Rating: - Gilbert & Sullivan at their best!
This is the best recording of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Gondoliers" ever recorded! The diction is excellent and the singers are amazing. It has really helped me get ready for the production of "The Gondoliers" I'm in with The Utah Light Opera Company.

---

Rating: - Good later G&S
The Gondoliers was the last Gilbert and Sullivan opera to be a great popular success; listening to this version of the opera as performed by the D'Oyly Carte shows why: it is a highly entertaining score, with warm characters and a lot of humor.

This CD contains excellent performances by John Rath as Don Alhambra, Jill Pert as the Duchess of Plaza-Toto and the usual fine comic performance by Richard Suart as the Duke of Plaza-Toro.

The score is particularly fine, with Sullivan ... Read More

---

Rating: - Definitive
Sullivan's score to The Gondoliers has been the object of a good deal of tampering over the years, and as is the case with all of the D'Oyly Carte's more recent efforts, an attempt has been made to return to the autograph. What we hear in this set is Sullivan's original introduction, minus the cachuca which was tacked on in the 1930s. The original is vastly more effective. There are other points of interest, such as the almost supernaturally crisp chorus - sample them in the "Thank you gallant gondolieri" ... Read More

---

Rating: - the best choice so far
There are two strong rivals for this set. The early electric set transferred from 78 rpms onto Pearl CDs is suberb--the closest we will ever get to what Gilbert wanted in articulation and characterization and to what Sullivan wanted in vocal style--but is of course subjected to the sonics state of the art circa 1930. But to understand what this opera is all about, this is the choice of choices! The complete version on Decca has all the dialogue...which might or might not be a Good Thing on repeated hearings. ... Read More