After watching the 1955 film of Carousel last night, I was looking for a thread in which to praise it. One of the posters on American Operas asked whether we should have one for Musicals, so here it is.
Rogers and Hammerstein admitted that this was their favorite work together. It was first produced on Broadway in 1945, based on a Hungarian story "Liliom", transplanted to a New England fishing village.
The three main enduring hits could have alone guaranteed a secure place in musical theatre: "You'll never walk alone", "June is busting out all over" and "If I loved you" (I have a special affection for the latter) and the lilting Carousel waltz bursting out in the Overture.
A tragic plot (Billy dies in a theft attempt) and taking on social issues like wife beating and class differences broke new ground in subject matter that followed a few rather isolated but successful examples like Showboat and Porgy and Bess. "My Boy Bill" is also an innovation in this genre, taken from operatic recitatives, where Billy goes on about how he will bring up his kid but a sudden thought brings him to the possibility he may be having a daughter instead. He concludes his rambling with an operatic ending that he will "provide for her or die".
I was fascinated by the revival of the play as described I think in Time Magazine in the late 90's. There was a picture of expanse of a sky with stars that Billy Bigelow was assigned to shine and later called to the office of his heavenly supervisor. He was told that he had a chance to go down "there" to help his very unhappy daughter. Still in character, he guffaws and boasts and even after going down to "there" even slaps her. Strangely enough, this act is taken as a proof that it is really him and this guy with a chip on his shoulder even in heaven, manages to comfort both mother and daughter on her graduation day.
The text is beautiful and full of little gems like "you are not judged up here as you were down there", when Billy (Gordon MacRae) is afraid or doubtful of going down. Also, Shirley Jones shows a different side of herself, shy but strong, than she did in "Oklahoma" also paired with "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" MacRae.
Agnes de Mille choreagraphed the dances as she did in "Oklahoma". Introducing the daughter and her conflicts through dance might have been a way of abbreviating or avoiding the need to explain. I don't know if this is a necessity or normally done in revivals.
But all in all, this is REALLY a GREAT piece of theatre and music.
ZB
Great idea to start a separate subject place for Musicals. Thank you!
Composers like Bernstein, Rogers and Hammerstein and definitely Stephen Sondheim are classical composers. Whether loved or hated, Andrew Lloyd-Webber is one of them also; don't forget he did write Cats! 8)
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on August 28, 2007, 01:53:14 AM
After watching the 1955 film of Carousel last night, I was looking for a thread in which to praise it. One of the posters on American Operas asked whether we should have one for Musicals, so here it is.............
ZB - first depending on the interest of other members/posters, this could be a GREAT thread - I'm a BIG FAN of American musicals and own many film versions - will look forward to additional comments & will post accordingly - hope this one TAKES OFF! :)
Quote from: SonicMan on August 29, 2007, 06:12:27 PM
ZB - first depending on the interest of other members/posters, this could be a GREAT thread - I'm a BIG FAN of American musicals and own many film versions - will look forward to additional comments & will post accordingly - hope this one TAKES OFF! :)
I read that
Carousel is supposed to be produced in London, December 2007. Oh to be in England!!!
Social relevance is a subject that comes up with theatre, musical, operatic and otherwise. The
Beggar's Opera produced in 1723 poked fun at the pretentiousness and irrelevance of Italian Opera in England (still a perennial issue just about anywhere almost 300 years later!). So here is where the fun all started:
http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/beggars_opera/music.html
"In 1728, the first performance of John Gay's
The Beggar's Opera attracted the acclaim and attention of the popular audience in England. The first run of the performance lasted 62 nights! Today, this sounds like a lot, but in the 18th century, it was an unprecedented touchstone. Later, the opera was performed internationally in Dublin, Glasgow, Jamaica and New York. In 1750, The Beggar's Opera was one of the earliest musical comedies produced in America; appropriately, it was produced in New York, which today is the mecca of musical comedy.
The opera launched the popularity of a new form of stage entertainment, the ballad opera. The audience for the ballad opera, unlike opera's noble and upper-class following, included people from the lower class, middle class, and upper class.Londoners loved the realism and satire in the ballad opera; they left the theater talking about it and singing the familiar tunes. The book trade was also stimulated because of its controversial subject matter and satire. Evidence of its popularity in the 18th century, The Beggar's Opera was performed every year of the 18th century after 1728.
