| re: Do they ever change the key for replacement actors? | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 06:26 pm EST 11/13/22 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:15 pm EST 11/13/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Do they ever change the key for replacement actors? - Delvino 05:35 pm EST 11/13/22 | |
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| Yes, "It's All the Same" is in a higher key on the London cast recording. And that is the key in the published score and I think it's the licensed key. I don't remember "Aldonza" being higher on the London cast recording, but she does go into head voice more, and it may be in a higher key. Diener aspired to singing opera at a certain point in her career. She may have come to feel that belting too much in the lower keys was harmful to her voice. Another change of keys just occurred to me: Billy's refrain of "If I Loved You" was put in a lower key at some point and it was licensed that way. That is why you hear Robert Merrill sing it in a lower key on that recording, even though he easily could have sung it in the original key. I think it may have been changed when Henry Michel took over late in the Broadway run, and then he did the first year of the tour. He seems to have been more of a bass-baritone than a high baritone, based at least on other roles he played. (A few years later, he was an Emile standby in South Pacific, and then the Cesar understudy and temporary replacement in Fanny.) Around 15 years ago, there was work to restore the original score, and that section was put back into the key in which Raitt sang it. The "If I Loved You" refrain key might have been changed for Howard (then Harold) Keel before Michel, but I'm not sure as Keel seems to have been a traditional baritone at that time in his career. Later, he seems to have intentionally darkened the coloration of his voice to sound like a bass, and doing that may have made hitting high notes like F sharp and G tougher if not impossible. |
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