe)

"The flowers that bloom in the spring" (Knight, Gurner, Edmonds, Olsen, Dawe) "When I was a lad" (Olsen & Chorus) "The nighingale"..."A maiden fair to see" (Edmonds & Chorus) "Here's a how-de-do!" (Knight, Edmonds, Olsen) "From the briny sea"..."I shipped d'ye see" (Edmonds & Chorus) "When a wooer goes a-wooing" (Knight, Gurner, Edmonds, Olson) "I am a courtier grave and serious" (Gurner, Knight, Olsen, Edmonds, Dawe) "Dance a cachucha" (Chorus)

Then, in 1979, came a second album called More Highlights from Gilbert & Sullivan, with the following contents:

Side 1

Side 2

The Pirates of Penzance, Overture (abridged) "A wandering minstrel I" (Edmonds & Men's Chorus) "My name is John Wellington Wells" (Olsen) "Sing 'Hey to you—Good day to you'" (Gurner, Olsen) "Is life a boon?" (Edmonds) "In sailing o'er life's ocean wide" (Knight, Edmonds, Olsen) "As some day it may happen" (Olsen & Men's Chorus) "Never mind the why and wherefore" (Knight, Dawe, Olsen)

"Behold the Lord High Executioner" (Olsen & Men's Chorus) "When first my old, old love I knew" (Edmonds & Chorus) "Am I alone, and unobserved?" (Olsen) "Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted" (Knight, Edmonds) "In enterprise of Martial Kind" (Olsen, Gurner, Knight, Edmonds) "Oh, gentlemen, listen, I pray" (Edmonds & Ladies Chorus) "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" (Olsen & Chorus) "A tenor, all singers above" (Edmonds) "Away, away, my heart's on fire!" (Gurner, Edmonds, Dawe) "For he's gone and married Yum-Yum" (All)

In the late 1980s, selections from the above two LP albums were released on a compilation CD, details as follows:

The Gondoliers Overture Take a pair of sparkling eyes We're called Gondolieri In enterprise of martial kind I am a courtier Dance a cachuca The Mikado A wand'ring minstrel Behold the lord high executioner As some day it may happen Here's a how-de-do Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted Tit Willow The flowers that bloom in the spring For he's gone and married Yum-Yum

The Yeomen of the Guard When a wooer goes a-wooing Is life a boon? I have a song to sing-o Trial by Jury The Judge's song When first my old, old love I knew Oh, gentlemen, listen I pray Patience Am I alone and unobserved? Sing hey to you, good day to you Ruddigore From the briny sea/I shipped, d'ye see The battle's roar is over In sailing o'er life's ocean wide

This is the same CD compilation that was subsequently reissued in 1994 by Castle Communications (Australasia) Ltd. on the 'Premium Masters' label (pictured at the top of this page). Correspondent Robert Morrison believes that these were the first G&S albums professionally recorded in Australia.

Finally, in 2010 ABC Classics of Australia issued a two-CD set, The Very Model of a G&S Anthology. It offers 54 tracks, from all thirteen extant operas, of which 35 of which come from the 1970s albums referred to above. The others are taken from the D'Oyly Carte stereo-era sets.