The Satire and Controversy
The Beggar's Opera was a double satire of the Italian opera tradition and of the political corruption of incumbent Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and his government. Gay mocked the Italian opera tradition in many ways:
• Gay chose popular simple tunes to mock what many British believed to be the overly virtuousic and artificial airs of Italian opera.
• The composer disposed of recitative altogether in favor of spoken dialogue.
• Gay's main characters are thieves and bawds, rather than the heroes and kings of Italian opera.
• Finally, he makes fun of the often-disliked Italian divas. The year before John Gay's opera premiered, the two leading prima donnas in London, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, were well known to be enemies. In 1727, their rivalry escalated to a fight on stage; the two divas scratched and pulled out each other's hair! The rivalry between these ladies inspired Gay's leading female characters, Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit, and their quarreling scenes.
The ballad opera not only made fun of Italian opera, but also provided a new popularity for native music that the masses knew and enjoyed."
"An act hard to follow", taken from Vaudeville would be a good description of musicals made into movies.
Once a film "fixes" an interpretation, it's hard to conceive of, for instance: The Sound of Music,
The King and I, Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, and South Pacific without referring to the celluloid version. Somehow this phenomenon (that is, if you agree to it) seems more prominent in popular music where the timbre of the instruments, the voice and personality of the singer(s) are imprinted on the music. It's hard to imagine Dr. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band done in any other way except the original recording. Orchestras trot out Beatles every now and then for "light classics", but they usually sounds like fish out of water.
By comparison, operas are really difficult to capture on film, having more of an interchangeable quality regarding singing roles. Once Julie Andrews is Maria it's hard to see someone else in that role. My Fair Lady was acted by her a few years before Audrey Hepburn, so the film appearing later endures and not so much the former recording. The same with South Pacific done by Mary Martin on Broadway.
The advantage of movies, of course, is to have REAL hills that are alive, horses in Oklahoma and My Fair Lady, a real river for the Showboat to float on, etc. Although Porgy and Bess is not strictly a musical, more an opera, the staged version captured on film with Willard White, was great but missing some local color.
I'm sitting here trying to remember if there is ANY definitive visually recorded version of an opera and I can't think of one. People here may have different opinions. The reason may be that opera MIGHT be more about music and musicals are more of a combined experience.
In other words, you can act lousy but sing well and still get away with it, not look the part, etc. THIS would not work in musical theatre.
ZB
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on August 29, 2007, 10:25:23 PM
...The year before John Gay's opera premiered, the two leading prima donnas in London, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, were well known to be enemies. In 1727, their rivalry escalated to a fight on stage; the two divas scratched and pulled out each other's hair!...
That was probably before George Frideric Handel hung La Cuzzoni out the window to dry. ;D
The movie musical that grabbed me when I was in high school was West Side Story. I've seen the musicall a couple of times but the movie holds up well. Bernstein and Sondheim wrote a great score and Johnny Green and his movie studio orchestra do an excellent job.
I didn't know at the time that practically no one sang their own role. Marni Nixon for Wood is perfectly understandable but a "ghost" for Rita Moreno? THe CD has additional music omitted from the LP.
Recommended.
As far as operas on film, Zeffrelli's Traviata and Othelo both hold up well.
Br. Paul Andrew
Musicals = Satan. That is all.
Quote from: brpaulandrew on September 04, 2007, 08:24:09 AM
The movie musical that grabbed me when I was in high school was West Side Story. I've seen the musical a couple of times but the movie holds up well. Bernstein and Sondheim wrote a great score and Johnny Green and his movie studio orchestra do an excellent job.
Bernstein even to the end of his life was disappointed he didn't write the Great American Opera. But why anyway should the conventions of European Opera over the previous centuries have to apply to the New World?
West Side Story is a great and more importantly
honest achievement, not artificial or irrelevant and certainly not satanic (?).
Quote from: brpaulandrew on September 04, 2007, 08:24:09 AM
I didn't know at the time that practically no one sang their own role. Marni Nixon for Wood is perfectly understandable but a "ghost" for Rita Moreno? THe CD has additional music omitted from the LP.Recommended.
Marni did a few other films sight unseen, even
My Fair Lady. But you can actually see what she looked like in the "Young People's" series by Bernstein singing, I seem to remember, one of the
Songs from the Auvergne, arranged by Cantaloube. I thought Rita Moreno was a singer and dancer and that was her own voice(?) in the film.
Quote from: brpaulandrew on September 04, 2007, 08:24:09 AM
As far as operas on film, Zeffrelli's Traviata and Othello both hold up well.
