The Ultimate Gilbert & Sullivan Collection

Great beginning compilation of G & S!

     

I've always been a huge Gilbert and Sullivan fan, so I was especially excited to see that they had released a sort of "best of" album. The major drawback with this collection, however, is that it is overloaded with songs from the Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore, (which, understandably, are G & S's most famous operettas) yet they pay only lip service to Pirates of Penzance which is perhaps just a little less popular than Pinafore. They also exclude Yeoman of the Guard, Iolanthe, Ruddigore, and Princess Ida in their entirety. All in all, I can't entirely fault the compilers for the exclusions, since selling records is the highest priority and including these latter operettas probably wouldn't have been conducive to that end.