5 comments about Introducing Dorothy Dandridge: An HBO Original Movie Soundtrack.

1. Wendi Williams did an excellent job singing as D-D(Dorothy Dandridge)! Even though they don't sound alike in any way, but, she matches Halle Berry's voice. This is a great soundtrack! If you buy this item, you won't be sorry.



2. I bought this soundtrack shortly after the "movie" came out in 1999 and I still love it. It's a great cd for anybody who loves vocal jazz & swing music. I'd like to find more cd's made by Wendi Williams, who sings all the vocals on this soundtrack, she has a wonderful voice. The arrangements are also great. This cd is fabulous!



3. Excellent ~ If you saw the Film then you must have this CD~ Also the Dorthy Dandridge CD~ "Dorothy Dandridge"

   Lyrics sang by "Dorothy Dandridge". I give it 10 Stars and would love to find more of her music~ She was a Pro Before her own time~

   A truly increadable Star/Singer/Woman "Dorothy Dandridge!




4. Being an Elmer Bernstein fanatic, I bought this cd. THe thing I didn't know when I bought it was that there is only six minutes of Bernstein's score on it. The rest of the music is fun to listen to, but I really wanted more Bernstein music. I wouldn't buy this cd brand new.



5. ..This CD captures the 'mood' of the early 1950's,especially with the help of Bill Elliott's orchestra.--Wendi Williams'vocals are pretty good throughout..Bill Elliott's first 'soundtrack',this cd will most likely introduce the B.E.S.O. to a lot more non-jazz music fans. 3-and 1/2 stars.

5 comments about Les Miserables.

1. This may be the original London cast; but the recording is poorly done. I went to answer the telephone twice, before I realised that the ringing was a cell phone recorded on disc two of this set. I would return it, but it just is not worth the effort. It is most disappointing
   
   I do not recommend this item to anyone.



2. I agree with most of the reviews - the London staging is the very best of the English language versions of 'Les Miserables'. Forget the New York (Broadway) production, much too polished (sanitized ?). It pales in comparison. The American version benefits from greater sophistication but at the cost of the original book.
   
   HOWEVER, for the first production of this musical, go to the recording on the 'Anthology' (French) label, issued by FGL Productions (the complete 1980 version). It has the cast of the premier, with 'guest appearances' by some big names in yesterday's French popular music, Michel Sardou, Salvatore Adamo, and Michel Delpech. And a list of superb actor-sings, like Maurice Barrier (Valjean), Rose Laurens (Fantine), Yvan Dautin (Thenardier), and Richard Dewitte (Marius), the list is long.
   
   Of course, it is all in French, but this IS a French musical, and this is what the composer, Claude-Michel Schonberg, and the librettists, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, created. Here you have it, without embellishments added to please 'Anglo-American' tastes. A much more raw interpretation, closer to Victor Hugo's very thick novel (interestingly written in France, and in England, when the author was in self-imposed exile). The words in the French production are quite different from the English-language versions. The recording on two cds comes without a text, but the actors enunciate perfectly. Every word is audible, if you understand the language. Great stuff !
   



3. Beautiful Music, Beautiful Voices. I have thouroughly enjoyed it. We saw the show when it came to Atlanta several years ago and it also was wonderful.
   NKG



4. We have owned the Les Miserable music book for quite a while and play them on the piano ourselves. Some of those songs are so grand and emotional that I was looking for a great treat from the "Original London Cast". We also bought the Les Miz movie and loved Liam Neeson in it. After watching it, I was really excited to listen to the London CD. I should have saved my money and time.
   
   The singing was like a high school musical -- Shallow, immature, Broadway Imitation voices; too rapid delivery; lacking in emotion and expression. Cosette's song, which should be a tear-jerking, plaintive plea sounded like a kindergarten kid rushing to get it over with. Jauvert's song should have been passionate and deeply emotional. Instead it had all of the emotional depth and expression of a junior high-school rock band's home-grown rant. Wait for someone to do it right.



5. This isn't every single musical note from the show, but it's the full cast recording from the 1985 London version, spanning 2 discs. It includes more of the songs than the Broadway highlights album and is similarly priced.
   
