Victoria & Merrie England

Feted for his Savoy operas with librettist W.S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan also regularly produced music for important royal or national occasions. In 1897, to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, he was commissioned to write a ballet for the Alhambra Theatre in London. Conforming closely to the theatre's established style, this single-act ballet was a spectacular pageant, featuring 'specialty' dances, startling dramatic effects and grand tableaux, notably military ones. Significant research and reconstruction of the score has made this recording possible.