Laurence Leng Presents: The Lost Songs

Did you ever wonder why Robin had two patter songs written for act 2 of Ruddigore and sings neither? What happened to the Duke’s and Strephon’s solos in Patience and Iolanthe? Surely Wilfred and the Sergeant in Yeomen should have had solos.

Wonder no more! In this fascinating talk by Laurence Leng, he explained how songs were written and then either discarded or removed early in the opera’s run. The talk was illustrated by a number of recorded examples of these songs, most of which are now long out of the catalogue.

The presentation was followed by the Society’s AGM.