D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY - The Essential Collection - Gilbert & Sullivan: Highlights & Overtures (2 CDs)

The glorious Gilbert & Sullivan partnership covered a twenty five year period from 1871 to 1896 during which they collaborated on fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these operas are undoubtedly 'The Mikado', 'HMS Pinafore', 'The Pirates Of Penzance' and 'The Gondoliers'. This compilation comprises a 'sampler' taken from our superb specially priced 10 CD set of nine G&S operas released by AVID (AMBX138) and a couple of excerpts from 'The Sorcerer' (AMSC799). The accompanying booklets to these releases provide fuller recording and plot details as well as information on the D’Oyle Carte members. The only work on our CD not associated with the G&S partnership is an early piece by Sullivan entitled Overture ‘Di Ballo’ composed a year before the first G&S collaboration. It is a charming and varied piece of light music containing dance rhythms of the polonaise, waltz and galop. The secret of the lasting appeal of the G&S comic operas lies in the abundance of crackin