   This London production was the first English-language version of Les Mis and some songs have been tweaked for the later Broadway productions.
   
   My first exposure to the wonderful music of Les Misérables was through the Broadway cast highlights CD, so I am a little biased toward that version (although this is the original).
   
   This version is a little different from the Broadway version. "Who Am I?" is sung a little slower and seems more thoughtful. "A Heart Full Of Love" has differnt lyrics and is incorporated into a three-song "Love Montage".
   
   This cast includes Colm Wilkinson as Valjean (he also played that role on Broadway and in the Tenth Anniversary Concert), Roger Allam as Javert, Patti LuPone as Fantine, Rebecca Caine as Cosette, Michael Ball as Marius, Frances Ruffelle as Eponine, David Burt as Enjolras, and Alun Armstrong as Thénardier.
   
   I prefer Terrence Mann's rendition of "Stars" (from the Broadway cast) to Roger Allam's version on this CD. I really do. Maybe it's because I'm used to that one.
   
   And Thénardier has a strong British-type accent on this CD, so "Master Of The House" will sound a little weird if you're used to the American version.
   
   The actress who plays Eponine in the London cast is the same one from the Broadway cast (Frances Ruffelle). But for the people who were annoyed by her whiney performance on the Broadway CD, she sounds a little better on this recording.
   
   CONCLUSION:
   This is a pretty good recording of Les Mis and is available for a reasonable price. The Complete Symphonic Recordings includes even MORE of the show's music, but the cast is different (no Colm Wilkinson!). If you are used to the Broadway (American) version, I'd recommend you stick with that (although the Broadway equivalent of this 2-disc recording is a lot more expensive). The Broadway highlights CD is cheaper, but has only about half of the songs.
   
   I'd also recommend you check out the Tenth Anniversary Concert CD. It features an all-star cast of Les Mis alums (plucked from the London, Broadway, and other casts). The recording spans 2 discs, so it includes songs that the highlights CD doesn't (similar to this London recording), AND it's about the same price as the London disc or the highlights disc. If you're looking for more music than the highlights CD offers, but you're not familiar with the London cast and you don't want to shell out $30-something, the Tenth Anniversary Concert CD may be the way to go.

5 comments about Les Miserables - The Original French Concept Album.

1. The reprise at the end of the English version of this musical, "Do you hear the people sing" is not in this early French musical of Les Miserables; appropriately finetuned in the later versions, and there may be other slight variations; but this is absolutely stupendous; to think of how this came out. Too bad Victor Hugo himself could not see it.



2. Jacques Mercier is the best Javert I have ever heard. If for no other reason, buy this album for its authenticity (Les Mis was a French book, after all!) and for it's freshness. Mercier's performance and the music used for Javert is not the typical on-the-beat rendition in today's Broadway versions. As Mercier is a rock star, he brings an almost rebellious fervor, self-confidence, and youth to the character of Javert that is not always otherwise portrayed.



3. Les Miserables is my favorite show. This is the very first album. I am only 9 just to let you know. I have heard some of the album and seen some translations. "Do you hear the people sing" origanly was "To the will of the people". I have the origanal london and symphonic recording and am getting this one for christmas. I love the verson of "Master of the house" or "The Inkeeper's Motto" on this recording ALOT! For you Les Miserables collectors this album is a must have!



4. This is well worth buying so long as you're not looking for a carbon copy of the English version; fascinating to see the changes from the original to the London stage version, and just beautiful on its own. If you remember a little of your high school French, I suggest you look for this on Amazon's French website. I found new copies for sale there; even with the cost of shipping to the US, they were cheaper than the used ones being sold on the American website.



5. This is what fans of Les Miserables will be excited to listen to... it's the concept album that Cameron Mackintosch heard that inspired him to produce the history-breaking show and the show that was recieving standing ovations in France.
   
   This a C.D. for the die hard core fans of Les Miserables and despite it's all in French it's a good listen too, you can understand most of the songs based of the melody in the background and you can see how the final Les Miserables was changed in my opinon for the better. Although hearing it sung in French gave a whole new meaning to the show- and it sounding more breathtaking and exquiste than it did before.
   
   It's true what they say everything sounds more beautiful in French!

