Review by Dan Kravetz

Gala specializes in super-budget releases of opera performances taken from broadcast and "pirate" sources, such as a complete Wagner Ring (La Scala 1950) for less than $50. This 2-CD box set is selling at Tower Records for $8.99 at present, $1.00 off the normal price.

The performance appears to derive from the soundtrack of a 1968 German television production, and includes the score and dialogue virtually complete. Featured in the cast are two famous names — the California-born soprano Arleen Augér (1939–1993) sings Mabel soon after she became established as the Vienna State Opera's resident Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, and Martha Mödl (b. 1912), a familiar Brünhilde and Isolde at Bayereuth during the 1950's, is Ruth. The rest of the cast is in good voice, with expert choral and orchestral forces (the orchestrations are not Sullivan's) conducted by Franz Marsazalek.

My German isn't good enough to understand the translation, but there seem to be a number of liberties taken with words and music, with certain numbers transferred to the "wrong" characters, though the performance style remains solidly nineteenth-century. No libretto is supplied, but the booklet does give the German first lines of each musical number and each dialogue scene. Since all but the last ten or so minutes of the opera can fit on the first CD, the second disc is filled up with 21 bonus tracks, two of which are familiar "underground" G&S recordings — the Campbell's Soup commercial created by Martyn Green (though apparently never used by Campbell's) and the "Three Little Maids" performed on a Dinah Shore TV show with the hostess joined by Joan Sutherland and Ella Fitzgerald. The other bonus tracks feature silly mock-classical bits by well known opera singers and comedians, presumably also from radio and TV variety programs.

I spotted two errors in the notes by Kendall Clark — he names Angela Lansbury as Joseph Papp's original stage Ruth (she played the role only in the film adaptation) and describes Green as "the reigning star of the D'Oyly Carte company for many years before losing a leg in an accident in the early seventies." (Green left D'OC in 1951, lost the leg in 1959 and died in 1975.)

This is a lot of fun to listen to, even for those who know no German at all, and the low price makes it a real treat.

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Review by Fabian Fricke

I would even hesitate to call this German version a translation — it makes no attempt to be faithful to the original. While the plot in Act I generally follows the one we know and love (though dialogue and lyrics don't always), Act II has nothing to do with the original plot. Mabel, who has been carried off by the pirates at the end of Act I, falls in love with the dashing Pirate King. Seeking her father's consent, the Pirate King decides to become a banker to gain respectability. This pleases the Major-General, but not his daughter, whose love was born from admiration of his romantic lifestyle, not of his personality. When Frederic, following a suggestion from Ruth, becomes a pirate again and takes the leadership of the band, Mabel's love reverts to him. The Major-General is rather unhappy about this, but a solution presents itself: They learn that the soldiers who should capture the pirates (but never make a personal appearance) have instead stolen their ship and have become pirates themselves, and so the former pirates can take their places in the Navy under Frederic's command, which seems to satisfy Mabel's romantic notions.

It's definitely topsy-turvy, but it isn't Gilbert.

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Review by Ralph MacPhail

At under $10 for 2 packed discs in a double jewel case with a booklet, Die Piraten is a steal. The cast includes Arleen Auger and Martha Mödl, which is a curiosity in itself. But the real fun is in the twenty-one (21!) unadvertised bonus tracks, very little to do with G&S, a hilarious compilation of unlikely pairings of artists and repertoire. Martyn Green sings a 60-second patter song (à la Tom Lehrer) listing all the varieties of Campbell Soups; Joan Sutherland teams up with Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Shore (!!) in "Three Little Maids"; Mary Martin sings "Un bel di"; Marilyn Horne sings "People"; and there's a great routine by Jimmy Durante and Roberta Peters. What can you lose?

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Comments by Diana Burleigh

Last year one of our American s'netters posted information about a CD of Pirates in German. To my surprise I found a copy in a Melbourne CD shop — it must have stayed there for about 5 minutes as when I went back to see if I could get another copy for Chris Webster which he had asked me for, they denied all knowledge of them.

