Fraser-Simson: The Maid of the Mountains (Complete Operetta)

***** 5 Stars BBC Music Magazine (Nov 2000)

"piloted with style and affection by ronald Corp, Hyperion's light music guru. Wicked!"
(BBC Music)

'A quite outstandingly successful re-creation of the work ... it is a hugely important contribution to preserving our British musical theatre heritage' (Gramophone)

'The cast performs splendidly, Ronald Corp leads them and the excellent New London Orchestra and Light Opera Chorus stylishly and appropriately' (International Record Review)

'Janis Kelly and Christopher Maltman sing the romantic leads with the right clear-eyed sentiment, and Richard Suart and Sally Burgess provide expert comic relief. The whole affair is piloted with style and affection by Ronald Corp, Hyperion's light music guru. Wicked!' (BBC Music Magazine, Pick of the Month)

Hyperion's recording of The Geisha, issued in January 1999 (CDA67006), produced an enormous approving postbag from which we discovered that there is still a strong affection for English musical comedies from the early years of the last century. Encouraged by its success we have now recorded The Maid of the Mountains, the smash hit of 1917. A more romantic tale than The Geisha, it has probably even more 'hit' numbers, the most famous of which are A bachelor gay ('At seventeen he falls in love quite madly...'), Love will find a way ('Whate'er befall, I still recall that sunlit mountainside, where hearts are true, and skies are blue, and love's the only guide'), Husbands and wives and A paradise for two. There are also humorous interludes from Richard Suart (I understood and Dirty work). Altogether well over an hour's worth of tuneful and good-natured entertainment with a strong cast directed by the master of English light music, Ronald Corp.