This record holds a special place in my collection, being the one that I have owned longest — close to 27 years — without ever getting round to playing it. I guess it seemed a good idea at the time, £2.25 from Our Price on Bridge Street the same day as I got the Gregorian chant album, but by the time I was reunited with my record player a few weeks later, I was having my doubts.
A little more than a quarter of century later, I can't say I was looking forward to trying it out at last. Something about Gilbert and Sullivan now has a whiff of a more corseted England about it, like Flanders and Swann or Richard Stilgoe. I needn't have worried: it turns out to be perfectly reasonable stuff, smart and enjoyable (as I'm sure Flanders, Swann & Stilgoe are too) — particularly to an ear that's found an accommodation with comic musical theatre via Stephin Merritt.
Still, I'm not sure when or if I'll listen again.
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