All posts in category Opera

Malcolm Sargent conducts the Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (1947)

Britten – Peter Grimes – Four Sea Interludes Op.33A No.1 – Dawn No.2 – Sunday Morning No.3 – Moonlight No.4 – Storm London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent Britten – Peter Grimes – Sea Interlude 1. Dawn – LSO, Sargent Britten – Peter Grimes – Sea Interlude 2. Sunday Morning – LSO, Sargent Britten – […]

George W Byng conducts the Ballet Music from Gounod’s Faust

I received an email recently asking if I knew where George W Byng’s recording of the Ballet Music from Gounod’s Faust might be found. Some six years ago, before I had this website I did a transfer of the recording, so the time seemed apt to revisit it for a new transfer. Listening again, I […]

Adrian Boult and Stanley Chapple conduct Wagner on Vocalion

More Wagner for the bicentenary year, this time with rarely head Vocalions from Adrian Boult in the overture to the Flying Dutchman and the Procession of Masters from Die Meistersinger (both 1927), and from Stanley Chapple in the Act 3 Prelude from Lohengrin (1927) and the Siegfried Idyll (a late acoustic recording from around 1925) […]

Percy Pitt conducts Wagner

It’s quite some time since any of Percy Pitt’s recordings appeared here. I’ve therefore opted to share one of his acoustic HMV recordings. It’s an orchestral recording, unusual in his HMV output, which was mainly devoted to accompanying singers either as pianist or conductor. Wagner – Götterdämmerung – Siegfried’s Journey to the Rhine Symphony Orchestra, […]

Boult’s early Humperdinck and lighter fare for 2013

As the festive season passes, it’s time for some of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, in early acoustical recordings by Adrian Boult. To follow this, in the spirit of the New Year Concert, if not the letter, some very light fare indeed: two entertaining bassoon solos from E W Hincliff and two numbers performed by the […]

Delius – Eugene Goossens, Geoffery Toye, John Barbirolli; Mozart’s Figaro Overture – Barbirolli; Beatrice Harrison & Harold Craxton – Delius’s Cello Sonata; Dame Ethel Smyth – overture to The Wreckers

I couldn’t let this Delius anniversary year pass without a selection of his recordings from 78s. These range from acoustics conducted by Eugene Goossens III through some early electricals with Geoffrey Toye up to post-war records by John Barbirolli. There’s one filler side from Barbirolli which is not by Delius. There’s also the early electrical […]

Albert Ketelbey – Massenet’s Angelus and Luigini’s The Voice of the Bells; Hamilton Harty – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Overture, overtures to Stanford’s Shamus O’Brien and Rossini’s Barber of Seville

Now we head back to the early 1920s for three English Columbia acoustic discs, featuring two of Columbia’s regular conductors: Albert W Ketelbey and Hamilton Harty. The reason for grouping these together is a little confusion in the catalogues as to who is conducting on one of the records. Massenet – Angelus from “Scenes Pittoresques” […]

Lilian Bryant conducts and plays the piano

This update is by way of tribute to one of the significant contributors to the UK recording industry. Lilian Bryant was a pianist and conductor, and was the musical director of the Pathéphone Company, Ltd. in London. There are numerous orchestral recordings on which she is the conductor, including several popular overtures. She is likely […]

Carl Schuricht – Die Fledermaus overture; Franz André – Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers, Suppé’s Poet and Peasant overtures

To welcome in the New Year, I’ve transferred Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus overture in an early recording by Carl Schuricht, and as an extra, a pair of overtures by Suppé and Offenbach, conducted by Franz André. J. Strauss II – Die Fledermaus – Overture Berlin State Opera Orchestra, Carl Schuricht (credited on label as “New […]

Marguerite d’Alvarez – Silent Night, Habanera, Ai nostri monti (with Giulio Crimi); George Baker – Toreador Song, Il balen

