Pinafore¨

Scottish Opera - Gilbert & Sullivan: HMS Pinafore (2016) {2CD Set Linn CKD 522}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 343 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 200 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 18 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Linn Records | CKD 522
Classical / Opera / Romantic / Musical Comedy

The Scottish Opera's live concert performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore was given at the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival, and the one-night-only show was well received by both the audience and critics. Featuring a charismatic cast including John Mark Ainsley as Sir Joseph Porter, Elizabeth Watts as Josephine, Andrew Foster-Williams as Captain Corcoran, Toby Spence as Ralph Rackstraw, Hilary Summers as Buttercup, and comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor as the Narrator, the production was especially noteworthy for conductor Richard Egarr's historically informed approach to the music.

The cracked window through which Stackridge gazed upon the pop scene of the mid-'70s offered one of the most idiosyncratic vistas enjoyed by any British band of the age, a blending of the softer rock moods that were then so thoroughly endemic, and a light orchestral gentility that would not truly find a commercial home for another two decades. Listening to Pinafore Days, in particular, one can see the infant High Llamas (to name but one) peeping out all over the place…

Produced by George Martin, The Man in the Bowler Hat continues Stackridge's brand of satiric rock marbled with elements of folk and to some extent, even country. The lyrics are just as witty as in their first two releases, and the poetry glistens with a jovial Englishness that became the band's most identifiable trademark. With Martin's help, though, the album became one of their better releases, as the music rises to the top before the words do, sounding fresher, livelier, and noticeably sharper than both their debut and 1972's Friendliness. Stackridge's best song, "Dangerous Bacon," was released as a single, and it's in this song as well as "The Galloping Gaucho" and "The Indifferent Hedgehog" in which their sound comes alive…