Orelsan Sama

This is one of the Decca stereo recordings of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas that does not include dialog. Thanks to the popularity of the work, it is familiar enough that missing the few plot points that occur in dialog doesn't hurt it. However, this is a somewhat disappointing performance and recording by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company compared to the others in this series of reissues. Longtime principal comedian John Reed is Ko-Ko.

Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras has always been a champion of the music of Arthur Sullivan. In the early '90's, he began to record the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas with Telarc. Like the Sargent recordings of the '50's, Mackerras uses mostly opera singers–veterans of Covent Garden and of the English and Welsh National Operas but he secured the services of two veteran Savoyards, Richard Suart and the late Donald Adams. Mackerras planned to record at least seven of the Savoy operas, perhaps more, but was forced to suspend the series due to lack of funding as I understand. This fine recording of The Mikado, fortunately, was one of the four he was able to complete.

The two most accessible studio LPs by the Brothers Four slot together perfectly, and are ideal artifacts of their era: upbeat and enjoyable (and totally inauthentic) presentations of folk songs and folk-type songs. The debut album is weighted just a bit toward novelty-type tunes – or at least folk material done in the style of novelty tunes – such as "The Zulu Warrior" and "Sama Kama Wacky Brown," and calypso. B.M.O.C.'s 12 songs are more diverse and sung with greater subtlety and sophistication, and constitute the group's best work on album.