3 comments about Sondheim: The Stephen Sondheim Album.

1. Your critic writes that Dame Edna's incredible redndition of "Looooosing My Mind" is "The one skippable track" on this excellent compilation album. Fooey on your lame critic. I bought this album JUST FOR THAT ONE CUT! I enjoyed the entire album certainly, but Edna's magnificent ballad (Never have I been so ready to believe that the singer really is Loooosing her mind!) is the HIGHLIGHT of this melange. Your critic needs to acquire a sense of humor and some taste.



2. I was very excited for The Stephen Sondheim Album. I'd loved Bruce Kimmel's previous compilation, The Stephen Schwartz Album, and I knew that this one was going to be just as great. The only difference was that I was heavily exposed to Sondheim before I got the album. This album did not disappoint me. The incredible mix of song and talent made this album enjoyable from the moment I stuck it into my C.D. player. I'd been anticipating certain songs, such as Michele Pawk's incredible and emotionally charged rendition of It Wasn't Meant To Happen, Dorothy Louden's I'm Still Here (very appropriate), and Dame Edna's beyond hilarious rendition of Losing My Mind, all from Follies, but many of the other songs on the album were pleasant surprises. My favorites included Andrew Lippa and Theresa Finnamore singing A Moment With You from Saturday Night (Sondheim's first show which was made into a smashing off-Broadway production last year), Brian d'Arcy James's Giants In the Sky from Into The Woods, and Christiane Noll's tear jerker rendition of Not A Day Goes By from Merrily We Roll Along (paired with You're Gonna Love Tomorrow from Follies). The bonus track is also something to die for. This was a great album for the new Fynsworth Alley label to start out with, and I'm looking forward to many more. Buy this C.D.! Even if you're not a Sondheim fan! After this, you'll be hooked.



3. Does the world REALLY need another Sondheim compilation? Well, probably not, but Producer Bruce Kimmel's done enough of 'em to know how to do them well. For his new label's inaugural release, Kimmel's chosen to throw a pretty lavish set of arrangements, and an eclectic set of performers at a bunch of mostly well-known Sondheim numbers (at least for fans).

   Two of the songs on this album get fascinating new imaginings: Lea Delaria throws some lovely jazz stylings into "Broadway Baby," and Dame Edna does some indescribable things with "Losing My Mind" (pronounced "leuuusing" by the Dame)... easily the "love it or hate it" track on the album.

   Unfortunately, the album seems to suffer from overproduction... there's little of the dramatic arc which Kimmel so often effectively puts in his albums. Bryan D'Arcy James has a great voice, but his "Giants in the Sky" doesn't reverberate with anything that the song should evoke. Ditto (surprisingly) with Liz Callaway's "Everybody Says Don't". Brent Barret's "Make the Most of Your Music" (from the much-lambasted London "Follies") sounds delightful, however, as does the charming "A Moment With You" with Teresa Finimore and composer Andrew Lippa (who sings wonderfully), and Norm Lewis adds vocal warmth to "With So Little to be Sure of" and "Who Could Be Blue."

   A screamingly funny hidden track moves the album up from a 3-star to a 4-star category. (If you get the album directly from the label, you also get a charming early not-available-anywhere-else song performed by Emily Skinner). Certainly not an essential recording, but a nice one to have.

4 comments about Greenwillow (1960 Original Broadway Cast).

1. To be honest, I've long avoided GREENWILLOW, partially because I was apprehensive about hearing Tony Perkins sing, but mostly because it was the great Frank Loesser's only Broadway failure. Obviously - so I surmised - the score wasn't up to the standards of WHERE'S CHARLEY?, GUYS & DOLLS, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS. How wrong I was.
   
   Loesser's score for GREENWILLOW is a major achievement, weaving lovely ballads like "Summertime Love" (recorded by the likes of Eddie Fisher, Harry Belafonte, Bud & Travis), "Never Will I Marry" (Linda Ronstadt & Barbra Streisand, to name a few), and "Faraway Boy" with clever novelty numbers like "Could've Been a Ring," "The Sermon," and "Clang Dang the Bell (Baptism of a Calf)" and the pastoral "The Music of Home." Loesser also takes a stab or two at organized religion with "He Died Good" and "What a Blessing," sung by the Rev. Birdsong (Cecil Kellaway): "What a blessing to know there's a devil, and that I'm but a pawn in his game/That my impulse to sin doesn't come from within, and so I'm not entirely to blame."
   
