| re: HERE WE ARE;\the OOBCA | |
| Posted by: peter3053 04:46 pm EDT 07/10/24 | |
| In reply to: HERE WE ARE;\the OOBCA - bmc 03:55 pm EDT 07/10/24 | |
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| The HERE WE ARE album is a masterwork of a masterwork. (The CD with notes etc. adds to the pleasure.) Not since COMPANY, I think, has there been an album that from beginning to end manages to satisfy on sheer understandable terms and also convey a genius at work in the laboratory of life. The performances are delightful and precise. The instrumentation is full of surprise; it's magical, moving and fresh as a newborn babe. HERE WE ARE is a depiction of shallow people lost in their own lack of self-awareness. In a way they lead themselves into their own existential nightmare, by not paying attention to the authentic needs of the world around them, or even of each other. In their meaninglessness, they lose how to value themselves as well as life itself. It's a perfect example of what Sondheim (with Weidman) in Road Show/Bounce/Wise Guys said: Sometimes the worst examples are the best. That's been Sondheim's method through his career: he and his collaborators (here, the utterly essential David Ives) have presented terrible characters going about their terribleness; we, the audience, leave seeking the light. This has been the hope of theatre since Oedipus, through Othello, past Volpone, to Cora Hoover Hooper to Sweeney to these folk. The one greatest aspect of the album, though, is that it demonstrates what has always been true of Sondheim scores: re-listening clarifies their rightness. Because it was so long since an original Sondheim score, people forgot that his music in the theatre is always elusive because it is always absolutely specific. Here,for example, the fragmented quality of the opening number is thrillingly apt for the rag-bag collection of principal characters. Further, it sets up, with all the exacting technique of "Comedy Tonight" and "The Prologue" of Follies, what sort of evening the audience is in for. Did a 90 year old lyricist-composer rely on the talents of people like Tunick, Gemignani and others to fulfill his vision for the stage? Of course; just as the 40 year old did when he wrote Company. So what's new? Like all perfect things, in this world, there is a tiny flaw that only magnifies its excellence. The otherwise splendid Bishop's dialogue with Marianne in Act Two lacks the one comment that no priest would ever leave a distressed person without. He needed to remind her about love, charitable love for others, which gives all life purpose - and purpose is what these characters need. Yes, he's a poor priest, but he later says he learned to be a priest through the nightmare of the trapping; no; there is a difference between a poor priest and no priest at all. Of course, nobody wants a preachy monologue; it only needed a few words. HERE WE ARE is like the Rosetta Stone - it is a work that illuminates far more than just itself; it is a code to an entire career. A career in our time, for all time. And the album is an essential. (And no, I have no financial interest whatsoever!) |
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