The Very Best of Gilbert & Sullivan
(Faris at al, 1987)
Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
and The Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Conducted by Alexander Faris
Chorus Master John McCarthy
In 1987, a set of excerpts from the soundtracks of the Brent Walker video series was released on the Savoy/Reflection label. I have never heard of anything else on this label, and from the name I suspect that it was introduced for this recording only.
Correspondent Charles Lax bought the CD in Woolworths. It must have had an extremely short shelf life, as I have encountered very few people who have a copy. Lax described the CD cover as follows:
Top Left: Kate Flowers and Frankie Howerd in Trial by Jury (although there are no songs from this opera on the CD)
Top Right: Ann Howard and Keith Michelle in Ruddigore Act 2.
Bottom Right: William Conrad surrounded by female chorus in The Mikado.
Bottom Left: A dreadfully grainy and pixilated photo, which looks like it might have been taken off a TV screen, of Keith Michell in The Gondoliers Act 2.
Lax supplied the following list of tracks. The "sics" and other annotations are his.
-
YEOMAN [sic] OF THE GUARD
Overture
[The overture is complete and not the shortened version used on the video.] - PATIENCE
So Go To Him And Say To Him
Anne Collins & Derek Hammond-Stroud - MIKADO [sic]
The Sun Whose Rays
Kate Flowers - MIKADO [sic]
Tit Willow
Clive Revill - THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
When The Foreman [sic] Bares His Steel
Paul Hudson
[Janis Kelly, Kate Flowers and Keith Michell are uncredited.] - THE GONDELIERS [sic]
Dance A Cachucha - THE SORCERER
John Wellington Wells
Clive Revill - MIKADO [sic]
There Is Beauty In The Bellow
Anne Collins & Clive Revill - YEOMAN [sic] OF THE GUARD
Act 1 Finale
[This begins with "The Prisoner Comes To Meet Him Doom." Elizabeth Gale, Joel Grey, David Hillman, Peter Savidge, Alfred Marks, Geoffrey Chard, Claire Powell, Elizabeth Bainbridge, et al, are uncredited.] - HMS [sic – and a pedantic one at that!!!] PINAFORE
The Hours Creep On Apace
Meryl Drower - RUDDIGORE
My Eyes Are Fully Open
Keith Michell, Vincent Price & Sandra Dugdale
[Sandra Dugdale is credited incorrectly in place of Ann Howard.] - PATIENCE
A Magnet Hung
John Fryatt - THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Poor Wandering One
Janis Kelly - PRINCESS IDA
Minerva
Nan Christie - THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
A Modern Major-General
Keith Michell - RUDDIGORE
At [sic] The Ghosts High Noon
[Donald Adams is uncredited.] - MIKADO [sic]
Three Little Maids
Kate Flowers, Fiona Dobie & Anne Collins
[Anne Collins is credited incorrectly in place of Cynthia Buchan.] - IOLANTHE
If You Go In
Derek Hammond-Stroud, Thomas Hemsley & David Hillman - YEOMAN [sic] OF THE GUARD
I Have A Song To Sing-O
Joel Gray [sic] and Elizabeth Gale
[This is the Act 1 version of the song.]
Chris Webster provided date, label, and catalog details slightly different from those Charles Lax provided. Both are presented below. Some of the home video versions of the Walker productions suggested that the concerted highlights were available on cassette also. No further details of the cassette version have come to light.
Date | Label | Format | Number |
---|---|---|---|
ca. 1986 | Savoy | CD | U2049 |
1987 | Savoy/Reflection (a Warwick Leisure Product) | CD | WW 22049 |