The Ohio Light Opera Gondoliers (2007)

Cast
Duke of Plaza-ToroTed Christopher
LuizAdam Lloyd
Don AlhambraGary Moss
MarcoJack Beetle
GiuseppeNicholas Hartley
AntonioJoseph Valone
Duchess of Plaza-ToroSandra Ross
CasildaAnne Marie Frohnmayer
GianettaKemper LeCroy-Florin
TessaSahara Glasener-Boles
FiamettaDonata Cucinotta
InezJessie Wright Martin

Ohio Light Opera
Artistic Director: Stephen Daigle
Conductor: J. Lynn Thompson

Albany Records TROY915-16
Sony S2K-58895

This is the sixth of Ohio Light Opera's G&S recordings. I was disappointed with the early ones, and none of the reviews to come my way suggest that the series has improved, so I am saving my money. However, I do have one reader-contributed review (below) and would be happy to include others.

Review by Daniel Osborn

The Gondoliers is brought to life by the Ohio Light Opera's recording from their 2005 summer series. The conductor is J. Lynn Thompson, who musically speaking always puts on a great show. Ted Christopher is an outstanding character performer. I have seen him live on several ocassions now at OLO. His rendition of the Duke of Plaza Toro shines some light. His singing reminds of Richard Suart only because of the nasaly voice that he has. His wife, played by Sandra Ross, is a witty and entertaining Duchess. She is always there to take a crack at her husband. Both Giuseppe and Marco have wonderful voices.

I think that this is the best CD in the OLO's G&S series. They finally get a CD right, where we don't have to put in the second disk to hear the second half of Act 1 when there is still 20 minutes of play time left on the CD. That is one thing that I always hated about their recordings. I do like, however, that they put in the dialogue as well as songs. I think I can actually call this a complete recording, just as the title says. I may be biased here since I go to OLO every summer, but they do put on a good show and its always nice to hear them on CD.

Issue History
DateLabelFormatNumber
2007 Albany Records CD TROY915-16