Wikipedia:WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan/Marc Shepherd's Gilbert and Sullivan Discography

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This page sets out some of the reasons that the Gilbert & Sullivan Discography can be used as a reliable source according to Wikipedia's policy on self-published sources (see also Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-06-26/Dispatches). WP:V says:

Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established subject-matter expert, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications. Exercise caution when using such sources: if the information in question is suitable for inclusion, someone else will probably have published it in independent, reliable sources.

Marc Shepherd, who collected, edited, and provided many of the reviews on the discography, is a noted Gilbert and Sullivan scholar:

  1. Shepherd is author of the book "Gilbert & Sullivan in an Hour" (2011), part of the Playwrights in an Hour series from Smith & Kraus.
  2. Shepherd is the co-editor of the book The Variorum Gilbert & Sullivan, Volume I (2015), which presents a detailed history of the text of each of the first four G&S operas, including: pre-production drafts, manuscripts, early libretti and scores, and prompt books. It is mentioned with approval here.
  3. Reliable sources describe Shepherd as a Gilbert and Sullivan scholar or expert: For example Opera News identifies Shepherd as a G&S scholar in its August 2005 issue, Vol. 70, No. 2, in the feature "TravelBlog: Buxton's Gilbert & Sullivan Festival".[1] He was also one of several noted Gilbert and/or Sullivan scholars who assisted the producers of the 2000 movie Topsy-Turvy.
  4. Relevant to his work on the discography, Shepherd is a noted expert on early G&S recordings, as evidenced by his having been asked to write the liner notes for several reissues of early D'Oyly Carte recordings by the Pearl record company, which specializes in older recordings.[2]
  5. Shepherd is credited in numerous books and journal articles. For instance, A Most Ingenious Paradox credits Shepherd for his "useful attributional help". The Gilbert & Sullivan Lexicon, (1999) ISBN 0-9667916-1-4, says in the acknowledgements, "I want to pay tribute to these... acknowledged G&S scholars, who kindly criticized [the manuscript]... Marc Shepherd...." An article "From First Baseman to Primo Basso: The Odd Saga of the Original Pirate King (Tra La!)", NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 2, Spring 2007, concerns Signor Brocolini, a G&S performer who was important in establishing professional baseball in the US. The author acknowledges "Gilbert and Sullivan experts David Stone and Marc Shepherd for [details at note 53] and for verifying other details about [Brocolini's] involvement with Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte's Opera Company."
  6. Shepherd is the editor of the first new edition of the piano score of The Grand Duke since 1896, preparing a detailed critical introduction for the edition. The Grand Duke, New York: Oakapple Press, 2009. Linked at "The Grand Duke", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. Shepherd's edition of The Grand Duke is the only edition of that opera with a critical apparatus.[3]
  7. Shepherd was a co-editor of a volume (The Pirates of Penzance) of the Broude Brothers' critical edition of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, intended to produce a scholarly edition including full score, set of orchestra parts, vocal score, etc. He also acts as a consultant for the other volumes of G&S operas. Shepherd was on the Editorial Board of the critical edition of H.M.S. Pinafore by Broude.[4]
  8. Shepherd is cited here in the Los Angeles Times.
  9. Shepherd delivered this Jay Newman Lecture to the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of New York in 2021.

The discography itself is praised:

  1. It is one of only six online discographies – not of G&S, but of music in general – recommended by The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science.[5]
  2. Andrew Crowther (author of Contradiction Contradicted: The Plays of W.S.Gilbert and numerous G&S articles, also head of the W. S. Gilbert Society) writes, "Marc Shepherd's Gilbert and Sullivan Discography ... is an invaluable site detailing recordings of the works of Gilbert and/or Sullivan."
  3. Ian Bradley writes, in Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!: The Enduring Phenomenon of Gilbert and Sullivan (2005, Oxford University Press), p. 190, that the two best internet sites for Gilbert and Sullivan are the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive "and a wonderful G & S Discography compiled by Marc Shepherd, which lists just about every known recording of every G & S opera ever made and receives around 1000 hits a day".
  4. Peter Gutmann calls the discography one of the two most valuable internet sites about G&S: "Two websites are of great value - Marc Shepherd's exhaustively annotated discography and the ... Gilbert and Sullivan Archive".[6]
  5. ClassicalNet calls the discography "required reading".
  6. The discography is recommended by the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, the most important online websource for Gilbert and Sullivan. That site calls the discography "outstanding" and links to it in each of its G&S opera article homepages.[7] The Archive's subsite, Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (1875-1982), used the discography extensively in their research. The front page of this site states: "On the Internet, Marc Shepherd's comprehensive 'Gilbert & Sullivan Discography' was consulted time and time again" and later calls the discography "an exhaustive source of information on all commercial audio and video recordings of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas".

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Specialist sources also describe Shepherd as an expert in the field. The G&S newspaper The Trumpet Bray (from the New England Gilbert and Sullivan Society, one of the major G&S appreciation groups), calls him a "top G&S scholar." Similarly, GASBAG, another widely-read G&S newsletter calls Shepherd "one of the world's foremost authorities on G&S". In the 1990s, Shepherd was also editor of the Palace Peeper, the newsletter of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of New York.
  2. ^ Pavillion Records. "Gilbert & Sullivan, The Gondoliers/Ruddigore: Completing this reissue of the classic Isidore Godfrey G&S recordings of the early days of LP comes this last D'Oyly Carte 3-CD set. Transfers are by Roger Beardsley and notes by Marc Shepherd, as for all releases in the series."
  3. ^ "Sources of Grand Duke Scores", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 16 June 2009
  4. ^ This review and this article note that Shepherd is one of the G&S experts working on the Broude critical edition project.
  5. ^ Edited by Miriam A. Drake, ISBN-10: 0824720792; ISBN-13: 978-0824720797 From pp. 1937–38: "Specialised discographic reference tools are available on the internet. ... GRAMMY search, from the Recording Academy, is [description]. Best selling recordings dating back to 1958 can be identified with the [RIAA]'s Gold and Platinum Database search [link]. Many excellent online discographies devoted to individual musicians are the work of dedicated afficianados. Examples of these resources are [a Miles Davis discography], Marc Shepherd's Gilbert and Sullivan Discography,<www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc> [two others].
  6. ^ Gutmann, Peter, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan: The Mikado, ClassicalNotes.net. ClassicalNotes reprints his articles for The Goldmine and Legal Times. (see his introduction)
  7. ^ Trial by Jury, Sorcerer, Pinafore, Pirates, Patience, Iolanthe, Princess Ida, Mikado, Ruddigore, Yeomen, Gondoliers, Utopia and Grand Duke
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