Original D'Oyly Carte Broadcasts

Reported by Chris Webster

Presumably, this broadcast included the overture to a fade out at whatever point they had reached by 8.45 and then a fade in from wherever they where at 10.30 until the end of the opera. This was the first ever live G&S broadcast. One of my cuttings shows a stage photo from this night in which the BBC microphones can be seen. The Radio Times for the week of 15th October 1926 carries a front page article by Lytton about the broadcast.

See the separate page for further details. My cuttings do not give the cast listings, so the following are courtesy of the web page:

(Go-To is not listed but would have been heard at least in the Act One portion and presumably played by T. Penry Hughes.)

This broadcast used D’Oyly Carte artists who were specially contracted by the BBC for the event.

[*] (A G&S Journal item from March 34 states that Stanford Robinson was the conductor, but both my original source and The Times radio listings give Hely-Hutchinson.)

G&S Journal, Vol 2, p. 132, carried an article entitled "Broadcasting the Operas" that commented on this and the next listed broadcast. Of interest to this item is "Those who listened will recollect that a voice intruded here and there to describe what was going on, while, occasionally, a little added dialogue helped to create a mind picture of some piece of business that otherwise would have been lost on the listener unfamiliar with the piece."

See the separate page for further details.

As with the 1926 Mikado broadcast, this relay featured whatever the opera had run to in Act One and Act Two between the above times. See the separate page for further details.

(Go-To is omitted in the Times listing but would have been heard at least in the Act One portion presumably played by L Radley Flynn.)

As before, this relay featured whatever the opera had run to in both acts when the microphones went live.

This was the first of three broadcasts this season.

It seems that Lytton hot-footed it from a radio studio to the theatre on this night, because a brief cutting states "...Lytton will be heard this evening ... singing 'I can't think why' .... This will be in the League of Mercy concert at 6.30pm organised by Lady Tree and George Grossmith. Incidentally it will be Sir Henry's first 'appearance' in a studio. He will also be heard ... at 8.15 when an act of The Gondoliers is to be broadcast."

(Annibale and Inez are omitted but these only appear in Act Two which wasn't broadcast. However Vittoria, who does appear in Act One, was also omitted and according to Rollins & Witts this was played by Elizabeth Nickell-Lean.)

"Not only the first opera to be broadcast in its entirety but also the first complete full-length play to be relayed from any theatre." Note that although the broadcast predated Henry Lytton's retirement, Martyn Green played Point.

This was actually the last night of the 1933 season and Lytton's farewell to the London stage. As usual it was unknown until the last minute what was to be performed, and even the usually stuffy BBC observed the mystery of this tradition and were not able to advertise the exact programme in advance. I'm not sure from Rollins & Witts whether their final date for this season, 21st January, refers to the final day, or whether the 21st was the first day of the last week of the season (this should be easy enough to ascertain from other sources). We can only assume that the cast will correspond with the R&W listings for this season, unless any understudies went on.

See the detailed series of articles on this performance kindly provided by Robert Morrison.

There is a note explaining why Lytton is still playing, as listeners will perhaps have become confused as the most recent broadcast had been a Lytton farewell. I wonder if that previous broadcast (less than a year earlier) being Act One had any bearing on this being Act Two?

(Pish-Tush is omitted. Presumably this was Rands. Go-To is omitted but was present in the previous Act Two broadcast, so either Rands sang it as Pish-Tush in the Madrigal and the omission was intended, or it was accidental, in which case per Rollins & Witts either Charles Cornford or Hugh Rowlands sang it. Have a look at Flynn's interesting entries in R&W, pp. 157/8.)

(Kate is omitted but Rollins & Witts give Kathleen Frances.)

Go-To is omitted. Presumably this was Flynn.

See the separate page for further details.

Judging by the orchestra credits in the Radio Times this would appear to be a joint DC/BBC "studio" recording rather than a broadcast from the theatre, presumably made a few days before the broadcast in a BBC studio near Oxford where the Company were appearing at the time.

As only the first act was broadcast on BBC Home service (which was the national radio station) the Radio Times did not detail Private Willis, who only appears in Act Two. However, Act Two was broadcast on the World Service (I am not sure if they carried both acts or just the second). Willis was presumably played (on the World Service only) by Fisher Morgan.

The casting of Lord Mountararat is most curious. Darrell Fancourt had given up Mountararat some three years earlier, and there is no record of him playing it during this season. However, this performance occurred during his final week with the company (which he didn't complete), so perhaps perhaps he was making a special guest appearance in the role for old times' sake, or maybe he even appeared at the BBCs request.

This was the first night of the revival so it would be quite an historic document if a copy could be found.

This was not broadcast live but was recorded on the afternoon of the date given before an invited audience so that it could be given a Christmas time broadcast on the evening of Sunday, 26 December 1954. With the expiry of the fifty-year copyright term, the recording has now been re-issued on CD.