   Based on the popular novel by B.J. Chute, GREENWILLOW is a ". . . lyrical and poetic fable . . . [that] tells of the romance between young Gideon Briggs, who walks in the shadow of a family curse and vows never to marry, and Dorrie, the orphan girl he loves." (Amazon.com's Book Description) If the whimsical town of Greenwillow reminds you of BRIGADOON or the folk-like melodies recall THREE WISHES FOR JAMIE or FINIAN`S RAINBOW, what the heck. All I can say is that GREENWILLOW is a true original and, next to MOST HAPPY FELLA, Loesser's finest score.
   
   Ellen McCown (SEVENTEEN) is a delightfully sweet Dorrie; William Chapman (CANDIDE) an operatic Rev. Lapp; Pert Kelton (THE MUSIC MAN) a hilarious Gramma Briggs; Lee Cass (THE MOST HAPPY FELLA) a humorous Thomas Clegg; and the aforementioned Cecil Kellaway (Oscar nominee for "Luck of the Irish" & "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") a spry and earthy Rev. Birdsong. But the major surprise is Anthony Perkins. He's actually very, very good. (Incidentally, he was filming "Psycho" while GREENWILLOW was in rehearsal.)
   
   Additional praise for Don Walker's lush orchestrations and the uncredited choral arrangements. It's unfortunate that the present economic reality of Broadway prohibits orchestras and choruses of the size common in the 60s. Today's musicals suffer because budgets dictate only 16 singer/dancers on stage and synthesizers instead of "real" instruments in the pit - a major reason why most modern revivals seldom sound as good as the originals.
   
   Anyway, GREENWILLOW is a musical gem, and I heartily recommend it.
   
   PS. An interesting side bar: Although GREENWILLOW was released as an RCA Victor LP, my copy is by Columbia Special Products. Just how long has the merger of the two giants been in the works? Let's hope Sony/BMG re-releases the complete MOST HAPPY FELLA as part of their Masterworks/Broadway series, far superior to the 1992 revival currently in its catalogue.
   
   And when in the world will there ever be a release of WHERE'S CHARLEY?



2. Ethan Mordden begins his book "Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s" by talking about "Greenwillow", which he calls "perhaps Loesser's greatest set of music and lyrics". I saw this show in tryouts as a teenager and was sure it would go on to a long run in New York. After three months it was gone. I recently purchased the CD and began listening again. It is a delightful score if a bit old fashioned in this day and age. What a shame more people aren't familiar with it!



3. All I could recall, musically at least, of Tony Perkins was his bit of froth "Moonlight Swim" which was on the hit parade when I was a teenager in the 1950s. Certainly, I had never heard of "Greenwillow" until I read Winecoff's biography of Perkins. It rather whetted my curiosity and, I have to say, I was not disappointed with the CD when it arrived. The music is a lovely, rather nostalgic glimpse (for me at least) of the musical genre of the late 50s. A worthwhile addition to my collection.



4. Interesting in large part for the performance by Tony Perkins, fresh from his career-defining (in both the good and bad senses) role in Hitchcock's "Psycho" -- a very different work than "Greenwillow," obviously. At the time, apparently, many considered this play to be more of a lesser gem than a "Loesser gem" -- and this recording was not held to be as good as the best live performances. Some fascinating background and history of this show can be found in Charles Winecoff's biography of Perkins, titled "Split Image" -- including the reaction of his fellow cast members to seeing "Psycho" all together one evening and how that affected the next performance of "Greenwillow." Also worth noting that it was during this production that Perkins met Grover Dale, with whom he subsequently had a mostly closeted romantic relationship for about six years.

2 comments about Movie Music: The Definitive Performances (Film Soundtrack Compilation).

