''Top C's and Tiaras'' is a television program, featuring
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...
and
musical comedy
Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
, that was broadcast on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
television in the United Kingdom between April 10, 1983, and June 3, 1984. It featured performers such as
Julia Migenes
Julia Migenes (born March 13, 1949) is an American soprano working primarily in musical theatre repertoire. She was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Juan and Julia Migenes, parents of Puerto Rican and Irish descent, respectively. (He ...
,
Marilyn Hill Smith Marilyn Hill Smith is an English soprano (born February 1952) whose UK-based performing career ranged from Handel to contemporary operatic works and from Gilbert and Sullivan to Viennese operettaForbes, Elizabeth. "Marilyn Hill Smith", ''The New Gro ...
, Peter Morrison and
Benjamin Luxon
Benjamin Matthew Luxon (24 March 1937 – 26 July 2024) was a British baritone.
Biography
Luxon was born in Redruth, Cornwall on 24 March 1937, the son of Ernest Maxwell Luxon, an amateur singer, and his wife Lucille Pearl, née Grigg. He stud ...
. It was devised and produced by Neil Anthony, and made by The Bright Thoughts Company.
Production
Most of the programme was recorded on location at
Wrotham Park
Wrotham Park (pronounced , ) is a neo-Palladian English country house in the parish of South Mimms, Hertfordshire. It lies south of the town of Potters Bar, from Hyde Park Corner in central London. The house was designed by Isaac Ware in 1754 ...
, in
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
. Both the house and grounds were used for performances, and singing was accompanied by a live orchestra, under the musical direction of
Harry Rabinowitz
Harry Rabinowitz MBE (26 March 1916 – 22 June 2016) was a South African-British conductor and composer of film and television music. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he was the son of Israel and Eva Rabinowitz. He was educated at the Univ ...
and Burt Rhodes. All performances were sung live, without the use of dubbing, and without an audience. The director for the series was the television entertainment veteran, Bryan Izzard. Other performers involved in the series included
Laurence Dale
Laurence Dale (born 1957) is an English tenor, artistic director and conductor.
Biography
Laurence Dale studied singing at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Rudolf Piernay and the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Early leading roles i ...
,
Della Jones
Della Jones is a Welsh mezzo-soprano, particularly well known for her interpretations of works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, and Britten.
Early life
Jones was born in Tonna, near Neath, Wales. She attended Neath Grammar School for Gir ...
, Harry Nicoll, Jill Washington, Jean Bailey, Hugh Hetherington, Neil Jenkins, Eirian James, David Fieldsend, Linda Ormiston, and Ramon Remedios. All episodes ran to 55 minutes in length.
Episodes
Specials:
# Top C's and Tiaras (10 April 1983)
# Top C's and Tiaras II (31 October 1983)
Series 1:
# "This Will be my Shining Hour" (29 April 1984)
# "The Best of All Possible Worlds" (6 May 1984)
# "One Night of Love" (13 May 1984)
# "Dance Little Lady" (20 May 1984)
# "Play to me Gypsy" (27 May 1984)
# "When Vienna Sings" (3 June 1984)
Reception
The programme was regarded within Channel 4 as being a popular success. The 1983-1984 Channel 4 Annual Report noted that the programme "won the channel's most enthusiastic response by phone and letter for its stylish rediscovery of the middle ground of operetta" It has been argued that Channel 4 "revived the music of
Johann Strauss
Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He compose ...
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951) was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for his Musical theatre, musicals and operettas, particularly ''The Student Prince'' (1924), ''The Desert Song'' (1926) and ''The New Moo ...
and other light classical composers in ''Top Cs and Tiaras,'' with the help of a singer with a remarkable voice and great style, Julia Migenes-Johnson".
Peter Lewis, writing in
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
, commented that "''Top Cs and Tiaras'' pioneered a new, relaxed, unstuffy approach tonight music on television...no tiaras, not much evening dress, no old-fashioned pomp and hand-clasping - and no audience...they let their hair down together, not in a studio or theatre but a country house, singing around a piano to one another or wandering through the gilded rooms or the grounds. The artists help to choose their songs, miming is banished - it is shot as it is sung - and they give every appearance of really enjoying themselves". Sean Day-Lewis, writing in the
Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...
, expressed the view that the programme was a "slickly assembled and more or less uncorrupted sequence of melodies from operetta and musical comedy", and that "it was an excellently finished video which would have won a high rating indeed on one of the senior channels". The Listener magazine noted that "the programme conveys a sense of fun, and at least it resuscitates some sparkling operetta tunes"
Former Channel 4 Chief Executive
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, and an opera manager.
Following a career at Granada Television, the BBC and Thames Television, Isaacs was the founding chief executive of Channe ...
wrote about ''Top C's and Tiaras'' in his 1989 memoir, ''Storm Over 4.'' He quoted examples of the influx of appreciative telephone calls from viewers for the first edition, that were logged in the Duty Officer's report for April 10, 1983, and said that ''Top C's and Tiaras'', "though made on a shoestring, went down a treat with the fans".
Commercial releases
An accompanying tie-in book, ''Top C's and Tiaras: Songs from the Channel 4 Series'', was published in 1984. A number of CDs based on the program, Treasures of Operetta, featuring Marilyn Hill Smith and Peter Morrison, were released by