Gilbert and Sullivan - Utopia Limited - Act One (BBC 1966)

In 1966 the BBC recorded and broadcast the complete extant operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In the main, each role was performed by two artists - a singer and an actor.
At 12 noon on Sunday 26th June 1966, BBC Network Three broadcast 'Utopia Limited'.
The cast:
King Paramount, the First (King of Utopia) ... Peter Pratt
Scaphio (a Judge of the Utopian Supreme Court) ... sung by Derek Hammond-Stroud and spoken by Rolf Lefebvre
Phantis (a Judge of the Utopian Supreme Court) ... sung by Eric Shilling and spoken by Aubrey Woods
Tarara (The Public Exploder) ... sung by John Frost and spoken by Wilfrid Carter
Calynx (The Utopian Vice-Chamberlain) ... spoken by Frederick Treves
Lord Dramaleigh (a British Lord Chamberlain) ... sung by David Price and spoken by Hamlyn Benson
Captain Fitzbattleaxe (First Life Guards) ... sung by Kenneth Bowen and spoken by Peter Howell
Captain Sir Edward Corcoran K.C.B. (of the Royal Navy) ... Donald Francke
Mr. Goldbury (a Company Promoter, afterwards Comptroller of the Utopian Household) ... sung by Leslie Fyson and spoken by Frederick Treves
Sir Bailey Barre, QC, MP ... Edgar Fleet
Mr Blushington, of the County Council ... John Noble
The Princess Zara (eldest daughter of King Paramount) ... sung by Patricia Reakes and spoken by Sheila Manahan
The Princess Nekaya ... sung by Joanne Brown and spoken by Wendy Lovelock
The Princess Kalyba ... Jane Wenham
The Lady Sophy (their English Gouvernante) ... sung by Jean Allister and spoken by Margaret Gordon
Satana ... spoken by Elizabeth Proud
Melene ... spoken by Pamela Binns
Phylla ... Doreen Murray
The John McCarthy Singers
BBC Concert Orchestra (leader, Arthur Leavins), conducted by Stanford Robinson
Produced by Michael Moores
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[@karldelavigne8134]

This must be the first complete recording of Utopia Ltd. What a treasure.

[@michaeltravisano1161]

I believe Utopia Limited is Gilbert and Sullivans most underrated work. That used to be Ruddigore but I think right now Ruddigore is actually pretty popular.

[@Tenortalker]

What an unexpected find. Thank you for posting.

[@pauloftedahl9506]

Thank you so much for posting this! I never imagined I would get to hear this recording! Utopia is one of my favorite G&S operas, perhaps a bit more 'dense' than some of the earlier ones (it seems to take listening to it a few times to really enjoy and appreciate all the wonderful detail). The Act I Finale is really a treasure, as is Zara's entrance scene. Keep up the good work!

[@webrarian]

Thanks, Paul. I think my parents were quite unusual choosing to record this and 'The Grand Duke' back in 1966. But it enabled me to grow up know it really well.

[@robertwhittaker5477]

This was - almost certainly - the first complete recording of 'Utopia', - as was also the case with the BBC recording of 'The Grand Duke' in the same year. It is still for the BBC to explain why, as a public broadcaster - and at significant U.K. public expense! - having broadcast the entire canon only twice - [first in 1966 and then again in 1968] - they have withheld these recordings ever since, throughout the years thereafter, when no recordings whatever were otherwise available of either opera until the much later D'Oyly Carte recordings following the Centenary Season at the Savoy. These recordings are also of unique historical value in that they include Peter Pratt singing all the parts which he had previously sung with D'Oyly Carte, having succeeded Martyn Green as principal in the comic baritone roles, very few of which were otherwise recorded with him. In the early 1970s a - very poor quality - American set of L.P.s was made available in the U.K. of an amateur production of 'Utopia, Ltd', and such was the demand for -any! - complete recording that the issue was vastly oversubscribed.
It is also interesting that in this BBC recording the final chorus of Act 1 - "Let's Seal This Mercantile Pact" - is repeated: an amateur production with which I was involved in 1973 took the same approach, on the basis that it was far too good a finale to be allowed to be limited to 16 bars. Given that these Beeb recordings were [supposedly] based on 'the most authoritative sources' I hope that future productions will also feel free to take the same approach!

[@robertsharpe9587]

Actually I have vinyls of complete recordings of Utopia and Grand Duke dating back to around 1960 from a (very good) G&S company in Washington DC. However it is nice to have this professional recording available, complete with Peter Pratt, who was the principal D'Oyly Carte comic baritone between Martyn Green and John Reed.