1. I bought this C.D. I really enjoyed it, but too many movie blockbuster theme songs were missing. What happened to Tara's Theme from Gone With the Wind or Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz. Of course, many titles are recognizable, but there has to be at least 5 songs I hadn't heard of before,over 10 songs that weren't definitive enough for me, and 5 or 6 songs that weren't sung by the singers that you most commonly here sing them! If you want some nice music that you might recognize, get this C.D., but if you are looking for a C.D. filled with the most memorable songs ever recorded from Hollywood's biggest films... I have to tell you to keep on looking!



2. A good Compilation but the greatest film song of all time is Missing, Over the Rainbow. Now I'm not complaining The Man that got away is included but please this is one of the greatest songs of the 20th let alone the movies.

5 comments about How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961 Original Broadway Cast).

1. The best. [period]
   Robert Morse is J. Pierrpont Finch
   I can see why this show won the Pulitzer Prize...one of only five to ever get it



2. This musical may be very attactive to american audiences. However, approached from abroad, it sounds quite uninteresting and dull. The music said nothing to me, being hard to find one single attractive melody. According to the records, 1962 was not really fortunate for the Broadway musical. The plays nominated for the Tony were not really brilliant. And this musical made it. As the proberb says: "In the land of the blind, the cross-eyed is the King"...



3. Chockful of bonus items, but not quite the catchy songs I expected. I just purchased the 1990's Broadway Cast version and the difference is like night and day! The new recording has a more jazzy, swing feel and is a revelation!
   Stick with the Matthew broderick 90's CD. A more lyrical affair.
   
   Matthew Broderick in "How to Succeed in Business WIthout Really Trying!"
   Greenwillow (1960 Original Broadway Cast)



4. Yep, here is another cd I had to buy again to get the new remastering and the improvement in sound is well worth the investment. It sounds crisper and has a more vivid aural presence than the previous issue. That's important in a show recording as quirky as this one. It's now easier to hear all the instrumental details in Robert Ginzler's ingenious orchestrations. Just listen to "Paris Original" or "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" for some really off-the-wall instrumental humor. And that wildly eccentric jazzy Overture which keeps bouncing about with off-key flourishes from melody to melody until it seems at last to swing into the four square "Brotherhood of Man" like a sudden blast of inspiration (it took many listenings for me to "get" the sound of this score). I regret that the packaging is inferior to the 1st cd issue (no jewel box--just a cardboard fold-out), but the new liner notes are good, and you get the fun of hearing Frank Loesser sing the original version of "A Secretary is not a Toy" as a bonus track.



5. What the world needs now and then -- what it used to get now and then -- is a true smash Broadway hit. We got an idea when "The Producers" opened, when reviewers raved and people rushed for tickets and The New York Times predicted it would run fifteen years. And then...Nate and Matt left, with Nate's place taken by some fellow who'd done Shylock on the West End, and he got fired, and the whole premium-priced house of cards crumbled in slow motion -- no more sellouts (at least none without the boys), no one acclaiming the "genius" of the newest Max Bialystock or of Susan Stroman, no one willing to overlook the indifferent songs or the "hoary" jokes (so Ben Brantley called them -- on opening night!), and the show closed nine years before the Times said it would, and now it's a relic, just another overrated -- vastly overrated -- memento of its day, a "Black Crook" of over-the-top "comedy."
   
