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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 11:37 am EDT 07/30/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - Snowysdad 07:04 pm EDT 07/29/20 | |
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| While away for a period the perfect example came into my head, June Bronhill. From Australia she had a major career in London and her homeland in operetta mostly with forays either way into opera and musicals (the original Elizabeth Browning in Robert and Elizabeth). I am totally enamored with her voice and picked up a compilation set of live excerpts to better study her. There are quite a lot of opera performances (Gilda in Rigoletto, Mary in Maria Stuarda, Constanza in Abduction from the Seraglio). Never is she awful and I think listening I can glean that her acting in these roles was excellent, but she never convinces me that she is born to this facht, always more provincial than first tier. Once she is back on operetta turf she is extraordinary. Her Merry Widow, although in English stands up well to well seasoned European divas such as Schwarzkopf (never one of my favorite sopranos). The amplitude of the voice just belongs in operetta and musicals that call for operetta singing. Even though she was a coloratura, she sang The Mother Superior to Petula Clark's Maria as well as someone else in her homeland and did so with aplomb. | |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:52 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - Snowysdad 11:37 am EDT 07/30/20 | |
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| At least on the cast recording with Petula Clark, she sings "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" in a higher key. I think it's up a step, and I think the high note is a B flat. I don't have it handy at the moment, and that particular performance doesn't seem to be on youtube, although at least one live TV performance of her singing it is there, when she was younger than when she played the Mother Abbess. My memory is that on the Clark cast recording she sounds impressive but at the end she sings something like this: "Ti yah fah yah ahhhhh!" There isn't even a hint of an e vowel at the end, it's just plain old "Ah!" |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 11:53 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - AlanScott 04:52 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
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| If it is up a step it is a C. Patricia Neway's climatic note was a B natural according to her (I read it somewhere, never met the lady). The recording is inconclusive the pitch not true on the CD transfer and of course LPs were notorious for requiring adjustment at the turntable. | |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 09:35 am EDT 08/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - Snowysdad 11:53 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| In the published vocal score, it is an A flat. And that, according to my musician friends (since I don't have an ear or the training to be sure), is what she sings on the cast recording. It is true that sometimes published vocal scores of Broadway musicals diverge from what was performed on opening night. Notable examples with rather major changes include Gypsy and Kiss Me, Kate (not even talking about something really obvious like "Better Than a Dream," added during the run, being in the Bells Are Ringing published score), but there is no reason to believe this is the case with The Sound of Music. And if the note was going to be changed for the recording, wouldn't it probably have been changed up, not down? Even if you're correct when you write, "The recording is inconclusive the pitch not true on the CD transfer and of course LPs were notorious for requiring adjustment at the turntable," the change is not going to be from a B to an A flat. And there have been several CD issues. It's possible that they're not exactly right, but, again, off by that much? I don't think that's likely. How do you know that the pitch is not true on one or more of the CD transfers? |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:03 pm EDT 08/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - AlanScott 09:35 am EDT 08/02/20 | |
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| "How do you know that the pitch is not true on one or more of the CD transfers?" I was wondering the same thing. This may be naive of me, but I've always assumed that major record companies are very careful about correct pitch in producing CD/digital transfers of older recordings from tape sources, including cast albums. Because of the nature of digital playback, if the pitch of a recording on CD is off, that would have to mean the speed of the tape machine that was used to play back the original master tapes in making the transfer would have had to be off, which I suppose is possible. I own hundreds of recordings on CD, and I think I've only come across two transfers that were notably off pitch: The first CD release of GOLDEN RAINBOW, which was also in mono (I believe that one was produced by Steve & Eydie themselves) and a transfer of the Victoria de los Angeles recording of the opera MANON that was, I believe, on the Testament label. (I very recently found a copy of the EMI release of that recording, and the pitch is fine there.) |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:23 pm EDT 08/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - Michael_Portantiere 03:03 pm EDT 08/02/20 | |
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| I've read that an early CD issue of the Callas-de Sabata Tosca was a bit fast and sharp. And the same company, EMI, issued a CD of the Klemperer's recording of the Mahler 2nd a bit fast and sharp, hoping no one would notice, because at the time CDs were limited to 80 minutes, and the performance is 80:15. So they sped it up slightly. Maybe at the time they were afraid of going over 79. (They first issued it on two CDs, and then on one, speeded up.) So it has happened, but like you I was under the impression (perhaps incorrect) that the problems with turntables generally being slightly off was pretty much not a problem with CDs. | |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:38 pm EDT 08/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - AlanScott 04:23 pm EDT 08/02/20 | |
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| "I've read that an early CD issue of the Callas-de Sabata Tosca was a bit fast and sharp." Wow, one of the most famous opera recordings of all time. And that story about the Mahler is really interesting, thanks. |
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