I found Pratt disappointing on my first listening, but I have now heard several of his live recordings, and despite deciding in general that I was not a fan, on a more recent listening I warmed to him 'a little' (but not a lot). He appears to be very timid, and his pointing seems well thought out, but it seems more as though the timing of the comedy is in Pratt's head but is not extended to the listeners' funny bones (the baa-ing is in Ko-Ko's opening scene by the way, and the Little List includes "the daily diarist," or perhaps this should be "the Dale-y diarist," as this is obviously a pun on the popular BBC programme of the day, Mrs Dale's Diary (and it gets a good laugh). Griffiths had a heavier voice than I expected, knowing him only from his Decca recording. He gets a cadenza in "Flowers," which is not the same one that Kenny Baker uses. Adams was not yet the Mikado that he was to become. In view of his later performances I at first found him disappointing, although in reality I think he was probably still very good. On a second listening, I couldn't really see exactly what I found lacking in Adams and was much happier with him then. Skitch was as likable and solid as his recordings, but Drummie and Morgan were wonderful — particularly Morgan, who must be one of the best Pooh-Bahs ever. Joyce Wright is delightful; the other girls are OK.

The narrator is not the "Jon Ellison" who was a member of D'Oyly Carte.

It is worth noting that this was a last night performance, and so it is possible that neither the attending audience nor the listeners would have known what to expect, and it is possible that this may not have been an entirely conventional performance, although I don't know what "licence" the performers were allowed at last nights at this stage — they may still have been straight performances with the "specialness" being purely the surprise element. It seems that the BBC Home service (which was a national radio station) broadcast the only first act, whereas both acts were broadcast on the General Overseas Service.

This was a 40 minute cut in to the middle of the US TV programme Omnibus entitled "Scenes from The Pirates of Penzance," and the excerpts are not well constructed. Also the narration (by Alistair Cooke) is dreadful, but this is not the narrator's fault unless he wrote his own script. I have a copy of the soundtrack which has an amount of tape wobble, but the actual film does still exist and may be viewed by visitors to certain U.S. archives that hold copies. [It is in the Library of Congress; see separate article.]

I don't know the venue of this broadcast. It may have been from a TV studio, or it may have been from the theatre where the Company was performing, but whichever it was not done before a live audience, although it may still have been a live broadcast.

The items and timings are as follows. These clearly show what was missing, and the timings give an idea of how some items were reduced.

This was not broadcast live, but was recorded on the date given so that it could be given a Christmas time broadcast on the evening of Sunday, 23 December 1956.

I think this was broadcast live and not recorded at an earlier date for a later transmission, but am not entirely sure.

This exists in private collections, and several things stuck in my mind after my first listening. I was horrified to hear evidence that John Reed really did occasionally get out of time with the orchestra — and he was only playing Antonio! I quite smugly noted that not long after John's fluff, Tom Round got out of time even more horribly during "We're Called Gondolieri." Of course, I wasn't smug because it had happened to Tom, just that it had happened and was worse than John's error. To John's credit, his Annibale dialogue is delivered with the style of a natural old school G&S performer, and despite his earlier fluff it is no wonder that he went on to rightly achieve his own greatness, because you can hear it in this brief dialogue. Styler and Tom were both great together, and the girls were a good match, but I have to add that Joyce Wright is absolutely gorgeous (as she is in everything). Drummie was a highlight of the recording (and that comes from one who can't stand the roles of the Duke and Duchess). I do not particularly like Pratt's performance as the Duke. To me he comes across (here and elsewhere) as being far too introverted for the some of the comedy roles although his style does work in roles such as Robin and Point. That said, a friend who who has also heard this recording has nothing but admiration for his subdued style and finds them extremely intelligent portrayals. Sandford has an assurance that would make you think he had played the role for years, when he was actually fairly new to it. Two other particular points that stick in my mind concern encores. Sandford has an encore for "There lived a king" that is taken at what seems like twice the pace of the original. I wonder if this was traditional. If it was, it seems to have been discarded and forgotten about. Tom's encore for "Sparkling Eyes" is totally different in style to the original — far more dreamy. There are lots of encores for the Gavotte too, and the laughter is wonderful — I just wish I knew exactly what was going on. The narrator does explain some of the business, but obviously more is going on that he is describing.

The narrator is not the "Jon Ellison" who was a member of D'Oyly Carte.

This was the last performance before the copyright expired. The BBC then broadcast the Sadlers Wells Iolanthe a few weeks later.

This was not broadcast live, but recorded before an invited audience for transmission on 27th December. Film no longer exists (or, if it does, it has yet to be discovered), but happily after thirty-four years a copy of the soundtrack has been found. See the discussion on separate page.

This was from the Centenary Fortnight Season.

Chris wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Jeremy Stevenson, Stan DeOrsey and Leon Berger, for the many details they have added to this page.