English National Opera - Recordings

Recordings

Recordings of individual scenes and numbers were made by Sadler's Wells singers from the company's earliest days. In 1972 an LP set was issued bringing together many of these recordings, prefaced with a tribute to Lilian Baylis recorded in 1936. Among the singers in the set are Joan Cross, Heddle Nash, Edith Coates, Joan Hammond, Owen Brannigan, Peter Pears, Peter Glossop and Charles Craig. The conductors include Lawrance Collingwood, Reginald Goodall and Michael Mudie.

After the Second World War, the Sadler's Wells company made a 78 r.p.m. set of excerpts from Simon Boccanegra (1949), but made no more recordings until the stereo LP era. In the 1950s and 1960s, the company recorded a series of abridged sets of operas and operettas for EMI, each occupying two LP sides. All were sung in English. The opera sets were Madame Butterfly (1960), Il trovatore (1962), and Hansel and Gretel (1966). The abridged operetta recordings were Die Fledermaus (1959), The Merry Widow (1959), The Land of Smiles (1960), La vie parisienne (1961), Orpheus in the Underworld (1960), Iolanthe (1962), La belle Hélène (1963) and The Gypsy Baron (1965). A complete recording of The Mikado was released in 1962.

Excerpts from the company's Twilight of the Gods were recorded in German under Mackerras (1972) and in English under Goodall (1973). The complete Ring cycle was recorded by EMI during public performances at the Coliseum between 1973 and 1977. The cycle has been reissued on CD by Chandos Records. A live recording of the company's The Mastersingers was made in 1968 but not released until 2008.

In the CD era, a series of operatic recordings sung in English has been released by Chandos Records. Some are reissues are of Sadler's Wells Opera or ENO recordings originally issued by EMI: Mary Stuart (recorded in 1982) and Julius Caesar (1985), both starring Janet Baker, and La traviata (1981), starring Valerie Masterson. The newer recordings, made specifically for the Chandos series, have no official connection with ENO, but feature many past and present members of the company. Conductors include Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Mark Elder and Paul Daniel. Those in which the chorus and orchestra of ENO appear are Lulu, The Makropoulos Affair, Werther, Dialogues of the Carmelites, The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, Ernani, Otello and Falstaff, as well as the live recordings of The Ring and The Mastersingers.