Br. Paul Andrew
Yes, I agree but I was thinking of "definitive" visual versions by which other attempts are simply defeated even before they start.
West Side Story on film is IT. I thought about this more after writing the post and I really believe the reason is in opera music trumps above all, not visuals. So opera may have many different recordings and various different singers over decades and even centuries and still not exhuast all its
musical possibilities.
ZB
Quote from: Josquin des Prez on September 04, 2007, 09:31:07 AM
Musicals = Satan. That is all.
Come now, you never
enjoyed a musical?
Or is enjoyment
satanic?
ZB
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 04, 2007, 11:47:37 PM
I was thinking of "definitive" visual versions by which other attempts are simply defeated even before they start. West Side Story on film is IT. I thought about this more after writing the post and I really believe the reason is in opera music trumps above all, not visuals.
Have you ever attended a "live" performance of
WSS?
The movie version
pales in comparison;
WSS is one of the greatest works ever created for the lyric theatre.
Quote from: jochanaan on September 03, 2007, 09:23:59 PM
That was probably before George Frideric Handel hung La Cuzzoni out the window to dry. ;D
Really? Don't know if it was before or after, but with all due respect-- a German composer in England writing and staging operas in Italian??? It's interesting, though, to trace the history of
opera seria .
Serious subjects allegedly needed larger than life characters: kings, queens, gods, etc., in a remote environment and a distant, even mythological time, communicating in a foreign language.
Probably dating from Mozart is the bifurcation of stock formulas (da capo arias) in
opera seria and the freer forms of
opera buffa, all in one composer!!
ZB
Quote from: bricon on September 05, 2007, 12:07:35 AM
Have you ever attended a "live" performance of WSS?
The movie version pales in comparison; WSS is one of the greatest works ever created for the lyric theatre.
That's not what I meant. I said ON FILM,
an act hard to follow, NOT ON STAGE.
ZB
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 05, 2007, 12:09:38 AM
That's not what I meant. I said ON FILM, an act hard to follow, NOT ON STAGE.
Sorry, I mis-understood your post.
As far as your criteria are concerned; I think that
Oliver is probably the most accomplished movie version of a stage musical - FWIW.
Quote from: bricon on September 05, 2007, 12:23:58 AM
Sorry, I mis-understood your post.
As far as your criteria are concerned; I think that Oliver is probably the most accomplished movie version of a stage musical - FWIW.
Loved the film: "Where--ere--ere is love?", "Consider yourself AS IN!!" "You gotta pick a pocket or two"...
Loved the brinkmanship at the end (reminds one of
Annie or the other way round).
ZB
OK, now that you've got me going...
If it's a sin, I still love musicals and movie musicals.
How about Fiddler on the Roof. Isaac Stern at the violin, Topal as Tevye, and I think John Williams did the musical adaption with some great voices and choral work. Excellent cinematography and directing by Norman Jewison.
I've seen the musical twice but one can watch the movie just about any time with a rental.
Br. Paul Andrew
I think the reason that so many musicals have become classic films, is that filmmakers are more likely to adapt the original to suit the medium of film. With opera, there is generally more respect for the score. In other words, nobody would dream of adapting or rewriting bits of the score to suit the new medium of film. There was an outcry when Zeffirelli made cuts in La Traviata and Otello, though they are arguably two of the most successful filmed operas made. And, of course, Zeffirelli was a successful director both on stage and film. Usually, of course, when making a film of an opera, the composer is no longer around to agree to certain details being changed, whereas, with filmed musicals, the composer and librettist are still part of the creative process, which is why we are more likely to end up with something nearer definitive, though often I find the original more satisfying.
Only recently, I went to the recent West End revival of The Sound of Music, and, though the decidedly mediocre Connie Reeves was no match for the wonderful Julie Andrews, and we miss the spectacular Austrian scenery, I found the stage musical a much more satisfying work than the film. Because so many of the cuts made for the film involved the political back drop for the story, the film became a much more saccharine and sentimental piece than the original stage show.
Anything by Rogers and Hart will do me fine. Listen to Dawn Upshaw on her Rogers and Hart disc. It is really terrific stuff. Real Sunday morning music.
Quote from: brpaulandrew on September 05, 2007, 07:19:47 AM
...I think John Williams did the musical adaption with some great voices and choral work...
??? I thought it was Jerry Goldsmith? ???
Trivia: Who played the violin solos in
Schindler's List?
