MAVIS BENNETT (Soprano)
STUART ROBERTSON (Baritone)
THE WIRELESS CHORUS
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA
Conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON
ORCHESTRA
Overture, The Rival Poets'
STUART ROBERTSON and Chorus
The Yeomen of England (' Merrie England ')
THE setting of Merrie England is indeed merry, a land and an age when the sun shone and summer was truly summer. And the music is no less eloquent than the tale of the fresh, open air and smiling countryside. When it appeared in 1902, it was hailed with joy as a worthy successor to the long line of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas ; it is in every way worthy to take its place beside them.
MAVIS BENNETT
She had a Letter from her Love ('Merrie
England')
STUART ROBERTSON and Chorus
King Neptune (' Merrie England') MAVIS BENNETT
Who shall say that Love is cruel ? (' Merrie
England')
ORCHESTRA
Valse Gracieuse
CHORUS
Part Song:
My Bonnie Lass she smileth
Quartet:
Four Jolly Sailormen (' A Princess of Kensington')
MAVIS BENNETT
Twin Butterflies (' A Princess of Kensington ')
STUART ROBERTSON and CHORUS
The Song of the Devonshire Men (' The Emerald Islo ')
AFTER the success of The Rose of Persia, produced at the Savoy at tho end of 1899, Sullivan and Hood, his librettist for that work, embarked together on The Emerald Isle. Sullivan, however, died before his share of the task was much more than sketched out, and the music was completed by Sir Edward German ; the opera was produced in April, 1901.
Save for the expert, it is difficult to say which of the music is Sullivan's and which is German's. It is all full of that delightfully happy melody which made the Gilbert and Sullivan, and afterwards the German operas, the best things of their kind which the world possesses, and the music fits the text so closely as to form that completely satisfying unity which even grand opera only rarely achieves.
ORCHESTRA
Three Dances (' Henry VIII ')
MAVIS BENNETT and Chorus
Hey derry down (' Tom Jones ')
CHORUS
Here's a Paradox for Lovers ('
Tom Jones ')
Finale, Act I (' Tom Jones ')