Scottish Opera - HMS Pinafore - Gramophone

It sounds like everyone involved was having a lot of fun. Richard Egarr, for example: who knew that he was such an affectionate Savoyard? This isn't a performance to break speed records but it's light on its feet, and the Scottish Opera Orchestra respond with warmth and grace. It was clearly one of those occasions where everyone plays off each other, and with a cast like this, the results are never less than engaging - whether it's the chorus, sighing in response to Elizabeth Watts's breathless ‘I love you' as Josephine in the Act 1 finale or the orchestra's delicious period-appropriate portamentos and Egarr's easy lilt as Hilary Summers's Buttercup lays out her wares. Summers is particularly adept at bringing out the darker side of Sullivan's mock melodrama, while Watts gives Josephine's ‘The hours creep apace' the full Donizetti treatment, to stellar effect.