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| re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 04:04 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| In reply to: re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally - Chazwaza 06:08 am EST 02/07/22 | |
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| You did, I assume, see the post that explained that Valjean was originally written in baritone range, until they cast Colm Wilkinson and moved the role up. Had we been used to hearing "Bring Him Home" in a lower key, no doubt - no doubt at all - you'd be defending that key us "notably more effective." A good portion of musical theatre songs are transposed after the fact, to fit the performer. And changes get made along the way - for replacements, for understudies, and for tours. And beyond. Even a passing glance at bits of Sondheim's manuscripts will show that he often penned his songs in different keys than where they ended up in the show. Similar to the Valjean situation, Fosca was to be a soprano before they cast Donna Murphy, then the keys all came down. And even in opera, transpositions happen. It's silly to think otherwise. I'm sorry, but I'm not. |
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| re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 05:32 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 05:15 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| In reply to: re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally - Chromolume 04:04 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
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| Even in his own comfortable range, assuming it is set there, Jackman still did not do a great job with this song. Making it comfortable for him should have made it possible for the song to sound beautiful, and it didn't, as I recall, whether he was hitting or trying to hit the Colm-notes or not (obviously not). Maybe I'll be more forgiving with a new viewing of it. Also, it really doesn't matter to me in the least what the song might have been as originally thought of before the cast was involved. They didn't make this movie thinking it had no fans, let alone 20+ years of being one of the most successful, performed, and recorded musicals of all time, let alone of those particular 20 years before the movie was made. It's not my, or other fans of the musical's fault that we have heard it in the Colm key (and with his level of vocal ability, or similar with most notable Val Jeans over the years) for 2 decades. That is the song now, I'm sorry... but I'm not. They knew they'd have a massive audience base buying tickets because of their familiarity with the musical -- they counted on that when greenliting the movie-- with that pre-made audience base comes the pre-made impressions of the score on their ears, hearts and minds. I'm sorry for Hugh that so many much better and more rangey singers tackled and recorded the role, on audio and filmed concerts, before him... but they did. I also don't care what you think is silly. I think it's silly that such a gorgeous song wasn't gorgeous in the one major film of the musical likely to ever exist. It doesn't matter what/why/how that came to be, that was the result. If you and Tom Hooper liked it that way, good for you. |
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| re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 07:25 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 07:24 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| In reply to: re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally - Chazwaza 05:15 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
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| So I guess I'd ask - why this particular song - when movie musicals have been transposing iconic songs for decades? I mean, even the new WSS film has transpositions. And yet I don't hear you complaining. |
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| re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 07:57 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 07:41 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
| In reply to: re: it's an opera, and Jackman isn't the right fit vocally - Chromolume 07:24 pm EST 02/07/22 | |
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| Start a thread about each of them, if I happen to see it and have an opinion, I'll post and you'll hear. I didnt' start this thread. But also, it stood out to me as a change/sacrifice that impacted the song and perhaps the presentation of the musical as a film negatively. Perhaps most of the other transposing you're referring to didn't come off that way to me. Am I not allowed to dislike changing one thing if I don't dislike all changes made to anything? The massive cuts and changes made for the film of Cabaret made for a brilliant film and I support them based on the end result (it's not quite a film of the stage musical Cabaret, but still). I do not support the massive cuts and/or changes made for Sweeney Todd, or Forum, or Nine, for example. Sometimes changes are good sometimes bad, sometimes neither. Somethings they are necessary to support an actor whose casting is otherwise pretty good and without whom the movie may not have been made.. that doesn't mean, if the reasons were noble and reasonable, that the result was good. |
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