Charles Haynes recently sent me a photocopy of a review in the American magazine Fanfare. It was a somewhat frank and provocative review, and I take the liberty of making a few brief quotes from it. It compares the recent DOC recording of Gondoliers unfavourably with the 1927 recording, reissued by Pearl. "The performance on Pearl Records … is one of the best sung recordings of a Gilbert & Sullivan opera … Listen to any part of this recording … and you will hear secure, firmly supported, well articulated singing. As only one of innumerable examples, listen to Winifred Lawson, the Gianetta, sing 'Kind Sir, you cannot have the heart' and end it with a glowing, piano high B flat and when's the last time you ever heard that on a D'Oyly Carte recording? … According to Michael Walters' notes the conductor is 'almost certainly' Harry Norris ... Do be discouraged from purchasing the 1978 D'Oyly Carte version of The Gondoliers. It is neither sung well nor conducted well. Royston Nash's conducting is erratic and frequently off the mark: the gavotte lacks any sort of lilt … Gilbert and Sullivan fans who might be tempted to purchase this new recording are advised to buy the Pearl 1927 reissue instead, which has detailed notes on all the singers, but no libretto or notes on the opera itself."

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Web page created 3 January 2001