The 1930 D'Oyly Carte Patience

Cast Colonel Darrell Fancourt Major Martyn Green Duke Derek Oldham Bunthorne George Baker Grosvenor Leslie Rands Lady Angela Nellie Briercliffe Lady Saphir Marjorie Eyre Lady Ella Rita Mackay Lady Jane Bertha Lewis Patience Winifred Lawson Conductor: Malcolm Sargent Recorded in London, September 24 - November 11, 1930

Sounds on CD VGS 244 [Cover by Matt Bland]

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This recording was the last of three issued in the busy year of 1930. It features important historical singers in nearly all the roles and is a vital document of one of D'Oyly Carte's best periods. Of special note, this was the recording debut of Martyn Green. Green is best remembered for his interpretations of the comic leads, but in 1930 he was still understudying Henry Lytton and playing small parts. (Historically, the principal comedian's understudy always played the Major; on the 1951 recording, Peter Pratt took the part.)

[THE GRAMOPHONE, January, 1931, (Vol. VIII); pg. 391]

The Gilbert & Sullivan News — December, 1930

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It may go without saying that the technique of the recording shows an incomparable advance upon that of the ten-year-old series that preceded it. The delicacy and refinement of the instrumentation stand clearly forth all through, together, I am glad to say, with a precision of execution and accuracy of tempi that the careful François Cellier would assuredly have approved. Another welcome feature is the quality of the choral tone, alike in girls and men; for I can fairly say that it is quite up to the best Savoy standard, new as well as old. Neither is rhythm or spirit lacking, while the words of the "twenty love-sick maidens" impinge upon the ear as incisively as those of the "heavy dragoons." Of the principals, Mr. Baker and Miss Lewis strike me as carrying on the true traditions most faithfully. It is better under these conditions to listen to a Reginald Bunthorne, who can sing as well as he acts, than merely to have a good comedian in the part of the "fleshly poet." If, as a gramophile, I had to choose between the late George Grossmith, Sir Henry Lytton, and Mr. George Baker, I would not hesitate to take the last-named. He is an accomplished vocalist, and knows how to sing his music, besides lending it the necessary character and touches of humour. His patter is superb because, no matter what the speed, every syllable comes out as clear and neat as if he were talking. This, too, is where he surpasses that clever artist, Mr. Darrell Fancourt, whose method is too explosive for microphonic purposes, and he is consequently indistinct. On the other hand, Miss Bertha Lewis, with her imperturbable sostenuto and pellucid enunciation, offers a model that the whole company might profit by imitating in the more sedate passages of the opera. To some extent Miss Briercliffe seems to achieve this; but the tones of Miss Lawson's thin soprano voice only grow more acidulated as time goes on, and her recording timbre, which may recommend itself to some judges on account of its penetrating quality, sounds to my ears so pinched as to be at times positively unpleasant. In the theatre it is certainly less so, thus proving that a singer of this type has little reason to be grateful to the amplifier. On the whole, however, it must be allowed that the last-named, whether instrument or individual, has obtruded only to an infinitesimal degree in the making of this admirable version of Patience.

HERMAN KLEIN.

Issue History

Recording Details

Recording Sessions

Notes:

1. The table above shows the published takes in the order recorded. Where a session produced both unpublished and published takes for the same selection, the unpublished matrix numbers are shown in italics. Where none of a selection's takes from a given session were published, the entire row is shown in italics, and the side number is blank. Where it is not possible to make a likely guess about the number of takes recorded at a session, this is indicated with .... Where the published take was achieved without a make-up session being required, the unpublished takes for the same selection are not shown.

2. The schedule of sessions for this recording is relatively straightforward. The opera was recorded on four dates across a two-week span in Sept-Oct 1930, with just two sides requiring retakes at later sessions. The first or second take was published for all but three sides, and it is curious that two of those three were Winifred Lawson's solos.