GILBERT & SULLIVAN: The Pirates of Penzance and Overtures - Malcolm Sargent, Pro Arte Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival (2 CDs)

Richard Lewis (tenor), Peter Gellhorn (director), Monica Sinclair (contralto), Owen Brannigan (bass), Marjorie Thomas (contralto), Elsie Morison (soprano), John Cameron (baritone), James Milligan (baritone), Heather Harper (soprano), George Baker (baritone)

Pro Arte Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus
Sir Malcolm Sargent

Sullivan, A: The Sorcerer Overture
Sullivan, A: Cox and Box Overture
Sullivan, A: Princess Ida Overture
Sullivan, A: Overture 'In Memoriam'

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sir Vivian Dunn

In a high-spirited romp that irresistibly parodies the dramatic and musical gestures of Italian grand opera, The Pirates of Penzance tells the story of Frederic, apprenticed in error to a shipload of good-natured buccaneers. Famously featuring a loquacious major general and an ineffectual police squad, the operetta received its premiere in New York in 1879, thus pre-empting any ‘pirate’ American productions of the kind that followed the London success of its maritime predecessor, HMS Pinafore.