Gilbert and Sullivan: The Gondoliers soloists/ Pro Arte Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent emi 2 cd's (I've got the old 'Fat Box' edition)
This has got to be the best sung Gondoliers. Not the D'Oyle Carte aren't good! The two stereo D'Oyly Carte recordings with dialogue are excellent! And,I'm a big fan of them! (The 1927 one is,arguably,even better! And the Pearl transfer has lots of lovely sausage frying noises! :o ;D) But for the sheer beauty & splendour of the singing,the Sargent has got to be my first choice,and takes some beating! It really is a feast for the old ear drums! I've got to disagree with Okapple about Sir Geraint Evans. He had a lovely voice & I wish he'd been in more of the Sargent Glyndebourne recordings! (My favourite Jack Point on record). And I've always liked Owen Brannigan,who is on splendid form here! And you've got Monica Sinclair and Elsie Morrison. Richard Lewis. You've even got Helen Watts in the cast! And as to being slow! No! The recording is vivacious! It skips along! They don't make 'em like this anymore! Wow! :) :) :) :) :)
I do so agree with you about the quality of the singers on these Sargent recordings. I have all Sargent's G&S recordings in a 16-CD boxed set (
The Gondoliers, HMS Pinafore, Iolanthe, The Mikado, Patience, The Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore, Trial by Jury and
Yeomen of the Guard) that a good friend (knowing my proclivities!) kindly bought for me.
I sometimes wonder whether the Oakapple people will only accept productions that are either D'Oyly Carte's or clones of them. Anything a little bit different, even if artistically and objectively superior, seems less than acceptable to them. You just can't argue about the finesse of such artists as Elsie Morison, Heather Harper, Elizabeth Harwood, Monica Sinclair, Richard Lewis, Sir Geraint Evans and Owen Brannigan, can you? The orchestral contributions are spot on (larger string sections than you would get in a pit band but all the better for it) and first rate chorus singing too. Let's not forget that Beecham rightly said of Sargent as a chorus-master, "he makes the buggers sing like blazes". Each to his or her own but I'll take these Sargent recordings every time.