The Society is delighted to announce that after the tremendous critical success of the Ivanhoe recording, Chandos Records, Britain's leading independent record label, have expressed its intention to make a studio recording of Sullivan's The Beauty Stone.

The Beauty Stone is perhaps the least well known of the non-Gilbert operas and was produced at the Savoy Theatre on May 28th 1898 as Sullivan's first opera after his final break with Gilbert. It was not a critical success and had a short run mainly because of the verbosity of the libretto written by Arthur Wing Pinero and J. Comyns Carr. It springs from the tradition of the singspiel or opéra comique, an opera with spoken dialogue not necessarily comic, and it proved to be too serious for the Savoy audiences. However despite this wordiness, the opera contains some of the finest and most unusual music that Sullivan composed for the stage and this alone demands that it should be given the best interpretation. As with Ivanhoe, the opera will be recorded with topnotch singers and orchestra to show off the beauty and variety of Sullivan's rich score to best advantage.

It is clear that the costs of any recording are immense, and the Sullivan Society therefore aims to contribute a significant part of the artistic costs (£35,000) through donations from its membership and other interested parties.

How you can help

By donating £500 you can become a Patron of the Project. You will receive two copies of the CD and be acknowledged in the accompanying booklet. Those of you who wish to contribute but would like to spread the payments can do so and details are available from the Membership Secretary.

Please be assured that any donation would be welcomed in order to achieve our aim of recording one of Sullivan's least known operas.