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During the winter of 1940-41, the scenery and costumes for The
Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, Princess Ida
and Ruddigore were destroyed by the German blitzkrieg. For the
rest of the war, the Company toured a reduced repertory of only six or
seven operas. Naturally, the Pinafore scenery was rebuilt at the
earliest opportunity after the war was over, and it returned to the repertory
in August, 1947. Ruddigore received a new production on
November 1, 1949. Ida's return to the repertory came on
September 27, 1954.
Whereas Ida had been a repertory staple before
the war, its appearances after the 1955 revival were rather
less frequent. The Company tended to treat the opera as a special event
and often sought guest artists to play the title role. One
such artist was soprano Victoria Sladen, whose only D'Oyly Carte appearances
were in this one role, during the last three months of 1954. It was during
that period that this recording was made. One would expect a guest
artist to bring special talents to the role that the Company's
own sopranos lacked, but Sladen's recording of Ida is enormously
disappointing and seriously mars the contributions of an otherwise excellent
cast.
Decca LK 4092/3 |
Decca DPA 3053/54 |
London XLL 1200-1 |
Decca LKA 4128 |
Tom Shepard has described Sladen's
singing as having "an apparent elderly quality," while
Judy Neale adds:
If you think she sounds "elderly" on the recording, you should have seen her
on the stage—she actually looked young enough, but was stiff and wooden and
stood out from the rest of the company like a sore thumb. She actually was a
ringer from one of the opera companies, not a member of the DOC company. She
looked as though Central Casting had sent over someone to play Brunhilde instead
of Ida—all she needed was a winged helmet with long braids to complete the picture.
Tom Shepard adds:
Victoria Sladen was totally miscast, but for the rest, I think the '55 Ida
is pretty fine, and I'm still a sucker for Pratt, and for Leonard Osborn as Cyril.
It's got the absolutely most wonderful "The woman of the wisest wit," and I wish it
were available on CD.
Bruce I. Miller adds:
I agree wtih Tom about the '55 Ida recording; it's one of the best of
the early D'Oyly Carte LPs as to musical standards. The chorus and orchestra have
improved significantly from those of the late '40s/early '50s. It gives Peter Pratt
the opportunity to display his best work, in the role for which he was, perhaps,
best suited. And the conducting of Isidore Godfrey (an unjustly underrated music
director) is more effective than Sargent's was to be
ten years later. (The item which bothered me the most about the latter's work
was the second act quintet, "The woman of the wisest wit," which had the life
and energy of it effectively sucked out by his tempo and approach.) And I found
Fisher Morgan's work as Hildebrand both unique and quite wonderful in its way.
Too bad that Decca was still using that acoustically tight studio and miking, which
tended to stifle things, but overall it's a performance which has much going for it.
To Michael Walters's comments, Bruce had this reply:
I respectfully dissent from Michael's assessment of Godfrey's conducting (which he
calls "plodding.") My reaction is precisely the opposite, especially comparing it
to the 60's Sargeant recording, which really does
plod at times. Perhaps Michael is reacting more to the tightness and tubbiness of
the recording technique than Godfrey's tempi. Godfrey's tempos are, in fact, quite
brisk, and on the whole I find his overall interpretation to be eminently stage
worthy.
Michael also neglected to mention that, on this recording, the closing
chorus of the first act is sung by the men only, although Sullivan wrote it
for a mixed chorus. I suspect this had something to do with a perhaps
brief intermission between the first and second acts, and using men only
allowed the women more time for a costume change.
Michael mentions that he does not understand why the orchestral
bridges are missing in "Now hearken to my strict command" on the 1955
recording. This probably was done because the director decided to cut
the traditional step-kick dance in that production.
Sounds on CD VGS 235 |
The recording also excludes "Come, mighty must," and the reprise of
"Toward the Empyrean heights." The former was also omitted in stage performances
of the time. The latter no doubt was performed, but was left off of the
recording since it was merely a repeat. King Gama's Act II song was left
off of Decca's simulated stereo re-issue from the 1970s. Chris Webster
explained how this occurred:
It turns out that when Decca issued an LP in the 60s of patter songs from
the Green and Pratt recordings, instead of just dubbing from the master
tapes, they created the master for the compilation LP by snipping the songs
they wanted to use from the master tapes, then creating a submaster
from the newly spiced tape and then taking this apart and splicing the songs
back were they came from — except that they forgot to put the Pratt song
back. Can you believe this?? I was told this recently by someone who had
been a friend of Peter Pratt. Evidently Pratt had been furious with Decca
when he found out that one of his songs had been omitted from the DPA Ida,
and this is the explanation he was given.
This was the last of D'Oyly Carte's post-war monaural recordings,
a series made betwen 1949 and 1955. After just three years' break,
the Company would start the cycle over again with new series of
stereo recordings.
During the 1950's, Decca issued highlights of this recording (side 2), coupled
with highlights of the 1949 Pinafore (side 1).
The items included were as follows:
- Search Throughout The Panorama
- Now Hearken To My Strict Command
- If You Give Me Your Attention
- P'raps If You Address The Lady
- Gently, Gently, Evidently
- The Woman Of The Wisest Wit
- Whene'er I Spoke
- This Helmet, I Suppose
- With joy Abiding
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