Stars of English Opera, Volume 1
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel, Giacomo Puccini, Georges Bizet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Arthur Goring Thomas, Camille Saint-Saëns, Gaetano Donizetti, (Carl) Otto (Ehrenfried) Nicolai, Bedřich Smetana
Label: Dutton Laboratories
Magazine Review Date: 4/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 75
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: CDLX7018
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Il) Barbiere di Siviglia, '(The) Barber of Seville', Movement: Largo al factotum |
Gioachino Rossini, Composer
Dennis Noble, Baritone Gioachino Rossini, Composer Sadlers Wells Orchestra Warwick Braithwaite, Conductor |
| Samson et Dalila, Movement: ~ |
Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer
Boyd Neel, Conductor Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer Janet Howe, Mezzo soprano National Symphony Orchestra |
| (Les) Pêcheurs de Perles, '(The) Pearl Fishers', Movement: ~ |
Georges Bizet, Composer
Georges Bizet, Composer Heddle Nash, Tenor Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Malcolm Sargent, Conductor |
| (La) Favorita, Movement: ~ |
Gaetano Donizetti, Composer
Gaetano Donizetti, Composer Heddle Nash, Tenor Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Malcolm Sargent, Conductor |
| Rigoletto, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Gwen Catley, Soprano Hallé Orchestra Warwick Braithwaite, Conductor |
| Rigoletto, Movement: Pari siamo! |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Clarence Raybould, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer John Hargreaves, Baritone London Symphony Orchestra |
| Don Carlo, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Gladys Ripley, Contralto (Female alto) Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Malcolm Sargent, Conductor |
| Falstaff, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Redvers Llewellyn, Baritone Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden Warwick Braithwaite, Conductor |
| Esmeralda, Movement: O vision entrancing |
Arthur Goring Thomas, Composer
Arthur Goring Thomas, Composer Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Malcolm Sargent, Conductor Webster Booth, Tenor |
| Alcina, Movement: Verdi prati, selve amene |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
George Frideric Handel, Composer London Symphony Orchestra Marjorie Thomas, Contralto (Female alto) Stanford Robinson, Conductor |
| (Die) Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, '(The) Merry Wives of Windsor', Movement: Als Büblein klein |
(Carl) Otto (Ehrenfried) Nicolai, Composer
(Carl) Otto (Ehrenfried) Nicolai, Composer Karl Rankl, Conductor Oscar Natzke, Bass Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden |
| Tosca, Movement: Vissi d'arte |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Giacomo Puccini, Composer Hallé Orchestra Joan Hammond, Soprano Leslie Heward, Conductor |
| Gianni Schicchi, Movement: O mio babbino caro |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Giacomo Puccini, Composer Hallé Orchestra Joan Hammond, Soprano Leslie Heward, Conductor |
| (The) Bartered Bride, Movement: ~ |
Bedřich Smetana, Composer
Bedřich Smetana, Composer James Johnston, Tenor Sadlers Wells Orchestra Vilem Tausky, Conductor |
| Così fan tutte, Movement: ~ |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Joan Cross, Soprano Lawrance Collingwood, Conductor Philharmonia Orchestra Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
| (Die) Zauberflöte, '(The) Magic Flute', Movement: Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
David Lloyd, Tenor Lawrance Collingwood, Conductor Sadlers Wells Orchestra Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
| Don Giovanni, Movement: Il mio tesoro |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
David Lloyd, Tenor Lawrance Collingwood, Conductor Sadlers Wells Orchestra Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Author: Alan Blyth
This is an auspicious beginning to what promises to be an important series from Dutton Laboratories. The discs chosen come from that fruitful period in British singing in the years before, during and just after the war, when Columbia and HMV were busy recording a crop of native singers performing so eloquently in their native tongue. The group of tenors alone is a distinguished one, headed by Heddle Nash, whose dreamy, poised mezza voce is heard to perfection in Nadir’s Romance from Les pecheurs de perles, one of his most beguiling records. His ardent, refined singing of “Spirit so fair” from La favorita, made during the same 1944 Liverpool session, is equally desirable. So is James Johnston’s account of Jenik’s aria from The bartered bride, an item excluded from Testament’s disc devoted to his art (4/95) and therefore the more welcome. Webster Booth’s airy style is well suited to the once popular aria from Esmeralda.
Most welcome of all are Don Ottavio’s second aria and Tamino’s Portrait solo as sung by David Lloyd, whose forthright, mellifluous tone and persuasive performances offer Mozart singing of the highest calibre. Joan Cross’s account of Fiordiligi’s Act 2 aria, one of my earliest purchases and a souvenir of Sadler’s Wells’s notable wartime staging of Cosi fan tutte, is another fine piece of Mozart singing – and isn’t that Dennis Brain playing the horn solos? The other Joan is disappointingly represented by two well-tried, often reissued items, rather than by some rarity from her vast discography. Catley’s “Dearest name”, sweet and agile, can match the best accounts by sopranos of her type.
Howe’s “Softly awakes my heart” and Ripley’s “O fatal beauty”, slightly underpowered, tell us what appreciable careers these estimable singers might have had today, when artists like them make their mark mainly on the stage rather than in concert work. Marjorie Thomas’s refined art is recalled in her pure Handelian legato. Llewellyn offers character but a rather attenuated tone in Ford’s aria, Hargreaves much feeling but stilted diction as Rigoletto. If these two baritones were limited in appeal, Noble was one of great distinction regarding tone, line and diction. Dutton offer here his 1939 HMV “I’m the factotum” (his earlier Columbia can be found on their CD devoted solely to his art – see above), which launches this disc in the most engaging way. Natzke was an equally communicative singer, admirable in tone and phrase in the Lustigen Weiber aria, a record new to me.
Transfers, as usual from this source, are exemplary, surface noise wholly eliminated, voices clean and forward.'
Most welcome of all are Don Ottavio’s second aria and Tamino’s Portrait solo as sung by David Lloyd, whose forthright, mellifluous tone and persuasive performances offer Mozart singing of the highest calibre. Joan Cross’s account of Fiordiligi’s Act 2 aria, one of my earliest purchases and a souvenir of Sadler’s Wells’s notable wartime staging of Cosi fan tutte, is another fine piece of Mozart singing – and isn’t that Dennis Brain playing the horn solos? The other Joan is disappointingly represented by two well-tried, often reissued items, rather than by some rarity from her vast discography. Catley’s “Dearest name”, sweet and agile, can match the best accounts by sopranos of her type.
Howe’s “Softly awakes my heart” and Ripley’s “O fatal beauty”, slightly underpowered, tell us what appreciable careers these estimable singers might have had today, when artists like them make their mark mainly on the stage rather than in concert work. Marjorie Thomas’s refined art is recalled in her pure Handelian legato. Llewellyn offers character but a rather attenuated tone in Ford’s aria, Hargreaves much feeling but stilted diction as Rigoletto. If these two baritones were limited in appeal, Noble was one of great distinction regarding tone, line and diction. Dutton offer here his 1939 HMV “I’m the factotum” (his earlier Columbia can be found on their CD devoted solely to his art – see above), which launches this disc in the most engaging way. Natzke was an equally communicative singer, admirable in tone and phrase in the Lustigen Weiber aria, a record new to me.
Transfers, as usual from this source, are exemplary, surface noise wholly eliminated, voices clean and forward.'
Stars of English Opera, Volume 1
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