John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights)

John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights)

John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights)
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CD Details

Performer: Frederick Harvey
Performer: John Cameron
Composer: John Gay
Composer: Edward German
Conductor: Gilbert Vinter
Conductor: Malcolm Sargent
Performer: John Wills
Performer: Anna Pollak
Performer: Constance Shacklock
Orchestra: Pro Arte Orchestra
Performer: Cynthia Glover
Performer: Elsie Morison
Performer: Alexander Young
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2003-08-05
Music Label: Class. for Pleas. Us
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Overture - John Wills
  2. Thro' All The Employments Of Life - Owen Brannigan
  3. 'Tis Woman That Seduces All Mankind - Alexander Young
  4. If Love The Virgin's Heart Invade - Constance Shacklock
  5. A Maid Is Like The Golden Ore - Constance Shacklock
  6. Virgins Are Like The Fair Flower - Elsie Morison
  7. Our Polly Is A Sad Slut - Constance Shacklock
  8. Can Love Be Controlled By Advice? - Elsie Morison
  9. O Polly, You Might Have Toy'd And Kiss'd - Elsie Morison
  10. I Like A Ship In Storms Was Tossed - Elsie Morison
  11. A Fox May Steal Your Hens, Sir - Owen Brannigan
  12. O Ponder Well - Elsie Morison
  13. Pretty Polly, Say - Elsie Morison
  14. My Heart Was So Free - John Cameron
  15. Were I Laid On Greenland's Coast - Elsie Morison
  16. O What Pain It Is To Part - Elsie Morison
  17. Fill Every Glass - Alexander Young
  18. Let Us Take The Road - Alexander Young
  19. If The Heart Of A Man - John Cameron
  20. Youth's The Season - Dance - John Cameron
  21. Before The Barn-Door Crowing - Dance - Anna Pollak
  22. At The Tree I Shall Suffer - John Cameron
  23. Man May Escape From Rope And Gun - John Cameron
  24. App. 1. How Cruel Are The Traitors - Monica Sinclair
  25. App. 3. When You Censure The Age - Owen Brannigan
  26. How Happy Could I Be With Either - John Cameron
  27. I'm Bubbled, I'm Bubbled - Monica Sinclair
  28. Cease Your Funning - Elsie Morison
  29. Melodrama: The Escape Of Macheath - John Wills
Music CD 2
  1. The Modes Of The Court So Common Are Grown - Alexander Young
  2. In The Days Of My Youth - Owen Brannigan
  3. Entrance Of Lucy - John Wills
  4. I'm Like A Skiff On The Ocean Tost - Monica Sinclair
  5. Come, Sweet Lass - Monica Sinclair
  6. Hither, Dear Husband - Monica Sinclair
  7. Which Way Shall I Turn Me? - John Cameron
  8. The Charge Is Prepared - John Cameron
  9. Macheath's Soliloquy - John Wills
  10. Would I Might Be Hang'd - Monica Sinclair
  11. Thus I Stand Like The Turk - John Cameron
  12. Introduction - Don't You Find The Weather Charming? - Gilbert Vinter & His Orchestra
  13. On A Januairy Morning In Zummerzetsheer - Nigel Brooks Chorus
  14. West County Lad, What Is't Ye Lack? - Nigel Brooks Chorus
  15. To-Day My Spinet, Closed And Idly Still - Cynthia Glover
  16. Wisdom Says 'Festina Lente' - Shirley Minty
  17. Madrigal: Here's A Paradox For Lovers - Shirley Minty
  18. Dream O' Day Jill - Cynthia Glover
  19. As All The Maids And I One Day - Shirley Minty
  20. A Soldier's Scarlet Coat - Nigel Brooks Chorus
  21. Love Maketh The Heart A Garden Fair - Cynthia Glover
  22. Morris Dance - Gilbert Vinter & His Orchestra
  23. Gavotte: Glass Of Fashion, Mould Of Form - Gilbert Vinter & His Orchestra
  24. The Green Ribbon - Shirley Minty
  25. If Love's Content Lie In The Spoken Word - Frederick Harvey
  26. Recitative And Waltz Song: Which Is My Own True Self... - Cynthia Glover
  27. Recitative And Waltz Song: For To-night Let Me Dream Out My Dream Of Delight - Cynthia Glover
  28. Hark! The Merry Marriage Bells - Shirley Minty

Music reviews of John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights)

Music Review: Mixed Feelings
Rating: 4 Stars

Bottom Line: Fabulous performance of both works, but only Tom Jones is eminently satisfactory.

This recording of The Beggar's Opera received a rosette in the Penguin guide, which I can certainly understand. It was recorded in 1955 -- one of the first stereo recordings ever -- and even today the sound is quite fine. The performance is also outstanding. Owen Brannigan, Monica Sinclair, Elsie Morison, John Cameron, and Alexander Young are all favorite singers of mine; this recording is further evidence why. All perform convincingly in their various roles, though Brannigan and Young don't have as much to do as I might have wished.

The Beggar's Opera is a "ballad opera," meaning it is more of a play punctuated with frequent songs rather than a series of musical numbers punctuated with dialogue. Often the dialogue is longer than the song which precedes it. Well, rather than risking having a flat performance of the spoken words, EMI chose to put various actors in the cast to speak the dialogue. This choice is dramatically compelling, though somehow the actors chosen to play Morison and Brannigan's characters (Polly & Mr. Peacham respectively) sound *nothing* like the singers. No matter, it all works regardless.

Well, then were is my reservation? That is in the opera itself. This is NOT Gilbert and Sullivan -- their operas were, as John Wellington Wells would say, "compounded on the strictest principles." The Beggar's opera is anything but compounded on the strictest principles. Though the Beggar warns us at the beginning that there is not an honest man or woman in his opera, it doesn't really prepare us for some of what goes on. Mrs. Peacham frequently uses an s-word to characterize her daughter (possibly the most morally upright person in the opera), Macheath is an almost polygamist womanizer, and Lucy is completely unwilling to give up Macheath to his wife. If none of this bothers you, the rest of this opera's moral failings will not either.

My fix to this problem was to use a sound editing program (Audacity) to cut out all of the dialogue in which most of this low-character is presented. The music itself has much charm that I wouldn't miss -- plus I want to get my money's worth. The musical numbers rarely last much beyond a minute and a half. They range from very good to just awkward (Polly and Lucy's duet "I'm bubbled, I'm bubbled" comes to mind as one of the weaker numbers).

But on to the coupling. This is what keeps me from regretting buying this CD. This performance of excerpts of Edward German's Tom Jones is fabulous. Granted, some of Sophia's songs are a bit on the sappy side, and Honour's Green Ribbon song seems to go on *forever* (as delightful as it is for the first two minutes), but on the whole this is truly excellent light music. "West country lad" is a rollicking song I'd not be without (and Frederick Harvey's is among the most virile baritone voices I've heard). The Waltz Song is lovely as performed by the sweet-voiced Cynthia Glover. The concluding "Hark! the merry marriage bells" puts a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan's finales to shame. All the performers exhibit great dedication and enthusiasm in this fabulous recording (if only they had recorded the whole thing!).

If your only interest is in Tom Jones, a complete recording has recently been released by Naxos: Edward German: Tom Jones.

Bottom line: The Beggar's Opera, performed as well as it is, is only a so-so piece best consumed without some of the morally-objectionable dialogue, but Tom Jones, a more enjoyable work, is given such a delicious performance that it balances out the flaws of the first half of the program.
More John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights) free music reviews:
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Description of John Gay: The Beggar's Opera; Edward German: Tom Jones (Highlights)

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