   "How to Succeed in Business" was the "Producers" of 1961 -- a highly-buzzed-about show that became a smash hit and earned tons of awards, including the Pulitzer. JFK came to see it, the ultimate stamp of approval. The difference, of course, is where Mel's show had an amanuensis, this one had the real thing in Frank Loesser. As the theatrical historian Gerald Bordman has noted, Loesser's strong suit was satire, yet somehow he got sidetracked into several big romantic shows, square pegs in round holes given his snappy up-to-the-minute style; he'd bombed the year before with the idyllic whimsy of "Greenwillow." Here he returned to the brassy form of "Guys and Dolls", and if it wasn't at that rarefied level (what could be?) his score was still one of the best -- and like most of the era's hits it was expertly and excellently cast, and thankfully for us superbly recorded. Whether the show itself is so excellent is another matter; it derives from a paper-thin in-joke parody of how-to manuals, and Abe Burrows's book pulls its punches from the get-go, content with easy set pieces. But the satirical prospects for "How to Succeed" have since increased exponentially. One could wrench "A Secretary is Not a Toy" from the weak orbit of Bob Fosse's finger snaps (the clever use of the typewriter here was evidently just for the album and most likely never made the show) and plunge it straight into an office machinery maelstrom of beeping computers and grinding copiers and ring-tone-playing cellphones. Of course J. Pierrepont Finch wouldn't be the only one with executive ambitions -- why not his beloved Rosemary? One or both could sell his (or her, or their) brilliant promotional scheme with a PowerPoint to end all PowerPoints. And Wall Street has outdone itself with imaginative crookery; merely hiding stock for a televised treasure hunt won't do -- unless of course Money Honey® emceed it on CNBC. Maybe she could be the femme fatale. Alas come the 1995 revival the producers' idea of humor was to emblazon their every poster (and the album art too) with a big fat "H2$" -- unfortunately H2S is the chemical symbol for hydrogen sulfide, sewer gas (yes, I know, it's a dollar sign, but it's also an S) -- and to get A&P's Eight O'Clock Coffee in for a willfully ignorant product placement.
   
   Perhaps it can't be done. Perhaps this brilliant cast album is a deceptive siren song to a revival's possibilities -- like "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", a first-rank score next to a rank book. But "Pal Joey" became a stage treasure thanks to Goddard Lieberson's studio album, and the stage is nothing if not for dreaming.

3 comments about Dumbo: Classic Soundtrack Series (1941 Film).

1. This is a Disney original soundtrack restoration from the 1941 movie original sources by Disney soundtrack restoration producer Randy Thornton. He has taken music recorded in the 1940's, reconstructed it,and de-noised it. Back in 1941 Oliver Wallace was a very talented in-house studio musician and composer with Disney Studios for many years and he wrote the underscore (background music) for Dumbo. In fact there is a demo of a song included on this CD that was not used afterall in the movie, but has been been included here as a bonus and Ollie Wallace himself is the performing musician on the track. Two other 1941 Disney Studio music department staff composers, Frank Churchill and Ned Washington, wrote most of the lyrical songs for the movie. Churchill and Wallace earned an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, and the song "Baby Mine" was nominated for Best Song. This is the wonderful ballad that is played while mother animals throughout the circus bed down for the nights and cuddle their babies, while poor Dumbo and his mom have to make contact through iron bars. There is a great 15 page booklet included with song lyrics, great liner notes, and terrific artwork from the movie. All total the CD lists 17 tracks and 40 minutes of music. Overall a gem of Disney history, high quality, and very enjoyable to listen to. These restoration Cd's from Disney are a great deal being very affordable. I strongly reccommend.



2. Oliver Wallace defined the sound of Disney animated features. He began by orchestrating "Snow White" and "Pinocchio," then going on to shine on his own writing the scores of "Bambi," "Dumbo," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," and "Peter Pan," not to mention countless shorts, featurettes, and live action Disney projects. His ability to create individual character themes and their many variations and combinations, in my opinion, approaches qualities of Beethoven. Not enough is known about Oliver Wallace (even the liner notes tend to slight him). His work on "Dumbo" is truly magnificent.



3. No other Disney soundtrack comes close to the style and swing of Dumbo. The songs on this album are more memorable and colorful than the songs on other Disney film albums, especially more contemporary ones. Maybe it's the 1940's era the music conveys that strikes home. (More contemporary Disney themes all seem to blend into each other and combine into a sort of beige hum) There's a subtle jazz influence on Dumbo, as if the writers and composers were challenging the more mainstream movie tracks of the time--no billowy orchestral or stark private eye sounds on this one. The bounce and playfulness of the tunes "Look out for Mister Stork" and "Casey Junior" are offset by the genuine (not saccharine) sadness of "Baby Mine" and "Dumbo's Sadness." Then there are the hallucinations of "Pink Elephants on Parade," a medly which falls in its own category of sophisticated weirdness--part march, part snake-charming tune. This is a Disney Soundtrack with an actual EDGE.

5 comments about Weill - Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera).

