re: wish list of complete recordings
Last Edit: AlanScott 07:12 pm EDT 09/24/24
Posted by: AlanScott 07:08 pm EDT 09/24/24
In reply to: re: wish list of complete recordings - makemecrazy 01:35 pm EDT 09/24/24

The London cast recording of Carnival!, mentioned below by sc2, has a fair amount of material left off the OBCR, as was pretty common at that time with London cast recordings of musicals that originated on Broadway. The recording was reissued by Kritzerland on CD as a limited edition. Here is the note I wrote on ovrtur.com about the London recording:

“The original Broadway cast recording made changes and cuts to several numbers, including the opening music, ‘Humming,’ ‘Love Makes the World Go Round,’ ‘Beautiful Candy,’ ‘Her Face,’ and ‘It Was Always You.’ For the most part, the London cast recording was more faithful to how the numbers were performed onstage.

“In addition, the London recording included ‘Golden Delicious Fish,’ not on the Broadway recording, and created a finale for the recording by combining the reprise of ‘The Grand Imperial Cirque de Paris’ (not on the Broadway recording, although what’s on the London recording does not include the ‘Direct from Vienna’ counterpoint that’s in the reprise) and the closing underscoring of ‘Love Makes the World Go Round.’”

One oddity on the London recording is "Humming." The first C section (I know that sounds odd) was left off the OBCR and it's on the London recording, but with a partial rewrite. I think it may have been felt by MGM that it was too racy for home listening by the family. Remember how much MGM made Blitzstein rewrite Threepenny lyrics for that cast recording. Anyway, the section of "Humming" cut from the OBCR has Rosalie singing about being deflowered (that is the word in the song) by Marco when she was 17. The London cast recording (which perhaps should be called the Glasgow cast recording for reasons I'll explain below) has that section but with a partial rewrite (nothing about deflowering). And the second C section also has a rewrite on the London recording.

Unfortunately, I don't think the cast on the London recording is very good, at least not the Lili and the Paul. Even James Mitchell isn't as good as he is on the Broadway recording. The Rosalie, Shirley Sands, has the right kind of voice, at least if you don't mind her very fast vibrato, but still she is not as good as Kaye Ballard.

In his book Broadway Babies, Ethan Mordden wrote that he didn't understand most of Lili's lyrics till he heard the London recording, with Sally Logan singing Lili. I think I always understood all of Lili's lyrics even on the LP of the Broadway recording, except maybe a couple of lines when she sings in counterpoint with Paul on "I Hate Him," so I find Mordden's statement odd (as I do many of his statements in his many books). Anyway, Logan has a very light soprano voice, much lighter than Alberghetti's voice, and Alberghetti's voice was quite light. I don't think Logan is very good, but she's better than the London Paul, Michael Maurel, an opera singer who oversings all of Paul's music with a heavy voice that sounds more like he should be singing Wotan (although I doubt he could have sung Wotan).

About Glasgow: The London production played a seven-week tryout run in Glasgow (after a two-week run in Leeds). The London cast recording recording was made in Glasgow. There was a cast change between Glasgow and London, but a relatively minor one (Schegel) as far as the recording goes. Sally Logan is Scottish and was quite popular there. As it turned out, it played in Glasgow longer than it would play in London.

It's too bad no recording was made of the Encores! production, although I wonder if even a recording of that would have had everything.
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