Oakapple Press

During recent preparations for a concert performance of The Mountebanks (that did not take place), I put together a vocal score and posted it on Lulu. Although I own a copy of the original Chappell vocal score, it is falling apart, and I didn’t want it to undergo the wear and tear of a concert; also,we were going to perform the dialogue, which is not in the Chappell score.

The new score is simply the 1892 Chappell edition, with the dialogue and an attractive cover added. It is nothing that you could not obtain yourself by downloading readily available sources on the net, but it’s nice to have it in one volume, if you happen to be interested in The Mountebanks.

It is available here.

There is a new G&S Discography update today, version 24.0. The number of pages on the site has reached 600.

There is a new logo (right), replacing the ugly monstrosity with concentric green circles (shown below). There is also a new color scheme, with gentle shades of blue and gray replacing the former mixture of bright blue, bright green, and cornfield yellow.

Incidentally, if you are ever in the market for a logo, I highly recommend logosnap.com. Its  pre-defined templates and a rich graphics library make logo design a snap. I wouldn’t call the Discography’s new logo a great work of art, but from a blank slate I couldn’t have done anything nearly as good.

I have received a number of comments about the availability of digital downloads, such as MP3, iTunes, and so forth. This is a dimension not noted on the site, which indicates availability only on tangible media (LPs, cassettes, CDs, DVDs, and so forth).

Most recordings issued nowadays are available as digital downloads, and older recordings are added all the time. Just to update the site for what is available today would be a daunting task, and the information would be continuously out of date.

Accordingly, I have decided not to indicate which recordings are available as downloads, if they were also issued in physical form. If a G&S recording is issued only as a download (there are none so far that I am aware of), I will note the fact.

I’ve posted an update to the Lulu site. Despite four years of beta testing, no one had noticed an error in measures 79–81 in the Prince of Monte Carlo’s song. Thanks to Dan Kravetz for pointing this one out.

To order, click here for the main edition (with introduction and appendices), or here for the performer’s edition.

I have finally finished updating my edition of The Grand Duke, incorporating errors that were found during the Savoynet production in the summer of 2009. I had hoped to finish it by the end of September, but it’s now November, and here we are.

By popular demand, I have created a “Performer’s Edition,” which omits the introduction and appendices. It is 115 pages shorter, and the printed version is $3 cheaper. (The PDF download is still free, and will always be.) As I found out myself during rehearsals last summer, the lighter volume is a lot easier to carry around.

Much as I would like to think that every reader will devour every word of the introduction and critical apparatus, the reality is that many people are just happy to have an easy-to-read performance text, and are not concerned with the history or editorial process that produced it. The Full Edition is recommended for directors, conductors, or anyone else interested in the additional detail.

An Errata List is now available. After many rounds of proofs and drafts, fortunately there were not many remaining. (A few of the changes are more accurately described as “second thoughts.”) This list will be updated as new errors are found. I will probably not update the printed edition unless there are a large number of them, or unless I’ve committed an egregious howler that demands immediate correction.

Today, we’ve added reviews for the Ohio Light Opera Sorcerer and Gondoliers.

We’ve also solved a long-standing mystery: the identity of the uncredited pattern baritone on the 1964 National Musicale recordings who sounded uncannily like Vincent Price. (We were always sure it wasn’t Price.) It turns out to have been Ralston Hill, a little known stage actor whose voice sounded a lot like Price, and who understudied Green in various post-D’Oyly Carte G&S productions.

Today, we’ve added album cover scans for Gilbert & Sullivan Go Kosher and The Tailors of Poznance. One of the performers, Iain Kerr, has supplied a link to his home page.

The Cool Mikado is now available on DVD. After hearing for years that it was awful, I was pleasantly surprised. It isn’t great art, but I smiled most of the way through, if only at the way the familiar material had been so thoroughly lampooned.

There’s another update today. Much of it was housekeeping—adding re-issues that have come out during the last four years, when we weren’t making revisions.

I also added “comparative timing” pages for Pinafore, Pirates, Mikado, and Ruddigore. Correspondent Riley Pritchett did the hard part in each case—noting the track timings for the major recordings of each opera and putting them in tabular format. The site now has this for five operas (Ida being the other).

As always, have a look at the Revision History for further additions.

A correspondent urged me to add the Opera Australia Pirates (2006). While doing my research, I found the Opera Australia Trial and Pinafore (2005) too. All three are available on DVD, and Pirates is coming out on Blu-Ray as well.

I don’t have any of these in my own collection, so there wasn’t much I could say about them, so I would appreciate any reviews that reader may wish to send along.

Thanks to all who wrote such kind words about last night’s update.

I said that updates would be posted more frequently from now on, and I hope to live up to that. A revision is out this evening, which adds Rebecca Hains’s excellent solo recital disc, The Gilbert & Sullivan Soprano Arias, which came out in 2007.

As we note in our review:

Rebecca Hains is an amateur, but her voice is practically perfect for this material. She sings with a lovely, clear tone, and with a bright, forward sound that is ideal for making the words heard. She sings securely and without apparent effort throughout her entire range. Her sense of phrasing is nearly always spot-on. She is at her best in the arias that exploit her skill at fioritura, though there is really not a bad number on the hour-long disc.