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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 04:29 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:27 pm 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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| Re miking: By the mid-1940s (certainly by the late 1940s) most Broadway musicals had floor mikes and probably area mikes, too. Some of the more operatic musicals (and operettas and the actual operas performed on Broadway) didn't, but most shows had miking. Re Alfred Drake: Perhaps he did more opera than I know of. But at least from what I know, I wouldn’t say he had even a minor opera career. This is what I know of. In 1935, when he was 20, he sang for one summer with a small opera company performing on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. His roles included Rocco in Fidelio, which is kind of funny for a 20-year-old. As far as I know, that Steel Pier season was it for him in terms of live performances of full operas, unless we count the Gilbert and Sullivan he did, which (at least as far I know) wasn’t much. Did Drake do more that I don’t know of? I heard him say in an interview some years back — I heard the interview long after it was originally broadcast — that he had aspired to a career in opera. In 1940, he auditioned for the Met via record. He sent the Met three recordings, which were of Mercutio's Queen Mab aria from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, the duet for the Count and Susanna from Le Nozze di Figaro, and Tchaikovsky’s “None But the Lonely Heart.” Those are now available in the Stage Door set of Drake recordings. My memory is that in the radio interview he said that he eventually realized he would be relegated to comprimario roles because he didn’t have the kind of voice to sing leading roles. He said that he only wanted to do leading roles, he was not interested in being a supporting player, and his voice would allow him to sing leads in musicals but not in opera so he decided to do musicals. (Of course, he also had a career in nonmusicals.) When you write, "in my opinion he was second rate as an opera baritone (just not enough meat on the bones of the voice)," are you basing that on the three recordings I mentioned, along with the little Gilbert and Sullivan we have from him? I just ask because I’m wondering if you know of more opera recordings from him. In any case, he agreed with you. Drake’s brother, Arthur Kent, sang at the Met for several seasons in exactly the sort of roles that Drake probably would have sung had he pursued a career in opera. His best role there seems to have been Masetto, although he got a few other good supporting roles, such as Silvio in Pagliacci, along with a bunch of really minor ones. Dorothy Kirsten did perform in operettas onstage, including The New Moon at City Center in 1944. The production was miked. |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 11:48 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - AlanScott 04:27 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
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| You ask if I know of more recordings, the answer is yes, he played several more when I was friends with him in the late 1960s. I heard Eri Tu from Ballo in Maschera, an excerpt from Aida, Act III and a Toreador Song that I remember. You are correct in calling me up on being loose about mics. You are correct that as early as the 40s there were floor and area mics but all they did was add a little volume and boost. The singers still had to project to the back of the orchestra and up to the balconies with only minor help. |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:15 pm EDT 08/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - Snowysdad 11:48 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| Oh, Snowysdad. It's just a little over three years ago that I replied to a post of yours here in which you told us about a Broadway acting credit of yours. In my reply, I went though some of the other Broadway acting credits that you had mentioned here over the years. And this is the end of this post because I may feel bad if I say any more. | |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 09:02 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - AlanScott 04:27 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
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| "By the mid-1940s (certainly by the late 1940s) most Broadway musicals had floor mikes and probably area mikes, too." That's what I thought, but someone recently posted somewhere that, according to the R&H organization, SOUTH PACIFIC was the first Broadway musical to use amplification of any kind. That didn't sound right to me -- and I guess it's not. |
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| re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 10:55 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm confused. Does anyone actually WANT to see opera stars perform musicals? - Michael_Portantiere 09:02 pm EDT 07/30/20 | |
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| Yes, that's absolutely incorrect. We know that South Pacific was amplified (a letter was written to the Times complaining about the tinny sound), but it was very far from the first. | |
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