Henry Bishop’s reputation as a composer in early nineteenth-century London was high, but though it has declined sharply it leaves him with a higher historical profile than he might have attained had his ambition to be a jockey not been thwarted by a breathing problem. He almost single-handedly kept English opera alive in his day, circumventing the conservatism of his audiences by keeping to the familiar musical language of Mozart, a lesson profitably learnt by Sullivan. His ambition was solely to entertain and gently educate his public, without ever shocking it. Later criticism focused on Bishop’s rearranging of other men’s musical flowers (sometimes under pressure from impresarios), not least for his admixing of his own with Mozart’s in a new version of Le nozze di Figaro, but took little account of his considerable gifts.
There are several ‘after’ (Morley, Arne et al) borrowings in these extracts from his music for productions of Shakespeare at Covent Garden, but for the most part Bishop’s music sits comfortably alongside them, pastiche if you like, but charming with it. Michael Pilkington has edited Bishop’s own performing scores and Philip Pickett, a long-time ‘man of the theatre’ in the best sense, has assembled as goodly a company of singers and players as one could hope for. The recording is beautifully clear, with an aptly generous acoustic – you can actually hear the words! Start at the beginning with Lo, here the gentle lark, and if you can’t enjoy what follows, that’s your hard luck! This world-premiere recording should raise Bishop’s value on the musical stock market.'