Gilbert and Sullivan - The Grand Duke - Act One (BBC, 1966)

[@williamnethercott4364]

This brings back fond memories! I was in the chorus of a student production of this at the New Tyne Theatre, Newcastle, about 45 years ago. I still enjoy it and, although I admit it is not really the very best of G & S, it is still an underrated show.

[@markpettis2896]

I always heard that the Grand Duke was their worst endeavor until I saw it on stage it is one of their finest works. After I saw the performance I found a recording so I could learn the music more I have fallen in love with the Grand Duke thank you for both of these acts which also have the dialogue it is an A+ work

[@foveauxbear]

It is my favourite of the 14 and one I'm preparing a new edition of (full score, vocal score, text, etc).

[@markpettis2896]

That's wonderful. Yes I think the Grand Duke is my favorite too after that ruddigore. I'm glad you're working on this score. I would like to hear the full final to act 1 which is the longest I hear from martin-green one or two pages longer than Iolanthe's act 1 finale.

[@dabedwards]

Coming to the less well known operas late in life was a very pleasant surprise, courtesy KZbin. I do think the most famous works suffer from over-familiarity. To be honest, I wouldn't mind if I never heard "Never mind the why and wherefore" again (marvellous though it is)! There is so much that is quite superb in this opera, and surprisingly subversive and left field.

[@stephensuttle3281]

I entirely agree with all the positive comments by Mark Pettis, Stephen Berry and Karl Delavigne. For me the Second Act in particular contains some of Sullivan's best and most joyous music. I would not make any cuts - at least in the musical numbers. (Ludwig's patter song about ancient Athens near the beginning of Act Two, for example, is such a delight as regards both lyrics and music that it would be a shame not to hear all three verses.)

[@PlanetBobstar]

Ludwig's 180 in the end of Act 1 is one of my favorite G&S twists. Never would've seen it coming.

[@aruinedchapelbymoonlight6335]

Thank you for posting this! It's a real treasure.

[@stephenberry6339]

The libretto and plot are perhaps not quite up to the standard of the more popular works of G & S, but musically I have always loved the score - even though for many years the only means I had of assessing it were from the piano score and my attempts at reducing everything to two hands! This performance is excellent - thanks for posting.

[@prchristman]

Thanks indeed for posting. This presents a very true to the libretto Grand Duke, which isn't very common. It's interesting to hear the true 1896 version.

[@ianlawson4105]

And happy 125th birthday to the "ugly brat"! I heard GD for the first time in this broadcast on 10 July 1966. My school diary records "some of it excellent and a whole lot better than Utopia" (which I had heard for the first time the fortnight earlier.) Delighted to hear again after all these years, even if we miss the final bars. Perhaps going at that surprising speed they skidded off the turntable. Is act 2 also available??

[@webrarian]

Thanks, Ian. I think you're the first person to mention the abrupt ending. I've checked my original transfer and it's complete. So I'll do another upload. Meanwhile Act Two is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/foGpfoypl5qXj9E

[@tysonvickfilm]

This is fun to hear!

[@karldelavigne8134]

This is so much better than the D'Oyly Carte recording which, although the first commercial recording and very important in getting this work known, was a bit of a dud and horribly miscast. It should have been made 10 years earlier as well. I think there is some really excellent music by Sullivan here, often quite French in character, and I think as a work it merits reappraisal. If I were staging it I would make some cuts. I have a taped radio concert from the 1980s of one of Raymond Gubbay's The Magic of G&S evenings with John Ayldon singing a very spirited version of the roulette song in Act II with an orchestration I have not heard in any other performance (he also sings it in the Last Night of the DC gala); the conductor was Fraser Goulding. I must check out Act II of this performance and see how it sounds. The overture is also very good and I believe Sullivan did not delegate it.

[@foveauxbear]

Agree - the D'Oyly Carte recording is a travesty.

[@robingordon-powell6736]

@@foveauxbear Come, Sir! A little harsh, don't you think? It's not brilliant but it's certainly not a travesty. At least the D'OC recording got Julia Jellicoe's accent right - you might not have noticed that this Julia (as good as she is) is unmistakeably Italian, no matter how much they protest otherwise. Plus, the D'OC recording used Sullivan's own orchestrations - this recording has a number of embellishments (especially in Act II, which I see you have commented about, there) by - presumably - Stanford Robinson.

[@richardduployen6429]

@@robingordon-powell6736 The idea which works perfectly is that they are German (apart from the French Party and she appears foreign (English) from a different accent. Von Palmay had a delightful Hungarian accent and made at least one charming record showing it off. I don't know how she got away with playing Elsie. I complimented Laura Sarti on her Julia Jellicoe many years ago and she was very modest about it. The real Julia (Goss) confirmed with me that she didn't really attempt an accent in the D'Oyly Carte concert version and recording. I saw an excellent amateur Julia on d. v. d.whodid a good German accent. John who saw me play Spalanzani once did not know how to pronounce the French & Neil Howlett did. I won't go into eighteenth century French when they didn't pronounce the s at the end of "fils". Hence the name Figaro which comes from the playwright's name: Fils Caron (de Beaumarchais). In the Roulette Song (Offenbach wrote perhaps a better imitation of the ball skipping about in a patter song for a woman (the travesti) "Genevieve de Brabant"), according to standard French: the end "e" is usually pronounced except before a vowel when it is elided. Then there is the aspirate h when there is no elision. (Simon Butteriss didn't understand this word, singing - Duet with Adam "Riv'n"). Since it's "le héros" (no elision) its "mes nobles héros" /may NOBlugh airo or as I did, Southern accent "may NOBlay airo". The s in jadis meaning "in the olden days" is pronounced : jarDEECE. I know it isn't an exact rhyme with "fis"/ FEE meaning "made" ("(a) loss").

[@staffanlindstrom576]

@@richardduployen6429 Eh?

[@richardduployen6429]

@@staffanlindstrom576 See 4 replies to Karl for mine. I naturally recommend the first B. B. C. broadcast. I don't know why Stanford Robinson re-arranged some of the scores. (the same applies to the Sadler's Wells Offenbach series). He went back to the originals in some ways e. g. the extra items for "Ruddigore". I don't condemn the D'Oyly Carte recording entirely.