Track Listing

1. Introduction to the Concert (By the Women's Club President) [Live]
2. How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera [Live]
3. Coloratura Aria "Canto Dolciamente Pipo" (From the Opera La Cantatrice
4. I Love the Spring [Live]
5. Da, Nyet, Da, Nyet [Live]
6. Ah, Lover! (From the Operetta The Prince of Philadelphia) [Live]
7. Schlumph, Je N'Ai Pas la Plume de Ma Tante [Live]
8. Schreechenrauf [Live]
9. Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis) [Live]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5211 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1991-07-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
This set of Anna Russell's inspired satirical monologues should be labeled with a warning notice. Why? Because after listening to her whirlwind explication of Wagner's Ring Cycle, even the most confirmed Wagnerite will be unable to listen to the Ring for weeks to come. Just listening to Russell declare in an incredulous voice: "I'm not making this up, y'know" is enough to induce you to shed bucketloads of laughter-induced tears. Gilbert and Sullivan fans will find their heroes savaged in her concoction of a typical G&S product, complete with a soprano lead who "loves below her station." Other targets include "the nymphs and shepherds" style of quavery English singing, complete with "hey-nonny-nonny's," coloratura mad scenes, and much else, including Russian folk songs, like her "Da, nyet, da, nyet." This disc is packed with laughs, chuckles, smiles, and everything. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews

Anna Russell Forever
Since I've owned the original LPs (wore them out), the 2 LP compilation (worn out also) and now the CD (still trying to wear it out) - I can say that Anna Russell's take on vocal music (of whatever variety) stands the test of time. It is still funny 30 years after my first listening. I had never been to an opera or a vocal recital when I first heard her send-ups, and I thought they were funny then. The more I heard and learned about music, music performance and musical performers, the more I realized how accurate her send-ups really are. And she is still funny.

I saw here "live" at McCarter Theatre at Princeton many years ago during her series of farewell performances, and even though 50% of the audience knew the routines as well as she did, everyone laughed themselves silly.

About 10 years ago, I finally wrote her a fan letter, to which she responded - in inimitable fashion.

If you like vocal music, think you might like vocal music or just want to listen to a master comedienne who knows her topic (you name it vocally, she knows it and can sing it, and make it excruciatingly funny)In short - BUY THIS!

Can't stop laughing!
Russell here does a great parody of opera, everything from Handel, Gilbert & Sullivan, and Wagner. It's not necessary to know the operas beforehand to be reduced to helpless laughter during the presentation, (I have never heard Gilbert & Sullivan, for example, yet loved her talk on "How to write a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta"), but it is doubly funny if you are familiar with the musical reference.

Her parody of German is really funny! You can tell she is making up german-sounding words (or French or Russian or whatever) without them actually being words. She also "germanizes" English words.

Warning: You may not be able to listen to Wagner's ring operas with the appropriate seriousness after this album!

ANNA RUSSELL -- SUPER SATIRIST
I was first introduced to the music (?) of Anna Russell sometime in the mid 50's by way of an LP Album titled, I think, __ ANNA RUSSELL SINGS, AGAIN __. Don't hold me to that exact title, I could be mistaken. Two selections from that long ago heard LP, and which have stuck with me for the intervening period of approximately 50 years, are both on this CD. They are, as you might anticipate, "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera" and "The Ring of the Nibelungs."

I have never forgotten lines like "You remember Alveric!," and her description of "My Friend Erda, the Green Faced Monster", or her shout of "Hi, Siegfried," all from her version of Wagner's Ring Cycle. Her musical depictions of the characters in the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera section, along with her version of the "obligatory patter song, have also remained ingrained in my memory."

I, of course also enjoy the other 7 tracks on this CD, but nostalgia plays a great part in my extra enjoyment of the two tracks I mentioned above. Her "Introduction to the Concert by the President of the Women's Club" is so exactly on the mark, that you can almost visualize a rather pompous woman standing on a podium and using her oratorical skills just as Ms. Russell has depicted them.

All in all, I think that Anna Russell was one of the greatest, original performance satirists of our age.

Unlike some of the other reviewers here, she didn't "ruin opera" for me. What she did do, is to give me another, often light hearted, way to look at some of the more melodramaric operas, and, amazingly enough, to make better sense out of Wagner's oh so complicated Ring Cycle operas.

In my opinion, this is a CD that should be reintroduced to the listening public with enough fanfare to popularize it.