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W.S. Gilbert & Alfred Cellier: The Mountebanks & Alfred Cellier: Suite Symphonique
[SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

W.S. GILBERT (1836-1911) & ALFRED CELLIER (1844-1891)

The Mountebanks (1892)
CD 1
Act I
1. Miserere! (Men’s Chorus)
2. We are Members of a Secret Society (Giorgio, Chorus)
3. Come All the Maidens (Chorus)
4. If You Please (Minestra, Risotto)
5. Only Think, a Duke and a Duchess (Minestra, Chorus)
6. High Jerry Ho! (Arrostino, Chorus)
7. Teresa, Little Word … Bedecked in Fashion Trim (Alfredo)
8. It’s My Opinion (Teresa)
9. Upon My Word, Miss (Teresa, Alfredo, Ultrice, Elvino)
10. Fair Maid, Take Pity (Teresa, Alfredo, Ultrice, Elvino)
11. Tabor and Drum (Nita, Bartolo, Pietro, Chorus)
12. Those Days of Old (Nita, Bartolo, Pietro)
13. Alfredo Hers? … When Man in Lovesick Passion (Teresa, Alfredo)
14. Oh! Whither, Whither … (Teresa, Alfredo)
Finale
15. Come and Take Your Places All (Chorus)
16. Attamen ex cunctis supra reliquisque notandum (Chorus)
17. Pretty Maidens (Arrostino, Chorus)
18. Come and Listen Pretty Ladies (Minestra, Chorus)
19. Now All You Pretty Villagers (Pietro, Chorus)
20. Appreciation of Such Skill (Alfredo, Pietro, Chorus)

CD 2
1. Entr’acte composed by Ivan Caryll (1861-1921)
Based on Alfred Cellier’s melody for Whispering Breeze
Act II
2. I’d be a Young Girl if I Could (Minestra, Risotto)
3. All Alone to My Eerie … Whispering Breeze (Teresa)
4. If I Can Catch (Teresa, Minestra)
5. Put a Penny in the Slot (Nita, Bartolo)
6. When Gentlemen are Eaten Up with Jealousy (Nita, Bartolo, Pietro)
7. When Your Clothes, from Your Hat to Your Socks (Pietro)
8. Time there Was (Arrostino, Chorus)
9. What Does this Mean? (Pietro, Chorus)
10. The Duke and Duchess (Luigi, Alfredo, Arrostino, Chorus)
11. Where’s My Duck-a-Deary? (Teresa)
12. In Days Gone By (Alfredo, Teresa)
13. So, I Have Found You (Ultrice, Alfredo, Teresa)
14. An Hour? Nay, Nay … When Hungry Cat (Ultrice)
15. Oh Please You (Chorus)
16. May it Please Your Graces (Pietro, Elvino, Alfredo, Ultrice, Bartolo, Nita, Chorus)
17. Accursed Sorcerer (Pietro, Chorus)
18. Ophelia was a Dainty Little Maid (Nita, Bartolo, Pietro)
Finale
19. Hope Lived … My Pride is Bowed (Teresa)
20. Hold! Stay thy Hand! (Ultrice, Teresa, Pietro, Chorus)
21. High Jerry Ho! (reprise) (Ensemble)

Download Text

ALFRED CELLIER (1844-1891)

Suite Symphonique (1878)
22. i Introduction – Allegro
23. ii Scherzo – Allegro
24. iii Romance – Andante moderato
25. iv Finale – Allegro vivace

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
SORAYA MAFI soprano - Teresa
THOMAS ELWIN tenor - Alfredo
JAMES CLEVERTON baritone - Arrostino
SHARON CARTY mezzo-soprano - Minestra
JOHN-COLYN GYEANTEY tenor - Risotto
CATHERINE CARBY mezzo-soprano - Nita
JOHN SAVOURNIN bass-baritone - Bartolo
GEOFFREY DOLTON baritone - Pietro
MADELEINE SHAW mezzo-soprano - Ultrice
MARTIN LAMB bass-baritone - Elvino

DANIEL COOK chorus master including soloists:
OLIVIA ROBINSON soprano
NANCY COLE mezzo-soprano
TOM RASKIN tenor - Giorgio Ravioli
ANDREW RUPP baritone - Luigi Spaghetti

BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by JOHN ANDREWS

Multi-ch Stereo
All tracks available in stereo and multi-channel

SA-CD
This hybrid CD can be played on any standard CD players

This is a revival of a charming light opera – the “G&S” opera that Sullivan didn’t write. W.S. Gilbert’s partner in the enterprise was Alfred Cellier, Richard D’Oyly Carte’s music director at London’s Opera Comique, where Cellier was experienced in conducting the nightly performances of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most successful operas. His closeness to the team included assisting Sullivan in the composition of the overture of The Pirates of Penzance. Thus, when in the late 1880s there came a pause in Gilbert & Sullivan’s collaboration, Gilbert had a new partner ready to step in and take the load. Sadly, it came too late for Cellier, who died on 28 December 1891, before he had finished scoring The Mountebanks. Ivan Caryll, music director of the Lyric Theatre, completed the work, which was first seen in January 1892, and would run for 229 performances with a provincial tour. This sumptuous recording – featuring the BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra and fourteen of the UK’s leading young operatic singers, all under conductor John Andrews’ expert direction – demonstrates that this late Gilbert opera with a different collaborator is a masterpiece in its own right. Cellier’s Suite Symphonique (1878) is also included, the fourth movement of which would later become the overture for The Mountebanks.
2CDLX7349

“... Gilbert collaborated with Cellier ... the fatefully ill composer did not live to see its successful premiere – but a delightful one [the late work], with no inkling of dark shadows looming in its catchy melodies, clever word-setting and deft orchestration.” “Andrews is a seasoned enthusiast for this lightweight, charming score ... the cast is ideal. Chorus members rejoice in the roles of Giorgio Ravioli and Luigi Spaghetti. Delicious!” Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times' Culture supplement, 22 July 2018

“This week’s essential new releases” The Sunday Times' Culture supplement, 29 July 2018

"... painstakingly edited from surviving parts, does the work more than justice, with John Andrew's sprightly conducting and SACD sound; the young but well-seasoned cast is so uniformly excellent ..." Mike Scott Rohan, BBC Music Magazine, September 2018

Product ID 2CDLX7349

Price: £23.99

USD: $30.02 approx EUR: €28.83
4,638 JPY

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3 Product Reviews - Average rating 5 / 5 (Show All)

The Mountebanks -Value for your coppers insignificant!

Maria Anthony - 10/29/2019

A subversive and hilarious libretto and a glorious score, performed and recorded with extraordinary skill. The additional Cellier material is also delightful.

Gilbert and Cellier - a winning combination!

GHB - 04/28/2018

Having acquired the G&S bug – and with it a particular and abiding interest in all things related to Sullivan – through school productions nearly 40 years ago, and having been impressed by the artistic and technical standards of Dutton Vocalion’read mores recordings of British music, it was really a foregone conclusion that I would order this release. That said, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect: would Cellier prove but a pale imitation of the master or would he emerge as a musician to be reckoned with in his own right?

It is a great pleasure to endorse the view of Ian B (the previous reviewer) that, on the evidence of The Mountebanks, Cellier runs Sullivan a very close second. I had a smile on my face from the first to last number of his delightful score. Given his close associations with Gilbert, Sullivan and the world of the Savoy Theatre, some of Cellier’s music is inevitably reminiscent of the older composer but the range of styles and emotions, not to mention the deft orchestration, displayed throughout his settings is testimony to his own distinctive voice and musical imagination. There is some beautiful woodwind writing (with, for example, memorable use of the flute and bassoon in counterpoint to the singers) and often striking touches of harmony and rhythm.

The success of the recording is due in no small measure to the dedication of Robin Gordon-Powell and J. Donald Smith in producing a modern critical edition of The Mountebanks. Ultimately, however, the opera’s fate rests in the hands of the performers and it is clear from the outset that those assembled for this recording are immensely strong advocates for such an unfamiliar work. The orchestral playing is of the top-notch standard one would expect from the BBC Concert Orchestra and (in common with Dutton’s production of Sullivan’s Macbeth and The Tempest in 2016) conductor John Andrews brings unfailing energy and drive to the performance. The soloists are almost uniformly excellent, although for me the highest honours go to Soraya Mafi in the role of Teresa. Her accuracy, purity of tone and vocal characterisation are outstanding. Other highlights among many include the concerted numbers involving Catherine Carby, John Savournin and Geoffrey Dolton as Nita, Bartolo and Pietro respectively (especially “Ophelia was a dainty little maid”) plus the sonorous contralto register of Madeleine Shaw in Ultrice’s “When hungry cat”. Only in Arrostino’s “High Jerry Ho!” does the singer sound a little under strain both in terms of range and keeping pace with the conductor’s brisk tempo although, to be fair, the piece lies rather high even for a true baritone.

