The Last Night (1982)

What an occasion - the unfairly enforced very final performance of a magnificent old company with an unstained 107 year history!!  Emotions were high on both sides of the house and the concert that took place on the evening of 27th February 1982 is one which will forever stay in the minds of those who were present.  The evening was officially recorded and most of it issued on LP but this CD issue (enhanced from the production master tapes) now offers a greatly improved quality of sound over the LP issue, though regrettably the slightly edited production master is now all that can be located - alas, it seems that only this version was saved and the cut items (mainly introductions and speeches) may possibly be lost forever.  However there is still much atmosphere and talent to enjoy in this set which runs at 2 hours 20 minutes, and all the favourites of the final season are here on top live form - John Reed, Kenneth Sandford, John Ayldon, Meston Reid, Geoffrey Shovelton, James Conroy-Ward, Alistair Donkin, Patricia Leonard, Lorraine Daniels, Vivian Tierney, Jill Washington and many more ... led by conductors Fraser Goulding and Alexander Faris. 

This set includes items from the entire canon from Cox, Thespis and Trial to The Grand Duke and comes with a 16 page book giving full track and cast details, and which reproduces Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte's accompanying note to the LP release, John Reed's splendid and emotional article 'Goodbye, dear D'Oyly Carte' written for the first American release, Anthony Williams' descriptive article of the events of the evening and a newly commissioned article by Ian Belsey reflecting on the emotion of the evening from 'our' side of the footlights.