Gilbert and Sullivan - The Sorcerer - the 1877 music

Though men of rank may useless seemFor the intervals of the series of Savoy Operas broadcast in 1989, the BBC commissioned David Mackie to give interval talks about each opera.
The most interesting of these were those where the versions we know today are different from those originally performed. This enabled Mackie to have recordings made of some of the "lost" music.
In the case of 'The Sorcerer' we have the music which was removed at the revival in 1884. The revival added an overture in place of the 'Graceful Dance' from Sullivan's incidental music to 'Henry VIII' and a new opening chorus for Act Two.
David Mackie was born in Greenock in 1943 and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham, before joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as repetiteur in 1975.
He was promoted to chorus master and associate musical director in 1976, serving until the closure of the Company in 1982. He has the distinction of conducting the last full performance of a Gilbert & Sullivan opera with the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company:a matinee performance of H.M.S. Pinafore on February 27, 1982.
Since 1982 he has worked as a freelance accompanist, repetiteur, and conductor. In collaboration with Sir Charles Mackerras he reconstructed Arthur Sullivan's "lost" cello concerto.
He has worked with the London Opera Players, the London Savoyards, and New Sadler's Wells Opera, and has been musical director for many concerts, operas, operettas, and pantomimes. In November 2000 he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a chorus of 500 in a Royal Albert Hall concert commemorating the centenary of Arthur Sullivan's death.
In 2005, Mackie researched and edited "Arthur Sullivan and The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain," a volume produced for, and published by, the Royal Society and drawn from the proceedings of the Society's 145th Anniversary Festival Dinner (in 1883) and other papers relating to Sullivan in that organization's archives. More recently, he has chronicled his experiences in the last years of the D'Oyly Carte (1875-82) in a memoir entitled "Nothing Like Work, or Right in the D'Oyly Carte" (Grosvenor House, 2018).

[@richardallen3810]

Thanks Chris, Always fascinating to hear something new.

[@robertwhittaker5477]

Thankyou once again for another series of exceptionally interesting recordings. It's fascinating to see how much the 'standard' versions now performed of many of the operas differ from the piece as first envisaged, and even as performed on the 'First Nights'. Sometimes these changes could substantially affect the overall mood of large sections of the work, - of which the alterations to the end of Act I and the beginning of Act II of 'The Sorcerer' here are a good example, making the tone significantly darker and portraying the administration of the 'philtre' as distinctly more sinister.
In connection with another 'lost item', when I was at school, [now many years ago!] we put on a production of 'Patience', for which we were able to obtain the score and orchestral parts for the Duke of Dunstable's song "Though Men of Rank May Useless Seem", which was still then (in 1973) I think subject to copyright as it had never actually been published. Fortunately, as it was a school production the then holders of the copyright were sympathetic and allowed us to include it in the performance, so it is particularly interesting to hear it properly professionally performed in one of your other similar 'posts'.

[@webrarian]

Thanks, Robert. The reason why the 'Ruddigore' talk is complete is because I co-directed it when at Royal Holloway College in the late 1970s. Having grown up with the 1966 BBC version, I wanted to use the original overture and finale. This meant a trip to the D'Oyly Carte offices at the Savoy to collect it! You can hear the result in another of my posts.

[@karldelavigne8134]

I thought the last copyrights expired 50 years after Gilbert's death, in 1961. So, by 1973 wouldn't this song have been in the public domain? I realise that, as it hadn't been published, you still needed the goodwill of the D'Oyly Carte archive to be able to access it.

[@robertwhittaker5477]

In 1973 that certainly was so for Gilbert's words, but in the case of previously unpublished music I believe that the - [still existing, as I understand] - estate of Sir Arthur's nephew, Herbert Sullivan, continued to hold the rights, [and may well still yet do so!] It is their generosity to which I referred. We of course also took the precaution of ensuring that Bridget D'Oyly Carte and the officers of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Trust were content to approve the use of both words and music. @@karldelavigne8134

[@karldelavigne8134]

@@robertwhittaker5477 That sounds very diligent and really rather impressive for a school production. I imagine then that there must be some variation in copyright law between published and unpublished music, much as must have been the case with the sketches for Elgar's third symphony and the first version of Vaughan Williams's London Symphony. I hope the Duke's extra number did not go unnoticed by the audience.

[@AG-ni8jm]

Do you have The Sorcerer 1989 broadcast?

[@webrarian]

No, only the 1966 broadcast.

[@AG-ni8jm]

@@webrarian okily dokily ✌️