[9/10/2011] Sunday Classics preview: From Borodin to Broadway (2) (continued)

The young George Forrest and Robert Wright

Tonight we're going to hear two more numbers fromKismet which are specifically Polovtsian Dances-derived. So first let's do a quick refresher, with the Overture and an orchestra-only performance of the dances.

BORODIN: Prince Igor:
Overture
Polovtsian Dances
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts Symphonique de Paris, René Leibowitz, cond. Reader's Digest/Chesky, recorded June 1960

Oh, and maybe one quick refresher of the Kismet Overture.

WRIGHT AND FORREST: Kismet: Overture
Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording


NOW (FINALLY) FOR OUR KISMET SONGS . . .

(1) "Not Since Nineveh"

Without delving too deeply into the plot of Kismet, we can say that is an intended show-stopper sung by the favored wife of the comic villain Wazir, Lulame, in which she functions more or less as a de facto Baghdad Chamber of Commerce rep.

Let's start with a performance (from the Capitol LP of Kismet excerpts we sampled last night overfeaturing Gordon MacRae,as both the rascally impecunious poet Hajj and the dashing young Caliph who sings "Strangers in Paradise" with Hajj's daughter, Marsinah), spiffily sung but with no sense at all of time or place or atmosphere. The show's subtitle is "A Musical Arabian Night," which could no doubt be suggested musically in all sorts of ways. I don't hear any of them here. (Again, my apologies for the LP surface noise audible on all the Kismet excerpts.)

Bunny Bishop and Richard Levitt, vocals; Roger Wagner Chorale, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Van Alexander, cond. Capitol/EMI, 1964 studio recording

A performance like that might well stop a show, but it would be a show that's just about vocal pyrotechnics. Here's a big step up, from the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center recording, for which Anne Jeffreys as Lulame got leading-lady billing rather than the more expected Marsinah. (Last night we heard the Marsinah, Lee Venora, and tenor Richard Banke as the Caliph give a quite gorgeous performance of "Strangers in Paradise.") Note that Henry Calvin, our Wazir, was -- like the star of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Alfred Drake -- a veteran of the original 1953 production, from which we'll hear him again in a moment.

Anne Jeffreys and Henry Calvin, vocals; chorus and orchestra of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Franz Allers, cond. RCA, recorded June 1965

There's more to be had here, though. Let's listen to the original Lulame, Joan Diener. I'm guessing she stopped the show pretty regularly with it.

Joan Diener and Henry Calvin, vocals; Original Broadway Cast recording, Louis Adrian, cond. Columba/Sony, recorded Dec. 6, 1953

The thing about Diener is that she had two essentially unrelated voices, from the two vocal registers that in Broadway terms have often been known as "belt" and "legit." And when Decca engaged Regina Resnik to sing Lulame in its all-star Phase-4 disc of Kismet excerpts with Mantovani and His Orchestra, it must have occurred to someone that Resnik was a recently converted dramatic mezzo-soprano with a solid decade of high-level professional singing as a soprano. (But what is that she's singing -- "Babbalin"?)

Regina Resnik and Ian Wallace, vocals; Mike Sammes Singers, Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording

A bonus "Not Since Nineveh" (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

(2) "He's in Love"

Wright and Forrest were understandably touchy about their reputation resting so heavily on musicals that "borrowed" other composers' music, but insisted that it's actually harder than writing your own, because you have to understand the music you're reusing from the inside. I think the driving energy of "He's in Love" is an excellent example -- the energy serves a totally different purpose but I think remarkably retains the driving surge of the original.

Hal Hackett, vocal; Original Broadway Cast recording, Louis Adrian, cond. Columba/Sony, recorded Dec. 6, 1953
Ian Wallace, vocal; Mike Sammes Singers, Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording
Albert Toigo, vocal; chorus and orchestra of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Franz Allers, cond. RCA, recorded June 1965


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

In Prince Igor, Borodin attempted something highly unusual: not a "historical opera," really, but an opera about history, in which we see the gallant Igor struggle against what he doesn't understand is history happening to him.


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