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I can only say that I have been listening almost every day to this recording and don't find the orchestra or any vocal performances a bar to great enjoyment. I think a fuller orchestra would have been any nicer and richer, but I've really enjoyed this. The BBC broadcast of extracts has a fuller orchestra, but I only intermittently listened to it in the years when it was all I had. Listening to the full opera without breaks is really satisfying. I'm not meaning to deny what people above said they felt, but to point out that for some of us this is a very enjoyable release that bears repeated listening.

Wonderful to see this work being discussed and I'm afraid I was unaware of the McAslan and Little recordings: they are both soloists i admire, so I'm rather tempted to get both.

By coincidence, I was discussing this work in class here in Japan this week. I'm teaching a class on British Performing Arts and this week was orchestral music. Students had to listen to a work of their choice from a list and this was one (some enjoyed it, others found it dull, but I was rather pleased that any 18-20 year olds here are able to respond to orchestral music.

Other works I gave them were: Smyth's double concerto, Brian's 13th symphony, VW's 4th symphony and Stanford's Irish Symphony.

I believe a recording is scheduled to follow it.

Dutton definitely have one really big British project in the can. Not sure whether I should say more yet, but it suggests that reports of them losing interest in British music may be wrong. This year alone they have released The Mountebanks, The Light of the World, The Vision of Cleopatra, all major scores that no one had expected to hear.

So saying, the release I have heard of is possibly a bit late for the rules of this forum.

Great review, Kevin, and I'd second all the sentiments. I think I'll be often listening to this opera, which is by no means the case with every new-to-me work that I get these days. It's thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

I saw it quoted in Gramophone, I think, in an article about violas. The writer showed no awareness that Forsyth had himself written a viola concerto.

This is very interesting! One of the earliest British viola concerti (I think it's been claimed as the earliest, but McEwen's is older by a year or so). It's also interesting that the rather odd Forsyth seems to have said some incredibly rude things about the viola as an instrument in later years. I'm afraid I don't have a reference.

Got my copy of The Traveling Companion before the super typhoon which is going to keep me inside for the weekend. My first impressions are very positive. I knew much of the music from the broadcast, but hearing the whole thing gives a great sense of unity. The orchestral sections are more considerable than I imagine too, and these and the choral sections are extremely fine. I think this is one of those operas with a good claim to be the best, or one of the best, British opera between Dido and Grimes.

I shall be gobbling it up as soon as it reaches Japan. I have ordered direct from Somm. There will never be a Stanford release I won't order, until I die, and the first recording of a Stanford opera is an especial treat. I can only hope for more (especially Much Ado and the Critic) as well as recordings of more of the big choral works like Eden

I must agree that I would love to hear The Prison. With the forthcoming release of Fete Galante on Retrospect Opera, we are getting much closer to having Smith's major works available. A Chandos 'Smith Edition' could include some of the slightly shorter pieces like Antony and Cleopatra. Of course Chandos already released the serenade and the concerto  some years ago.

I can't get that excited by a new recording of the Mass, though. It's a fine enough work, but I listen far more to the operas and the concerto.

Another interesting release from Retrospect Opera is a new disc of three Dibdin pieces: The Jubilee (written for Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769), Queen Mab (composed for the festivities in Stratford) and Ratchet Mead, much later, but also Shakespearean. As always, fine performance and recording quality as well as extremely informative notes. Dibdin really was a bit of a melodic genius and it's really good to hear such a substantial work here. I must confess to a slight bias, as I share a birthday with Garrick!

I love the Stanford Requiem, grave and passionate. Of his Latin liturgical settings (along with the Stabat Mater, Mass and Te Deum) it's the one i listen to most.

Holbrooke definitely had a love of the popular. All those variations on extremely well-known and easy tunes like Three Blind Mice, Auld Lang Syne and of course the Ships Finale (I have an earworm of 'We'll go no more a-rovin'" now. I suppose he was more the Cockney Mahler than Wagner.

And if you haven't got The Mountebanks, I strongly recommend it. It's as good as the Savoy Operas in my view.

I've had it since it was released in January. It's a fine recording, but I have to say I don't find it as strong a work as The Mountebanks, which was released last year. If you are hoping for a second Mikado, I think you'll be disappointed. It has more resemblances to musical comedy. The music is gentle and pastoral and pleasant, but I fail to see how on earth it ran for over 900 performances. I've listened again and again to Mountebanks, but far less to Dorothy, though enough times to confirm this impression.


So saying: it's Naxos and only one disc, so not a huge price for a rare chance to hear what other composers were doing when Gilbert and Sullivan were dominating the stage.