Aeolian Vocalion records are the source for a quintet of vocal recordings in time for Christmas. They also serve as a little coda to the pile of Carmen recordings that I posted here in October. The English-born contralto, Marguerite d’Alvarez, sings Silent Night, and then the Habanera from Carmen, and, with tenor Giulio Crimi, “Ai […]

Carmen excerpts: 1920 Columbia abridged recording; highlights on LP from Walter Goehr and Erasmo Ghiglia; orchestral and choral excerpts – Weingartner, Pitt, Maclean, Ronald, Sabajno, Matacena, Mackenzie-Rogan, Weissmann, Coates; excerpts from 1911 Pathé recording; other vocal excerpts in French, English, German, Italian and Russian

It has taken a long time to prepare this update, which focuses on Bizet’s Carmen. The centrepiece is the abridged 1920 Columbia set on 10” records. This is complemented by two LPs of excerpts from the 1950s, and then a wide selection of 78s of orchestral and vocal excerpts, whether in more or less their […]

Shakespeare recordings by pupils of the Guildhall School of Music, Basil Maine and John Gielgud; Albert Coates conducts Siegfried’s Funeral March

Today marks the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death, and is also St. George’s Day. To mark the first of these, there are two quite different Shakespeare recordings from 78s, which are linked by a review in Gramophone magazine. Then there’s a set of Linguaphone recordings of John Gielgud performing Shakespeare. This is different to […]

Brahms Intermezzi played by PM Ireland; Vocal gems from Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl; Lulworth Cove – Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra – Charles Williams

While a big project slowly progresses, I’ll be posting occasional smaller updates. This latest includes three very different records, embracing opera, orchestra and piano. Balfe – The Bohemian Girl – Vocal Gems: Light Opera Company: Sopranos: Della Baker, Helen Clark, Erva Giles, Emily Stokes Hagar, Olive Kline, Lucy Isabelle Marsh, Gladys Rice Contraltos: Edna Indermauer, […]

Dolores Wilson – Lucia di Lammermoor, sextet and mad scene; Joan Sutherland – Lucia mad scene; Toscanini conducts Bizet’s Farandole (La Scala Orchestra, 1921)

Today would have been Dame Joan Sutherland’s 84th birthday. It is also exactly four weeks after her death. It seems apt to mark this with one of her earliest discs. Her Lucia di Lammermoor mad scene from 1959 was issued as part of a recital disc,  but also was issued on a mono 45rpm record. […]

Aida excerpts and other items with Sydney Rayner, Eva Turner, Giovanni Inghilleri, Tina Poli-Randaccio, Agustarello Affre, Jane Marignan, Frank Mullings, Elsa Stralia, Andreina Beinat, Vincenzo Bettoni, Valentina Bartolomasi, Guido Fernandez, Rosita Pagani, Enrico Trentini, conducted by Beecham, Haarth, Albergoni, Barbirolli, Sabajno, Harty; Mackenzie-Rogan, Coldstream Guards Band – Orth, Tchaikovsky; Stanley Chapple – excerpts from Stravinsky’s Firebird; Franz André – Liszt, Richard Strauss

When you have a lot of free time, it sometimes turns out that the things you planned to use it for just don’t happen. Such was the case with my summer holidays. This is why it’s been two and a half months since the last update. I hope the new selection proves interesting. I’ve been […]

Gordon Jacob’s William Byrd Suite – Coldstream Guards Band (1925); Stanley Chapple – Brahms Hungarian Dances, Elgar Pomp and Circumstance No.1; Franz André – Eric Coates, Elgar, Gershwin; Frieder Weissmann – Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung; Arthur Meale – Thalberg’s “Home Sweet Home”, Ascher’s “Alice, Where Art Thou?”; Capiton Zaporojetz – The Song of the Flea, Drinking (In cellar cool); Early recordings by Julie Andrews

It’s been more than a month since my last update, so there are quite a number of items to add this time. The recordings range from acoustic 78s through to mono LP, and include military band, orchestra, piano and vocal recordings. Gordon Jacob – Suite by William Byrd Mediafire link for Jacob – William Byrd […]