The very model of a modern music library

SCOTTISH Opera has bought a library full of Gilbert and Sullivan works, which it will hire out to performers across the UK and continental Europe.

The D’Oyly Carte music hire library sold 86 crates of music to Scottish Opera.

It’s taken the Scottish team three weeks to sort through the crates.

Some rarer items are being sent for storage at the British Library in London.

Pieces that can be hired include some of the rarer works that Sullivan wrote without Gilbert – such as Utopia, Limited, and The Grand Duke – as well as more familiar works such as Trial by Jury, HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Gondoliers.

Derek Clark, Scottish Opera’s head of music, said: ‘It’s not often that an opera company gets the chance to help another opera company, so it’s great for Scottish Opera to be able to offer the space and the manpower to take over the running of the D’Oyly Carte library.

“For me, personally, as a lifelong Gilbert and Sullivan devotee, it is wonderful to have this resource available to explore – it’s a bit like being let loose in Aladdin’s cave.

“So, I’m very much looking forward to seeing whether any undiscovered gems lie lurking in its depths.”

Read more stories on Scottish Field’s music pages.

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