Malcolm Sargent Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado (2-CD)

Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert and composer Arthur S. Sullivan defined operetta in Victorian England. The two men collaborated on fourteen internationally successful and timeless comic operas. Among the fourteen, EMI Classics presents six of their most famous operas: HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, The Mikado and The Yeomen of the Guard in a beautifully packaged box set. In their first two major successes, Gilbert and Sullivan established their winning formula of convoluted comic plots, sometimes biting satire, moments of sentiment and elegantly crafted, memorable music. Gilbert drew on his own legal training for the one-act Trial by Jury, while in HMS Pinafore the British class system and naval bureaucracy are mocked in sparkling fashion. The Pirates of Penzance is a high-spirited romp that irresistibly parodies the dramatic and musical gestures of Italian grand opera. The Gondoliers is a work of irresistibly sunny exuberance. Though set in Venice, the operetta satirizes both the snobbery and growing republicanism of 1880s Britain. Gilbert and Sullivan's greatest success, The Mikado, exploited the craze for Japanese culture that had been sweeping London in the years before its premiere in 1885. The Yeomen of the Guard, the most dramatic and romantic work in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon, reflects the nostalgia and patriotism stirred by Queen Victoria's golden jubilee in 1887