For your Wednesday listening enjoyment, here’s a BBC broadcast of the Gala Farewell to Sir David Webster (pictured, left) at the Royal Opera House on July 9, 1970. Highlights include a complete Lucia Mad Scene with Joan Sutherland and an early Gwyneth Jones essay of the “Liebestod.”  

Farewell Gala for Sir David Webster
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House
Introduced by Ian Wallace
July 9, 1970

Fanfare composed for the occasion by Benjamin Britten

Pagliacci: Prologue
Peter Glossop
Conductor: Edward Downes

Otello: Scenes from Act 1
Desdemona: Gwyneth Jones
Otello: James McCracken
Cassio: John Lanigan
Roderigo: John Dobson
Iago: Tito Gobbi
Montano: George MacPherson
Conductor: Georg Solti

Lucia di Lammermoor: Mad Scene
Lucia: Joan Sutherland
Enrico: Delme Bryn-Jones
Raimondo: Joseph Rouleau
Conductor: Richard Bonynge

La clemenza di Tito: “Deh, per questo istante”
Yvonne Minton
Conductor: Colin Davis

Tristan und Isolde: “Liebestod”
Gwyneth Jones
Conductor: Georg Solti

Falstaff:  Act 2: “Reverenza”; Act 3: Finale
Mistress Quickly: Regina Resnik
Bardolph: David Lennox
Falstaff: Geraint Evans
Pistol: Michael Langdon
Nanetta: Elizabeth Robson
Alice: Elizabeth Vaughan
Meg Page: Yvonne Minton
Fenton: Ryland Davies
Dr Caius: Kenneth MacDonald
Ford: Delme Bryn-Jones
Conductor: Georg Solti

Speech by Lord Drogheda
Speech by Sir David Webster

Special thanks to Friend of the Box Donald Collup!