Quote from: jochanaan on September 07, 2007, 07:00:28 PM
??? I thought it was Jerry Goldsmith? ???
Trivia: Who played the violin solos in Schindler's List?
Perlman.
Trivia: Who played the clarinet solos?
Quote from: brpaulandrew on September 05, 2007, 07:19:47 AM
How about Fiddler on the Roof. Isaac Stern at the violin, Topal as Tevye, and I think John Williams did the musical adaption with some great voices and choral work. Excellent cinematography and directing by Norman Jewison.
Quote from: jochanaan on September 07, 2007, 07:00:28 PM
??? I thought it was Jerry Goldsmith? ???
I know John Williams won an Oscar for his 1971 Adaptation of a Score for Fiddler on the Roof, however, I did not know Goldsmith had a hand in this music.
Quote from: brpaulandrew on September 05, 2007, 07:19:47 AM
How about Fiddler on the Roof. Isaac Stern at the violin, Topal as Tevye, and I think John Williams did the musical adaption with some great voices and choral work. Excellent cinematography and directing by Norman Jewison.
Quote from: jochanaan on September 07, 2007, 07:00:28 PM
??? I thought it was Jerry Goldsmith? ???
I know John Williams won an Oscar for his 1971 Adaptation of a Score for Fiddler on the Roof, however, I did not know Goldsmith had a hand in this music.
A number of musicals seem to me to have suffered because they are bloated in their film versions. The King and I....I am not sure I have ever managed to get right through it in one sitting, I recall coming out of a revere at the end of a ballet sequence and wondering whether it was daylight outside. Fiddler on the Roof becomes interminable. Camelot, such great music and again tedious. My Fair Lady, just plain boring. South Pacific, snail pace at points, but as with the others, the music itself comes off well. I miss the snap of the stage versions. Opening these ones out for film meant adding significant bum-numming time and the performances by the leads often feel ponderous.
There are lots that do not get bogged down, West Side Story being one of them.
Mike
Quote from: knight on September 07, 2007, 11:52:52 PM
A number of musicals seem to me to have suffered because they are bloated in their film versions.
Agree w/
Mike on the point above - I love
Rodgers & Hammerstein music, but the only 'film' version of their musicals that I own is the
Sound of Music (mainly because I like Julie! :D) - just do not like the overdone productions of the others; OTOH, after renting from Netflix (and then buying), we've enjoyed the two productions below of
Oklahoma (w/ Hugh Jackman; a London full stage production) &
South Pacific (done at Carnegie Hall; not a full production) - :)
CLICK on the images for comments from the Amazonians (overall ratings 4+*/5* w/ a few detractors)!
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H92WSNE4L._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B0000C23HY/sr=8-3/qid=1189262118/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful/104-4487663-4298324?ie=UTF8&n=130&qid=1189262118&sr=8-3#customerReviews) (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/517CDE95FKL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/South-Pacific-Concert-Carnegie-Hall/dp/B000FIHNHK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-4487663-4298324?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1189262474&sr=1-2)
Taking the kiddos this afternoon to see this show before its starts its run on Broadway. Should be fun. :)
(http://www.denver-theater.com/images/events/small/event_12470_small.jpg)
For opera fans, here is a little about the venue:
http://www.eventticketscenter.com/Event.aspx?EventID=4312&gclid=CObO_t_BtI4CFREDWAodi2dZww
Quote from: Bogey on September 08, 2007, 10:42:24 AM
For opera fans, here is a little about the venue:
http://www.eventticketscenter.com/Event.aspx?EventID=4312&gclid=CObO_t_BtI4CFREDWAodi2dZww
That's a cool-looking photo of the Caulkins interior!
--Bruce
Quote from: Bogey on September 07, 2007, 07:31:10 PM
I know John Williams won an Oscar for his 1971 Adaptation of a Score for Fiddler on the Roof, however, I did not know Goldsmith had a hand in this music.
I was wrong. The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/fullcredits#cast) lists Jerry Brock as the composer and Alexander Courage (he of the original Star Trek theme) as one of the orchestrators. John Williams was the conductor, music adapter, and the other orchestrator.
Off-topic comment: I think John Williams is underrated as a conductor. I have fond memories of his time at the Boston Pops, and several years ago I caught a Fourth of July broadcast from Washington in which he directed his own Olympic Fanfare, and another conductor directed a John Williams suite. The orchestra played rather better for Mr. Williams. 8)
Quote from: jochanaan on September 09, 2007, 08:28:39 AM
I was wrong. The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/fullcredits#cast) lists Jerry Brock as the composer and Alexander Courage (he of the original Star Trek theme) as one of the orchestrators. John Williams was the conductor, music adapter, and the other orchestrator.
