I have a wonderful tribute video, called The Romantic World of Ivor Novello that I found on Youtube.
youtube.com/watch?v=NGOuLWM083…
It is hosted by Vanessa Lee, and along with the performances of his songs, there are interviews with his original singers, though they do not sing or act in this one. Anyway, aside from that wonderful surprise, there are two very interesting parts. The first is heard during the introduction. It consists of the voice of Novello himself. The second is a story told by Vanessa part-way through the performance. She mentioned a recording of Glamorous Night for the BBC, during which she and the other actors performed, but Ivor was at home, having pre-recordied his own material. Aside from being extremely entertaining, this anecdote gives several very important clues. First, this was done during the run of King's Rhapsody, putting the date between 1949 and his death in 1951. Secondly, not only was their dialogue, but it was made in two recordings (presumably, they recorded the actors performing live as well). Thirdly, this was on the radio, which, given the time, is to be expected.
My questions are two-fold.
1. Where did that introduction by Novello come from? I know the BBC had a horrible habbit of destroying things, but this was made in 1979, so I highly doubt they would have done so after that point, given his fame and the fact that he died in 1951.
2. Does the radio production of Glamorous Night exist, either in full or in part, and if so, where is it? Did anyone, by chance, record it? Some shows have actually been saved via reel-to-reel recordings made by listeners. If this does exist, it would be one of the most important discoveries in Novellian research, since it would be the closest we could come today to actually hearing the singing, and more importantly, the speaking performances of him and his original cast, minus Mary Ellis who had already left to do other things by this point. Other than the tiny clips on records, the only thing that even comes close is the other tribute I posted a few days ago, which I later learned contained several scenes from plays, along with music, again, by the originals!
youtube.com/watch?v=etB7t_ETqS…
If anyone knows of other recordings of his plays with dialogue, even modern ones, please let me know. They are extremely rare.
#BBC #GlamorousNight #IvorNovello #radio #theatre #VanessaLee