[1/8/2011] Preview: "Sprites of earth and air, fiends of flame and fire" -- meet the Sorcerer (continued)

The performer himself, Fraser Charlton, posted this performance of what he calls "my favourite patter song to sing," the Sorcerer's self-introduction, from a 2008 Gosforth Musical Society production.

Well, Fraser, here's an assortment of other performances of the song, going back to the 1910 recording by my favorite among the "historic" G&S baritones, C. H. Workman, who had an actual singing voice and actually sang. (Unfortunately, as the annotator of the Pearl LP reissue notes, the four numbers Workman recorded for Odeon in his maiden recording venture were done so hastily and casually that no one thought to redo this one despite Workman's dropping a line, becoming flustered, and trying to stick it back in.)

It's one of those oddities of recording history that George Baker, who never sang the comedy baritone roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (the official G&S company, bearing the name of the impresario who oversaw the collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan, Richard D'Oyly Carte), recorded most of them with them -- and then recorded a number again in Sir Malcolm Sargent's EMI stereo series. The 1933 Sorcerer excerpts from which Baker's recording is taken was as close as the company came to doing a complete recording until the 1953 and 1966 ones.

The performance I wish we could see and hear is Clive Revill's from the 1982 Sorcerer film. Revill's John Wellington Wells shows us what a talented, skilled, and inventive singing actor can do when given the chance to approach a G&S character as an actual character rather than a collection of musical-theater clichés.

No. 12, Act I, Song, Mr. Wells, "My name is John Wellington Wells"

Oh! my name is John Wellington Wells,
I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
in blessings and curses
and ever-filled purses,
in prophecies, witches, and knells.
If you want a proud foe to "make tracks"--
if you'd melt a rich uncle in wax--
you've but to look in
on the resident Djinn,
number seventy, Simmery Axe!

We've a first-class assortment of magic;
and for raising a posthumous shade
with effects that are comic or tragic,
there's no cheaper house in the trade.
Love-philtre--we've quantities of it;
and for knowledge if any one burns,
we keep an extremely small prophet, a prophet
who brings us unbounded returns:

For he can prophesy
with a wink of his eye,
peep with security
into futurity,
sum up your history,
clear up a mystery,
humor proclivity
for a nativity--for a nativity;
with mirrors so magical,
tetrapods tragical,
bogies spectacular,
answers oracular,
facts astronomical,
solemn or comical,
and, if you want it, he
makes a reduction on taking a quantity!

Oh! If anyone anything lacks,
he'll find it all ready in stacks,
If he'll only look in
on the resident Djinn,
number seventy, Simmery Axe!

He can raise you hosts
of ghosts,
and that without reflectors;
and creepy things
with wings,
and gaunt and grisly spectres.
He can fill you crowds
of shrouds,
and horrify you vastly;
he can rack your brains
with chains,
And gibberings grim and ghastly.

And then, if you plan it, he
changes organity,
with an urbanity,
full of Satanity,
vexes humanity
with an inanity
fatal to vanity--
Driving your foes to the verge of insanity!

Barring tautology,
in demonology,
'lectro-biology,
mystic nosology,
spirit philology,
high-class astrology,
such is his knowledge, he
isn't the man to require an apology!

Oh! My name is John Wellington Wells,
I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
in blessings and curses
and ever-filled purses,
in prophecies, witches, and knells.
If anyone anything lacks,
he'll find it all ready in stacks,
if he'll only look in
on the resident Djinn,
number seventy, Simmery Axe!

C. H. Workman (b), John Wellington Wells. Odeon/Pearl, recorded 1910
George Baker (b), John Wellington Wells; orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. EMI, recorded 1933
Peter Pratt (b), John Wellington Wells; New Symphony Orchestra of London, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1953
John Reed (b), John Wellington Wells; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966

Now that Mr. Wells has been properly introduced, let's return to the invocation, as performed in the 1953 and 1966 D'Oyly Carte company Sorcerer recordings, featuring my very favorite G&S comedy baritone, Peter Pratt (like C. H. Workman, he had the unusual idea that this music, being music, was meant to be sung), and his long-serving successor, John Reed.

No. 13, Incantation, Mr. Wells, with Alexis and Aline, "Sprites of earth and air"

Incantation
WELLS: Sprites of earth and air—
fiends of flame and fire--
demon souls,
come here in shoals,
this dreaded deed inspire!
Appear, appear, appear.
MALE VOICES: Good master, we are here!
WELLS: Noisome hags of night-- Imps of deadly shade--
Pallid ghosts,
Arise in hosts, And lend me all your aid.
Appear, appear, appear!
FEMALE VOICES: Good master, we are here!

ALEXIS [aside]: Hark, they assemble,
these fiends of the night!
ALINE [aside]: Oh Alexis, I tremble,
Seek safety in flight!

Aria, Aline
Let us fly to a far-off land,
where peace and plenty dwell--
where the sigh of the silver strand
is echoed in every shell
to the joy that land will give,
on the wings of Love we'll fly;
in innocence, there to live--
in innocence there to die!

CHORUS OF SPIRITS: Too late--too late It may not be!
That happy fate Is not for (me/thee)!
ALEXIS, ALINE, and WELLS: Too late--too late,
that may not be!
That happy fate,
is not for thee!

WELLS: Now shrivelled hags,
with poison bags,
discharge your loathsome loads!
Spit flame and fire,
unholy choir!
Belch forth your venom, toads!
Ye demons fell,
with yelp and yell,
shed curses far afield--
ye fiends of night,
your filthy blight
in noisome plenty yield!
WELLS [pouring phial into tea-pot--flash]: Number One!
CHORUS: It is done!
WELLS [same business]: Number Two! [flash]
CHORUS: One too few!
WELLS: Number Three! [flash]
CHORUS: Set us free!
Set us free -- our work is done
Ha! ha! ha!
Set us free -- our course is run!
Ha! ha! ha!
ALINE AND ALEXIS [aside]: Let us fly to a far-off land,
where peace and plenty dwell--
where the sigh of the silver strand
is echoed in every shell.
CHORUS OF FIENDS: Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

Peter Pratt (b), John Wellington Wells; Muriel Harding (s), Aline Sangazure; Neville Griffiths (t), Alexis Pointdextre; New Symphony Orchestra of London, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1953
John Reed (b), John Wellington Wells; Valerie Masterson (s), Aline Sangazure; David Palmer (t), Alexis Pointdextre; D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

We see how the Sorcerer's philtre works, in particular on the Ploverleigh vicar, Dr. Daly, but also on the local baronet, Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre, and his unexpected new intended.


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