Here is the text of an email I've just sent to Suzy Klein at Essential Classics, following today's programme:
"Dear Suzy,
Thank you for playing the duet from The Gondoliers a few hours ago.
What a pity, though, that (perhaps because this was only "operetta", which it isn't!) you failed to identify the excellent singers, orchestra and conductor involved. Saying this was "The D'Oyly Carte" tells us nothing, as there are of course many D'Oyly Carte recordings from just about every decade since the early 20th century.
Nor is the duet featured - alongside all the other music you played - on Play It Again. How curious.
Please can you provide me with the performers' names? These singers are quite as good - and considerably more popular - than many more fashionable artists, and they deserve better than the anonymity you (accidentally I am sure) bestowed upon them this morning.
This exemplifies a certain institutional disrespect towards sub-operatic theatre music, even of the highest calibre. I don't for one minute suppose that Essential Classics would treat pop or jazz singers with the same carelessness.
All my best thanks,
....."
I fear that this is another example of silly R3 snobbery towards one of our greatest composers. Nor do I think Essential Classics will deign to give me an answer! So are any resident Savoyards able to enlighten me as to who was singing "We're called gondolieri" so effectively this morning? As I say, it has been excluded from the Play It Again listings too, so that doesn't make it easier!
"Dear Suzy,
Thank you for playing the duet from The Gondoliers a few hours ago.
What a pity, though, that (perhaps because this was only "operetta", which it isn't!) you failed to identify the excellent singers, orchestra and conductor involved. Saying this was "The D'Oyly Carte" tells us nothing, as there are of course many D'Oyly Carte recordings from just about every decade since the early 20th century.
Nor is the duet featured - alongside all the other music you played - on Play It Again. How curious.
Please can you provide me with the performers' names? These singers are quite as good - and considerably more popular - than many more fashionable artists, and they deserve better than the anonymity you (accidentally I am sure) bestowed upon them this morning.
This exemplifies a certain institutional disrespect towards sub-operatic theatre music, even of the highest calibre. I don't for one minute suppose that Essential Classics would treat pop or jazz singers with the same carelessness.
All my best thanks,
....."
I fear that this is another example of silly R3 snobbery towards one of our greatest composers. Nor do I think Essential Classics will deign to give me an answer! So are any resident Savoyards able to enlighten me as to who was singing "We're called gondolieri" so effectively this morning? As I say, it has been excluded from the Play It Again listings too, so that doesn't make it easier!
Comment