Valerie Masterson - Recordings

Recordings

Among Masterson's recordings are a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Sorcerer, and a series of Gilbert and Sullivan videos with the company Gilbert and Sullivan for All. On BBC television, Masterson appeared as Yum-Yum in 1973 and Elsie Maynard in 1975. In 1983, she recorded an album of G&S solos and duets with Robert Tear. She sang Josephine, Mabel, Ida, Yum-Yum and Elsie in the 1989 BBC2 series of the complete Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In 1997 she recorded excerpts from Ivanhoe, The Chieftain, The Beauty Stone and The Emerald Isle with the National Symphony Orchestra for the CD "Sullivan & Co. – The Operas that Got Away" Her voice is heard in the Gilbert and Sullivan songs in the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

Masterson stars as Violetta on a recording in English of La traviata conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. Also with Mackerras, she recorded the role of Cleopatra in Julius Caesar opposite Janet Baker's Caesar, and Romilda in audio and DVD recordings of Nicholas Hytner's ENO production of Serse (given in English as Xerxes). In July 1975, Masterson sang Matilde in a complete recording of Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra alongside Montserrat Caballé and José Carreras. She is also featured in live recordings of Faust (in Philadelphia), Mireille, Scipio, Chérubin, and the ENO Ring cycle, conducted by Reginald Goodall. The 1980 television broadcast from Glyndebourne of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, with Masterson as Constanze, has been issued on DVD.

A recital disc of her French repertoire, Valerie Masterson – en Français: Airs d’Opéra, was released in 1989. She recorded highlights from Messiah. Apart from Sullivan, her recordings of English music include Elgar's music for The Starlight Express, songs by Thomas Arne and Henry Bishop in a mixed recital disc of 1992, and a disc of English songs with Sarah Walker. Her recordings of lighter works include The King and I, Kismet, Bitter Sweet, Song of Norway, On the Town, and The Merry Widow, and a disc of show duets with Thomas Allen. Concert works recorded by Masterson include Mozart's "Great Mass".