1. Fancy gloves has Macheath, dear, so there's never a trace of red...... A totally great recording!!



2. For those who have not found a copy of this now difficult to find CD of an early recording of Kurt Weill's DIE DREIGROSHENOPER with the finest cast ever assembled for the work, take advantage of Amazon's search machine and add this gold standard recording to your permanent collection post haste! This is one of those rare recordings that withstands time and scientific advances in recording techniques and remains absolutely perfect.
   
   Weill's exquisite score for pit band and small ensemble is here recreated under Lotte Lenya's supervision, the original Jenny and who recreates her role in this performance. The ensemble is under the careful conducting of Wilhelm Bruckner-Ruggeberg with the Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra. The lead roles are all impeccably performed by Wolfgang Neuss (Moritatensanger), Erich Schellow (Macheath), Trude Hesterburg (Frau Peachum), Willy Trenk-Trebitsch (Herr Peachum), Joanna von Koczian (Polly Peachum) and of course Lotte Lenya (Jenny).
   
   The recording is bright and witty and wily and wonderful, surely the finest ever made, and thankfully it is sung in the idiomatic German in which it was composed. The only lacking feature is a libretto with the CD but there are so many copies of this important work available that surely most listeners will have a copy on their shelves. This is a must for lovers of opera, of 20th century music, and of theater. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp,
   
   
3. A classic that you must own and a true testament to the genius of the 20th century's most important work for the musical theater.



4. Kurt Weill was once quoted as saying "there are only two kinds of music - good music and bad music". This is great music whipped into a frenzy - the Threepenny Opera as true opera and not as a musical play. The casting is superb, a direct reflection of Lotte Lenya's musical supervision of the project. It is one of the few complete recordings of the work, including both the "Jealousy Duet", often omitted because of the vocal demands placed on the performers, and the Ballad of Sexual Dependency, usually omitted because of its frank content.

   Lotte Lenya steals the show. Pirate Jenny has an almost maniacal lilt in the final verse. The Tango Ballade hits its full stride only after Lenya's voice takes over the lead. Her delivery of, perhaps, Brecht's most famous line; "erst kommt das fressen, dann kommt die moral" in the Ballad "What Keeps Mankind Alive" is as authoritative as Brecht could ever hope it to be. Lenya's exploitation of the musical interval of a tritone at "Rocke heben" adds a lifetime of experience and conviction to the work.

   Not to be overlooked is the excellent musical direction of Wilhelm Bruckner-Ruggeberg of the musicians and singers. Trude Hesterburg as Frau Peachum delivers a delightful performance of the Ballad of Sexual Dependency, and the Peachum family triumphs in the finale to Act I, the Uncertainty of Human Conditions. A true virtuoso performance all around.

   Kurt Weill suceeded beyond his wildest dreams - he truly was the poor man's Verdi.




5. I first listened to this recording on an LP of my parents' from the 1960s. The work was created by not one but two greats: Brecht and Weill, while Lotte Lenya worked closely with Brecht during his career.

   It really does sound as if it was recorded a long time ago, but somehow you don't want this opera to be 'smooth'. It also really sounds much better in German than in English. It has won over certain friends of mine who usually don't listen to [good] music of any sort. It manages to sound simultaneously (1) as if it was recorded in a church hall by a cast of chain-smokers (2) spot-on, tight, and flawlessly performed, which is not easy with Weill when he messes around with strange harmonies.

   If there's one language in which it sounds even rougher and better than German, it's [mandarin] Chinese. Nearly two years ago I had the privilege of seeing this work performed, for the first time in my life. It was done by Beijing Youth Theatre as part of a festival in Hong Kong, directed by Chen Yong, a real veteran director. Not only did it relate perfectly to a lot of things in mainland China, but it was also performed by people who really knew what they were doing.

2 comments about Children Will Listen.

1. Word on the street is, Stephen Sondheim disapproves of how Betty Buckley tinkers with his melodies to make them her own. This makes me intensely uncomfortable, as I think of myself as unnaturally attached to both of them. Whenever I listen to Betty Buckley do her own thing to Stephen Sondheim's music, I can't help but feel a bit of regressive tension--like knowing that Mom and Dad are fighting again, and here I am in the middle, hiding out in my room, trying to tune out the arguing downstairs. Wondering what will become of us if they get divorced.
   