Anyway, earlier this year I did 2 programmes on the Melbourne Classical Music station in a series of singers of the 20th century. My part was singers who had sung G&S, either doing G&S or people like Martyn Green and Valerie Masterson singing other works and people not associated with G&S (eg Bryn Tefel) singing it. I thought I'd throw in a number from Die Piraten and chose the Wagnerian soprano Martha Mödl singing "When Frederic was a little lad." It was obvious that the translation was not strictly accurate, and I must have wondered exactly what it did say, as a listener has just sent me a translation:

When Frederic was 12½, he started to hang out in bars, drinking whisky. His father decided that he should go to work as a seaman. "Why should he go to school when he is getting those results?" He was to start straight away with a master seaman, a certain Mr King. "You can accompany him. You have my best wishes" That's how things began.

As a servant I was well-regarded. My cooking was always appreciated but I was a scatterbrain. I didn't listen properly and I could forget things. I mixed things up and you can guess that Frederic ended up neither as a sailor or a soldier. Instead of taking him to Mr King, I took him to the king of the pirates.

Things were in such a mess that I did not dare to return to my master. We are both still here with you after all these years. I cook and mend and I even help out on deck. I am a maid of all work. Frederic has grown up with you pirates and I might say that he has learnt life's lessons better than had he been a sailor or a soldier.

Now of course I want to find out how all the rest of the opera translates!

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The Bonus Tracks

The set includes twenty-one bonus tracks, mostly comical off-beat items, comprising the majority of the second CD:

1. "The Campbells." Martyn Green patters the full line of soups in a one-minute commercial.
2. "Three Little Maids." Joan Sutherland, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Shore.
3. "Butterfly." Noel Coward introduces and coaches Mary Martin in "Un bel di vedremo."
4. "Cathedral." Jan Peerce and Robert Merrill singing in Winchester Cathedral.
5. Samson et Dalila. Mae West and Armand Tokatyan sing "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" (1933).
6. "The Boy." Bossa Nova by Evelyn Lear.
7. "Night and Day." Cole Porter sung by Aksel Schiotz.
8. Mame. "Bosom Buddies" with Eleanor Steber and Blanche Thebom.
9. "Blue Danube Swing." Lily Pons (1938).
10. "A Big Brown Bear." Rosa Ponselle (1934).
11. "Swedish Traditional." Elisabeth Söderström (1981).
12. "Our voices were meant for each other." Helen Traubel and Jimmy Durante (1951).
13. Rossini, "Cat Duet." Leontyne Price and Regine Crespin.
14. "Marrianne." Marilyn Horne (1977).
15. "The Fireman's Bride." Jeannette MacDonald and Robert Merrill (1949).
16. Purcell, "Nymphs and Shepherds." Cathy Berberian (1973).
17. "An X-Rated Song." Ezio Pinza with the Budapest String Quartet (1943).
18. "The Ame & Skit." Ezip Pinza and Judy Canova.
19. "Bye, Bye Baby." Marilyn Horne and Carol Channing (1971).
20. "People." Marilyn Horne (1974).
21. "A Real Live Piano Player." Roberta Peters and Jimmy Durante (1965).

Ralph MacPhail wrote:

At under $10 for 2 packed discs in a double jewel case with a booklet, Die Piraten is a steal. The cast includes Arleen Auger and Martha Mödl, which is a curiosity in itself. But the real fun is in the twenty-one (21!) unadvertised bonus tracks, very little to do with G&S, a hilarious compilation of unlikely pairings of artists and repertoire. Martyn Green sings a 60-second patter song (à la Tom Lehrer) listing all the varieties of Campbell Soups; Joan Sutherland teams up with Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Shore (!!) in "Three Little Maids"; Mary Martin sings "Un bel di"; Marilyn Horne sings "People"; and there's a great routine by Jimmy Durante and Roberta Peters. What can you lose?

Chris Webster added:

Dead right. THe Durante/Peters sketch is a fab routine and is one that the Great Durante had been working for many, many years with various guest artists on his shows.

The version he did with Jolson was included in the 'Club Durant' LP (a compilation from radio broadcasts), and this album is where the routine with Helen Traubel, which is also on the Pirates CD, first appeared commercially. Some readers may not be aware that Helen Traubel played Katisha in the Groucho Marx TV Mikado. (What has happened to the promised Sony CD reissue of the soundtrack of this?)

The routine of 'A Real Piano Player' with Peters as heard on the Pirates CD is most likely from a TV broadcast, and AFAIK this is the first time that this version has been commercially issued. I was thrilled to hear it, although it doesn't come close to being as good as the Jolson version, which is one of my very favourite musical moments from recorded vaudeville.