1931 GILBERT & SULLIVAN RUDDIGORE Z SHELLAC C-19 First Complete Rec' 78

$

61

WEEK 1 of 3 weeks of great auctions,  until Dec 18.

Some great collectible HOLIDAY GIFTS for yourself your friends and family.

IMPORTANT:

Per US Postal Service, the following dates for Christmas shipping have been posted:

Parcel Post - Media Mail - December 15 2011

Priority Mail - December 21 2011.

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A series of great  classical orchestral and instrumental performances by major conductors, composers and instrumentalists.

Here is the great, first electric 1931 HMV recoding of Gilbert and Sullivan's RUDDIGORE

With the original D'Oyle Carte Company

The 1931 D'Oyly Carte Ruddigore

Cast Robin Oakapple George Baker
Richard Dauntless Derek Oldham
Sir Despard Murgatroyd Sydney Granville
Old Adam Stuart Robertson
Rose Maybud Muriel Dickson
Mad Margaret Nellie Briercliffe
Dame Hannah Dorothy Gill
Zorah Alice Moxon
Sir Roderic Murgatroyd Darrell Fancourt

Conductor: Malcolm Sargent

Recorded Sept. 9 - Nov. 9, 1931
Kingsway Hall, London

9x12" Victor 78 rpm.  Late 30s "Z TYPE SHELLAC" Scroll pressing, in tan colored lyre style album C-19 (manual sequence) w original booklet libretto

THIS IS THE QUIETEST PRESSING AVAILABLE, SINCE EARLY HMV and VICTOR SCROLL PRESSINGS MAY SUFFER FROM INCREASED SURFACE NOISE !!!

Condition:

EXCELLENT, pristine, rarest scuff, faintest imperceptible scratch on 5, 8, 12, album and booklet almost like new

This was D'Oyly Carte's second recording of Ruddigore, following on the acoustically-recorded 1924 set. Three singers (Baker, Oldham and Fancourt) reprise their roles from the earlier set. Among those new to this set, Sydney Granville appears in one of his best roles, and Nellie Briercliffe, perhaps the greatest D'Oyly Carte soubrette ever, appears in one of the best women's parts in all G&S. A comparison of the two recordings shows that the pruning of Sullivan's score often attributed to Geoffrey Toye was in fact the work of more than one musical director. For example, "The battle's roar" is included on the earlier set, but excluded here.

Bruce Miller points out that it was published in America in July 1933, but "by the end of WWII it was removed from the main catalogue and relegated to the "Request" catalogue. Thus the relative scarcity of the US issue seems explained by its release in the worst year of the Depression and its early removal from the regular catalogue."

Review by Chris Webster
Wow. This really is a top class recording, and yet I had never realised it until quite recently. This is what comes about when you are always blowing hot and cold about an opera. I expect that when I have listened to it in the past it has been while Ruddigore has not been in my good books, but now that I have heard it during a period of liking Ruddigore I am really impressed.

This must surely be the best thing that Oldham ever did (certainly as far as G&S recordings go). His "I shipped, do you see" is a joy, and above all it is fun to listen to because you can hear that he is having fun singing it.

Unlike the Fancourt situation between the 26 and 36 Mikado recordings, where he is inferior in the second recording (although he does redeem himself in the 1950 set), Fancourt as Roderic is every bit as good here as he was in the acoustic recording. Perhaps he comes across even better because of the superior method of recording. Unfortunately though, the recording engineers messed up at the start of the second verse of "The Ghost's high noon" ù they brought the mics down for the choral interjection at the end of verse one and were late bringing them back up again for the start of verse two (a minor point though).

I think that Robin Oakapple is a very difficult role to put across in music only, but here Baker manages it very well indeed, although not as well as Green did in 1950. Incidentally, on this occasion Baker does not replace Lytton, but replaces Green who had taken the role off Lytton in anticipation of Lytton's retirement.

Gill is quite acceptable in what I think can be pretty dull music unless the words are given their full potential. It takes a contralto of greatness to make Hannah's first song a top number, and good as she was, she was never as great as Bertha Lewis. Nevertheless her performance adequately puts things over and she is good to listen to.

I'm afraid I'm really not a fan of Muriel Dickson. To me, hers just isn't a G&S voice. She gets by with the music, and I know that others have a very strong liking for her, but she doesn't raise my temperature at all. For me this is something of a shame, because Rose can be such a good part on record, but I just don't think she has the extra something that is needed to pull the role off.

The lovely acoustic of Kingsway Hall and the spirit with which Sargent conducts, both help to lift a good cast to an even higher level and make this a winning recording.
 

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Here is a guideline for US Media Mail Shipping:

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1 record: 4.75$

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I am very happy to ship records worldwide.

Prices below are for regular 78 rpm records. For Edison Discs in  international shipments, it will charge for the actual weight plus a small packing charge (1-2$) - for small quantities, it will not be much different from the charge for regular 78s.

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Your best bet is the Large Priority box, everything that fits into a 12"x12"x5 1/2" box up to 20 pounds ships for 60$ (35$ Canada) worldwide.

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1 record = 2 lbs $25 - $28

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