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This recording was made by the ambitious,
and now disbanded, Lyric Theater Company of Washington, D.C.
Within a three-year period, the group produced note-complete
recordings, with dialogue mostly complete, of
Utopia Limited,
The Grand Duke, and
The Mountebanks. All three were profitable —
a model that modern societies would do well to emulate.
J. Donald Smith provided the following extensive review:
Like the other Washington Lyric recordings, that of The Mountebanks
combines a very good orchestra with enthusiastic performers whose singing
is usually good, but whose acting skills generally do not convey the depth
of characterization needed to adequately bring this most troublesome of
Gilbert's operas to life. The plot is the famous (or infamous) "Lozenge
Plot," which Sullivan consistently refused to set. His more famous refusals
brought forth The Mikado and
The Yeomen of the Guard, so we can not
criticize Sullivan too severely for his unwillingness.
As a dramatic work The Mountebanks derives more from Gilbert's
The Palace of Truth than any of the Savoy operas. Much of the opera
deals with human relationships, rather than any detailed plot, and how
artificial such relationships are when individuals are placed in a position
(by taking a potion) which forces them to become what they have only pretended
to be before. That Gilbert is able to take four such situations, interrelate
them, then resolve everything quite neatly is a tribute to his dramatic genius.
The flaw, such as it is, in the opera, is that the dialogue looks forward to
the Music Hall and to the Victorian and Edwardian Musical — with a lot of
rapid-fire one-liners — rather than having a lot of action. As such, the
dialogue needs drastic trimming before any performance could ever be done
again. All of the dialogue is present in this recording, and as performed
it simply does not help the opera's reputation. The music contains some of
Gilbert's best (and one or two of his worst) lyrics, and Cellier's music is a
joy to hear. The orchestra betrays its amateur origins only in a few exposed
string passages, but there seems to be a good deal more subtlety in the music
than the orchestra or singers convey here.
If one is fortunate enough to come across this recording, my recommendation
would be to make a tape of the music and cut the dialog. Otherwise,
unfortunately, it does not bear rehearing.
The original recording is on three 12" LP discs, with the Overture on a
separate 7" disc. Since Cellier died before the completion of the opera, the
conductor, Ivan Caryll, took the first movement from Cellier's Suite
Symphonique (composed ca. 1870) to use as the overture. Caryll
apparently orchestrated some of the numbers himself but it is not clear
whether or not he composed any of the music, except for one piece. The
song "Ophelia was a dainty little maid" occurs only in the Second Edition
of the Vocal Score, not the First, so it seems reasonable to assume that
it was a post-opening night addition. It is one of the highlights of the
opera, and it is unfortunate that Gilbert never took the opportunity to
collaborate again with Caryll, who became a major composer for the musical
theater in his own right.
Bruce I. Miller looks on the recording less favorably:
"I have this recording, and find it almost
impossible to listen to, as the orchestra playing is so bad and the
singing so amateurish. It really doesn't begin to do justice to the score."
John Pepper, who was in the chorus, adds:
Incidentally, we recorded The Mountebanks onstage in the auditorium of
St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in return for a free afternoon performance for the
inmates (some of us wondered whether Ezra Pound was in the audience!).
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