Thespis - or The Gods Grown Old - Piano/Vocal Score with Libretto (Physical Copies) - W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan - Compiled By Garth Morton and Terence Rees
*NOTE - To obtain this package at a discount price, it is available as a reward via this crowdfunding page, in order to raise funds to recreate the orchestral score and parts:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/OnvroQ5n?utm_campaign=sharemodal&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=shortlink
"Thespis", subtitled "The Gods Grown Old", is a comic opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan; the plot follows the tired and aged gods and deities deciding to take a well-earned break, hiring a group of amateur actors to take their places. The manuscript was lost over a century ago, however the libretto (script) survived; since then, numerous groups and partnerships have attempted to reconstruct or recompile the orchestration. One such pairing was that of Garth Morton and Terence Rees, and it is this version that has been said to be the most authentic, in part due to the pair's unprecedented access to the D'Oyly Carte archive, which is where they got much of the material for this compilation; a run of performances of this was subsequently held in London in the 1960s, to critical acclaim. Sadly, the manuscripts for this were rendered unusable due to damp and poor storage, and thus it was lost a second time.
In 2019, Garth Morton commissioned Pitch Perfect to recreate the piano/vocal score, in professionally typeset form; his wish was that it was to be made available to those interested in putting on performances, in the hope that there would then be interest in recreating the orchestration. Morton sadly passed away before its completion, and so the book's final form was overseen by his son Charles Morton; this is the book that is available to purchase here today, along with a reconstruction of the libretto.
