About our "Thespis" recording

The score of Gilbert & Sullivan's first full-length collaboration, "Thespis", was almost completely lost in the early part of the 20th century in a warehouse fire. Since then, the prospect of rediscovering the score, and the idea of re-envisioning "Thespis," have charmed and intrigued Savoyards far and wide.

Many have put pen to paper and tried to evoke the spirit, sentiment, and style of Sullivan's opus, but we feel that none has done a better job re-imagining the work than The Durham Savoyards, Ltd.'s own Alan Riley Jones. Exploiting only the inspiration of Gilbert's light-hearted libretto (and the score of the only remaining original number), Alan has re-created in tone and temperament the light opera genre of the mid-19th century. With humorous ensembles and sublime arias, he has composed work of true joy and majesty, a fitting tribute to the master themselves.

Featuring a cast and chorus comprising veteran Savoyards performers of recent years, conducted by the composer and accompanied by the incomparable Samuel Hammond, The Durham Savoyards, Ltd. present the world premiere recording of "Thespis", by Alan Riley Jones and Sir Arthur S. Sullivan.

The audio samples on this page have been excerpted from the full length, full quality recordings, and have been converted to MP3 files at 48 kbps for ease of downloading. You may be able to hear a slight loss of clarity. We hope you will enjoy this preview sampling and will consider purchasing the finished recording.

For more information about the original 1871 Gilbert and Sullivan version, see the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive's Thespis page. You may also wish to read this edited version of the complete libretto (PDF file), which is correlated to the Jones score and which contains further remarks about the new setting.