That's Jerry Bock, I assumed it was me who had misremembered, so I checked.
Mike
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 04, 2007, 11:47:37 PM
Bernstein even to the end of his life was disappointed he didn't write the Great American Opera.
This may be a dumb question, but didn't Americans already consider Porgy and Bess to be that kind of work?
Quote from: yashin on September 07, 2007, 04:20:30 PM
Anything by Rogers and Hart will do me fine. Listen to Dawn Upshaw on her Rogers and Hart disc. It is really terrific stuff. Real Sunday morning music.
I love Rogers and Hart.
Quote from: Josquin des Prez on September 04, 2007, 09:31:07 AM
Musicals = Satan. That is all.
At the expense of extending this dire thread further, for once we agree! >:D
Quote from: Lethe on September 13, 2007, 05:09:36 AM
This may be a dumb question, but didn't Americans already consider Porgy and Bess to be that kind of work?
Nothing is a dumb question (except comments like "dire thread").
Porgy and Bess was considered an opera other than Gershwin himself only after the fact. It had to wait more than 40 years for its acceptance on the opera stage in 1976 in Houston. The Met finally staged it in 1985.
Rumor has it that the shadow of Gershwin was never far from Bernstein, like Beethoven's was for Brahms. But really, each pair of composers had their own special gifts. Too bad Gershwin died so young just at the apex of his career. He may have succeeded in changing the educated public's taste for American home-grown works a little earlier and not have had to wait 50 years for the Met to finally recognize him as a legit composer.
ZB
"Off-topic comment: I think John Williams is underrated as a conductor. I have fond memories of his time at the Boston Pops, and several years ago I caught a Fourth of July broadcast from Washington in which he directed his own Olympic Fanfare, and another conductor directed a John Williams suite. The orchestra played rather better for Mr. Williams. 8)
Williams was Bostom Pops conductor for years. Everyone seemed to like him except the orchestra. The "if we have to play another one of his tunes" faction seemed pretty strong.
However, he does conduct his movie scores. How about Memoirs of a Geisha?
Sorry to be continue to be off-topic here.
Do we have a movie score thread going on here somewhere?
Br. Paul Andrew
Don't worry too much, you could start a thread if you canot find one to revive.
Mike
I used to love musicals and watched dozens of them; all the classics. I had alot of the soundtracks on LP too 'cause I was learning them to perform at the time.
Carousel was one of my faves.
I kept a list of all the movies I saw which I must dig out.
Our local theatre company used to put on excellent productions of these which we enjoyed attending. The last one we went to, a couple of years ago, was Fame and it was pretty dire.
I'm not really interested in musicals these days but can still apreciate their charm.
We had the American production of Porgy & Bess here last year but I decided not to attend thinking it was a musical. Only later did I discover that its an opera and now I wish I'd gone! ;)
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on September 16, 2007, 05:58:46 PM
I used to love musicals and watched dozens of them; all the classics. I had alot of the soundtracks on LP too 'cause I was learning them to perform at the time.
Carousel was one of my faves.
I kept a list of all the movies I saw which I must dig out.
Our local theatre company used to put on excellent productions of these which we enjoyed attending. The last one we went to, a couple of years ago, was Fame and it was pretty dire.
I'm not really interested in musicals these days but can still apreciate their charm.
We had the American production of Porgy & Bess here last year but I decided not to attend thinking it was a musical. Only later did I discover that its an opera and now I wish I'd gone! ;)
I don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a VHS tape of
Porgy and Bess. I think Willard White sang in it.
Quote from: Anne on September 16, 2007, 06:13:21 PM
I don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a VHS tape of Porgy and Bess. I think Willard White sang in it.
It's a film of the Glyndebourne Production and still seems to be available from Amazon both in the USA and UK.
