Gilbert & Sullivan: H.M.S. Pinafore

Breathes there a soul so dead that the very thought of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta fails to bring a smile to the lips and a spring to the step? Pinafore has reigned (along with The Mikado) as the most popular of the lot, and you can't go wrong with a D'Oyly Carte production. Some may prefer the more operatic version with Malcolm Sargent on EMI or the D'Oyly Carte troupe's earlier incarnations of the work. But this may well be the best of the bunch, thanks to a cast for whom singing G&S is as natural as breathing. Standouts include Thomas Round, whose lovelorn hero strikes just the right Victorian note, veteran Donald Adams, a superbly malevolent Deadeye Dick, Isidore Godfrey, whose buoyant conducting keeps the good ship afloat, and... well, they're all so good, why go on? Kudos to the engineers, too--their early stereo sonics don't sound dated at all. --Dan Davis