   Now, devoted though I am to every single little bit of brilliance or effluvium that Sondheim emits, I have to say that Betty Buckley knows what the hell she's doing. Yep, I'm taking Mom's side. Even though she never sends me money.
   
   In general, I think Ms. Buckley's live recordings are her best (the bright, shiny exception being the newishly released, 1967). Among her studio recordings, Children Will Listen may be the best. It's not my sentimental favorite, but it really is a wonder. All of the songs are by theater composers and lyricists, and they reflect Buckley's famous sensibility for choosing and heightening the most vivid imagery in lyrics and melodies. Every song is a well-developed narrative or a brilliantly candid picture. Children Will Listen is story time, and it's wonderfully easy to get lost in it. So the result on this recording is a sort of musical transport to a dream world, oceans away, inside Buckley's head. Two songs into it, and you can't even see the shore anymore. That makes the third song, "Never Never Land," an especially prescient choice. It's as though she's making a point of teaching us the geography of where she's taken us.
   
   Generally, with Buckley's studio recordings, we see much more of jazz pianist and arranger Kenny Werner's collaborative hand in her style. And Children Will Listen, if I'm remembering right, is the first in those collaborations. One can argue that Werner sometimes seems to over-orchestrate, and one may find oneself muttering, "Just play the damn chord, Kenny". (Or maybe that's only my reaction to seeing Mom--I mean, Buckley--messing around with a guy who isn't Dad--I mean, Sondheim--and I should just deal with it in therapy.) As much as I feel allegiance to the original arrangements of some of these songs, I also find that the ones Buckley performs are often as good or better. Sometimes much better. "Meadowlark", for example, is a lovely story-ballad that works well enough as written. But I swear the original arrangement can seem long enough to require its own intermission. ("Really? The bird's not dead yet? I'm going out for another smoke. Signal me when the Sun God shows up.") Buckley and Werner resolved this problem by putting some kind of turbo-charged engine in the melody. It better matches the literary content of the lyrics, and it makes the tune more memorable. There's an important lesson here: You can respect a composer without necessarily reifying every single thing he or she does. In this instance, Buckley pays Stephen Schwartz great respect by doing something new and exciting with the song he created. Any songwriter should appreciate it when Betty Buckley develops a new translation of their music--in the same way that a good playwright should appreciate it when a talented director or actor finds new ways to draw out the meaning of their words.
   
   Fans of Broadway Buckley should be forewarned: When she and Werner do studio recordings together, there tends to be a lot less belting going on. The uncommon arrangements loan themselves to a softer, more contemplative impression. In fact, recognizing that Buckley's singing style is an indefinable fusion of jazz, country, traditional musical theater, and classic tin pan alley, it may be that Werner's unique backing is the glue that holds the whole composition of her recordings together. It may be that without the consistent flutter of his arrangements in the background, her mighty shifts and reversals might seem more disjointed across the recording as a whole. And for those of us who really enjoy getting all lathered up with that impossible range of hers, "Tell Me on a Sunday" is a dazzling exception here. The spine-tingling climax of the song is likely to be an adequate fix for those of us addicted to having our hair blown back by the full force of her voice.
   
   To me, it's a bonus that this recording contains three of the (precisely seven) Andrew Lloyd Webber songs that I like. That gesture alone should be considered a tremendous community service. By recording "Tell Me on a Sunday" and "Unexpected Song" here, she has saved us all untold dollars and hours contending with the cast album from Song and Dance. Indeed, if you've ever shelled out the cash and sat through the cast album from Song and Dance, you probably know you should send Betty Buckley a nice thank you note for saving you from ever having to do it again. I myself would have sent her a nice thank you note, but like I said, she never sends me money.
   
   For the record--and God forbid they should ever really divorce--but if Buckley and Sondheim ever do get into an actual fight, my money's on Buckley to knock the snot out of Sondheim. I'm just sayin'...



2. I have loved Betty Buckley ever since I first heard her sing "Memory" on an award show, and she made me all goose-bumpy and I swear my hair stood on end. This CD is so fantastic and filled with so many different songs and styles. My favorite is by far "Never Never Land", but for experiencing pure Betty Buckley, you have got to love "Memory".