With the bonus of Cellier’s attractive Suite Symphonique (I particularly love the central Romance) this release really could not be bettered. It is with great anticipation therefore that I look forward to Dutton’s recording of Sullivan’s The Light of the World, again with John Andrews at the helm.

Revelatory ...

Ian B - 04/24/2018

I have been well acquainted with Gilbert and Cellier's THE MOUNTEBANKS for many years. As early as the late 1960's I sang several numbers from the piece in concerts, including Alfredo's "Teresa, little word", "Put a penny in the slot" read moreand "Ophelia was a dainty little maid". In the 1970's I was given a tape transfer of the 1964 Lyric Theatre of Washington complete recording, which proved of interest, but did nothing to fire general enthusiasm for the opera as a whole. An amateur revival at Ramsgate in 1983 proved to be so bad as to do a fairly serious disservice to the piece and, in general, with the Lyric Theatre recording, served to colour my attitude to the piece as a whole. A production by the University of London Light Opera Group in 1992, given that the small cast were students and that there was piano accompaniment only, did little to sway the view. Later research into the production history of once popular, but now rarely produced shows seemed to indicate that, for some reason, I could not fathom, THE MOUNTEBANKS had sustained a higher place in the affections of amateur companies than Sullivan's HADDON HALL or ROSE OF PERSIA - certainly up until the outbreak of the Second World War.

My reaction to hearing, therefore, that THE MOUNTEBANKS was to receive a fully professional commercial recording was mixed. Yes, a recording of any of Gilbert's non-Sullivan operas was well deserving of the attention - but THE MOUNTEBANKS?

In the event, this recording is actually revelatory. That the opera was cut in performance is understandable as musically the piece runs to 122 minutes. When the dialogue is added on top this would have resulted in a very long evening. In its cut form, the libretto runs to 58 pages, just one page short of the libretto of THE GRAND DUKE - an opera that is often cited as being too wordy, but which in a good stage performance, actually is very stage-worthy. In THE MOUNTEBANKS some of the long passages of dialogue, such as the extended scene following Pietro's act one entrance, much of which is unnecessary to the development of the plot, merely hold the piece back and interrupt the momentum.

John Andrews and his forces give an extremely sensitive and highly enjoyable performance of the score, revealed for the first time in all its beauty. Cellier is revealed as being, if not an equal to Sullivan, at least a very close runner-up. There is some glorious detail in the orchestrations and some really splendid melody - and the extreme clarity and excellent balance of the Dutton recording brings out every corner of that detail. This recording whets the appetite for the promised release next January of Cellier's most famous comic opera, DOROTHY, on the Naxos label.

All credit to Robin Gordon-Powell and J Donald Smith for the tremendous amount of time and energy they have invested in researching the opera, and especially to Robin for the production of a new vocal score, full score and band parts which have been researched from a study of the original autograph manuscript, printed vocal scores and several sets of original band parts, thus producing a definitive orchestration. To Donald also, for his researches into the various states of the libretto during its long gestation period and arriving at what must surely be the most stage-worthy version of the opera to have been available for many decades. It is to be hoped that maybe some of the more adventurous companies, who still perform Gilbert and Sullivan and other pre-war pieces, may be persuaded by this brilliant recording, to reinstate THE MOUNTEBANKS to their repertoires.

The recording also gives us the bonus of Cellier's 1878 'Suite Symphonique', the fourth movement of which, in a slightly truncated and re-orchestrated form, served as an overture to THE MOUNTEBANKS. This, too, is a lovely piece and well worth inclusion, making the entire 2 discs set a generous 2 hours and 18 minutes.

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W.S. Gilbert & Alfred Cellier: The Mountebanks & Alfred Cellier: Suite Symphonique [SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

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Lewis Foreman – Recording British Music

The Mood Modern paperback

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Havergal Brian's Opera Faust

Steven Sondheim - A Little Night Music

David Raksin Conducts his Great Film Scores Laura, Forever Amber Suite etc. SACD Hybrid Multi-channel

Capturing The Masterpieces Schumann & Piatti Recording Jo Knight & Martin Yates and Royal Northern Sinfonia

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W.S. Gilbert & Alfred Cellier: The Mountebanks & Alfred Cellier: Suite Symphonique
[SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

David Raksin Conducts his Great Film Scores
Laura, Forever Amber Suite etc.
SACD Hybrid Multi-channel