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41eAGwPBb2L._SS500_.jpg)
An impressive crossover-- Eileen Farrell in the music of Porgy and Bess' composer:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4p40R1TtLJo&feature=related
Anyone going to see Carousel in London the second week of January?
http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=206&action=details&show=L210084745&title=Carousel
ZB
Well tomorrow (i.e. Saturday), we'll be doing an overnight to Charlotte (about 90 mins. from Winston-Salem) to see The Drowsy Chaperone at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center - national troupe so should be well done - received a lot of 2006 Tonys; pre-theater dinner planned @ McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant - looking forward to some oysters - hmmm! :P
(http://www.carolinatix.org/resources/images/eventlogos/drowsy.jpg) (http://1035kissfm.zipscene.com/data/business_lg/BUS_00001227_0.jpg)
I usually cannot stand musicals, finding the vast majority to be tacky, schlocky, mawkish and musically worthless. And playing cello in most theatre orchestras is about as depressing as it gets... when they actually write vibrato in your part at certain points (as they do in Les Miserables for instance) you just wonder what kind of monkey is writing this trash.
There are three major exceptions for me - Bernstein's West Side Story and Candide and Weill's Threepenny opera. Are there any that are as musically good as these three masterpieces?
Quote from: Guido on February 14, 2009, 01:09:27 PM
I usually cannot stand musical, finding the vast majority to be tacky, schlocky, sentimental and musically worthless. And playing cello in most theatre orchestras is about as depressing as it gets... when they actually write vibrato in your part at certain points (as they do in Les Miserables for instance) you just wonder what kind of monkey is writing this trash.
There are three major exceptions for me - Bernstein's West Side Story and Candide and Weill's Threepenny opera. Are there any that are as musically good as these three masterpieces?
I know those 3; and in my opinion Showboat is every bit their equal.
Quote from: Guido on February 14, 2009, 01:09:27 PM
I usually cannot stand musicals, finding the vast majority to be tacky, schlocky, mawkish and musically worthless. And playing cello in most theatre orchestras is about as depressing as it gets... when they actually write vibrato in your part at certain points (as they do in Les Miserables for instance) you just wonder what kind of monkey is writing this trash.
There are three major exceptions for me - Bernstein's West Side Story and Candide and Weill's Threepenny opera. Are there any that are as musically good as these three masterpieces?
Most anything Sondheim wrote is worth looking at, but try, for starters,
A Little Night Music (every musical number in triple or compound time),
Sweeney Todd, not in the film version, but it's much more operatic stage version, and
Sunday in the Park with George.
Quote from: Guido on February 14, 2009, 01:09:27 PM
I usually cannot stand musicals, finding the vast majority to be tacky, schlocky, mawkish and musically worthless. And playing cello in most theatre orchestras is about as depressing as it gets...
Guido - boy, I can't relate to that attitude - my wife & I are absolutely in love w/ musicals and have been viewing them in all forms (Broadway, locally, video, etc.) since the late 1960s - glad that people can have different opinions and choices - :D
Quote from: Guido on February 14, 2009, 01:09:27 PM
I usually cannot stand musicals, finding the vast majority to be tacky, schlocky, mawkish and musically worthless. And playing cello in most theatre orchestras is about as depressing as it gets... when they actually write vibrato in your part at certain points (as they do in Les Miserables for instance) you just wonder what kind of monkey is writing this trash.
There are three major exceptions for me - Bernstein's West Side Story and Candide and Weill's Threepenny opera. Are there any that are as musically good as these three masterpieces?
Try Kurt Weill's
Lady in the Dark. All the music in the show is gathered into 3 extended dream sequences, 15-20 minutes each, so there's an operatic continuity, and the music is constantly hinting at the tune which finally emerges as "My Ship". It's an excellent score, and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin are, as to be expected, clever and snappy.
Quote from: Guido on February 14, 2009, 01:09:27 PM
There are three major exceptions for me - Bernstein's West Side Story and Candide and Weill's Threepenny opera. Are there any that are as musically good as these three masterpieces?
Showboat is easily the equal of all those three.
Quote from: Mark G. Simon on February 14, 2009, 06:00:40 PM
Try Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark.
I'd also try Kurt Weil's
Street Scene, almost operatic in conception.
Thanks all for these recommendations - I will follow them all up in due course. On a side note about Weill - I recently heard his thrid Symphony for the first time - great piece.
Sonicman - I agree - each to their own!
Quote from: Guido on February 15, 2009, 08:23:12 AM
Thanks all for these recommendations - I will follow them all up in due course. On a side note about Weill - I recently heard his thrid Symphony for the first time - great piece.
Sonicman - I agree - each to their own!
I thought he only wrote two?
Quote from: erato on February 15, 2009, 12:45:32 PM
I thought he only wrote two?
Sorry yes, I meant second.