Patience (1961) by John-Michael Sherrick

At least in English-speaking countries, Sir Arthur Sullivan's series of operettas composed to libretti by Sir William S. Gilbert remain the only Victorian comic operas performed today. For about a hundred years, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was the leading performers of the G&S canon, developing a performance style forever associated with the operettas. The DCOC really wasn't an opera company... it performed only operettas and many of its singers weren't classically trained singers (although a few alumnae went on to successful operatic careers). Still, their performances are synonymous with traditional performances of G&S. Their 1961 recording of Patience even includes the operetta's complete dialogue.

On the positive side, there is certainly a sense of fun and theatricality that one doesn't hear on G&S recordings made by non-G&S specialists. This isn't presented as some sort of down-market opera or glorified musical comedy or museum piece to be reverenced but not touched. At the best moments, the dialogue sparkles, the singing sounds as if it's sung by the characters, rather than a group of singers in a studio, and the orchestra carries the along the score at a vibrant pace. Then, of course, there's the fact that one's listening to a theatrical company that at the time of this recording had been performing Patience for 80 years... there's an intangible sense of confidence and tradition in the performances... a delicate balance between reverence for the past and making a classic theatrical work alive for a new audience.

On the negative side, the recording's selling point is also its main drawback. The DCOC's singing, quite frankly, isn't always easy on the ears. It's not that the performances are bad... it's simply that the DCOC is something of an acquired taste and a taste that I haven't yet totally acquired. Listening to their performances always leaves me with a sense of frustration. Obviously, unlike a DVD, one can only listen to a cd. Is this the best way to show off Sullivan's music? I'm not convinced that it is. On a cd, the music is the main appeal and really gives the attentive listener the opportunity to hear the care with which Sullivan lavished his comic opera scores, an artistry which especially shines in Patience, which I believe to be one of his most delicate and lovely scores. Sometimes the DCOC approach works. Mary Sansom in the title role conveys a certain fragility and sweet youthfulness in her waltz song, "Love is a Plaintive Song" that an opera singer probably wouldn't convey. It's one of the highlights of the set. As usual, Phillip Potter's clear Irish tenor charms the ear and John Reed's patter songs are funny and adroitly performed. But none of this changes the fact that the recording is performed by singing actors and the cd ends up, I think, being less a recording of G&S's Patience as it is a document of the DCOC's performance style.