This disc, under its original title of H.M.S. Gilbert & Sullivan, presents substantial excerpts from the three most popular G&S operas. The selections are as follows:

H.M.S. Pinafore

"We sail the ocean blue" (Chorus)

"I'm called little Buttercup" (Rawlins)

"The nightingale" (Freeman and Chorus)

"A maiden fair to see" (Freeman and Chorus)

"When I was a lad" (Shilling and Chorus)

"Never mind the why and wherefore" (Johnson/Shilling/Hayes)

The Pirates of Penzance

"Pour, O pour the pirate sherry" (Chorus)

"When Frederic was a little lad" (Rawlins)

"Oh, better far to live and die" (Johnson and Chorus)

"Oh, is there not one maiden breast" (Freeman and Chorus)

"Poor wandering one" (Hayes and Chorus)

"I am the very model of a modern major-general" (Shilling and Chorus)

"When the foeman bares his steel" (Johnson/Hayes/Shilling and Chorus)

"Stay, Frederic, stay" (Hayes/Freeman)

"With cat-like tread" (Johnson and Chorus)

The Mikado

"A wand'ring minstrel, I" (Freeman and Chorus)

"As someday it may happen" (Shilling and Chorus)

"Three little maids" (Hayes/Lattimore/Zamora and Chorus)

"Braid the raven hair" (Lattimore and Chorus)

"The sun whose rays" (Hayes)

"Here's a how-de-do" (Hayes/Freeman/Shilling)

"A more humane Mikado" (Johnson and Chorus)

"Beauty in the bellow" (Rawlins/Shilling)

"He's gone and married Yum-Yum" (All)

The 1994 re-issue, under the title Operettas: The Greatest Hits, includes all the above items, plus overtures to Die Fledermaus, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Beautiful Galathea, Light Cavalry, The Gypsy Baron, and Orpheus in the Underworld, plus the marches from El Capitan and from Babes in Toyland. Various orchestras are credited for these items.

Mel Morati submitted the following review:

I first encountered the original Pro Arte release in about 1985, when it got a wonderful five star review from one of the major American CD review magazines — I forget which magazine — it no longer exists. The magazine itself was never very reliable — often giving five star reviews to some absolute garbage. However, I have the CD in its "reference gold" repackage. It is extremely good. All soloists are in excellent voice, especially the women. Eric Shilling tends to punctate each word with a bit too much gusto, and Carroll Freeman tends to take sentimentality to the extreme, especially in his Pinafore extracts. These are small nitpicks. The Mikado's song is a highlight (there are appropriate changes in the text). The orchestra is beautifully recorded, with some absolutely beautiful wind playing by the Rochester Philharmonic. The one major disadvantage in the reissue version is that not one soloist is credited. The Merry Widow extracts are performed by the Vienna Folk Opera with no mention of soloists either.