The
musical is one of the great art forms of the 20th century.
This 4-CD set, liberally illustrated, with both vintage and
modern recordings excerpts, traces its history from its origins
in light opera and operetta in Paris, Vienna and London through
to its transformation in the hands of the great American
song composers and lyricists. These included: George M. Cohan
the father of the modern musical, and Jerome Kern whose Showboat, marked
the coming of age of the musical; plus the classic stage
and screen musicals of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Rodgers
and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe etc. CD4 takes the story
forward to today’s productions through the works of Leonard
Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, Lionel Bart and Andrew Lloyd-Webber.
The
story begins with John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera produced
in London in 1728, and we hear a short excerpt sung by Sylvia
Nelis and Frederick Ranslow with an orchestra by Frederick
Austin, recorded in 1919, of ‘Where I Laid on Greenland’s
Coast’ with the tune instantly recognisable as ‘Over the
Hills and Far Away’. The story continues, covering just about
every significant composer and musical through to the company
of Les Miserables singing ‘The People Song’. Along
the way, especially for older listeners like myself, there
are so many treasures, bringing a lump to the throat, a tear
to the eye, on hearing long-forgotten recordings like Mary
Ellis singing ‘I Can Give You the Starlight’ from Ivor Novello’s The
Dancing Years, that concludes CD2 as the history approaches
World War II. As Kim Criswell remarks “the war years saw
the curtain ring down on the old romantic operetta-style
musicals;” and of Mary Ellis she recalls, “sang with Caruso,
and was the original Rose Marie. And she lived to
see in the new millennium.”
Kim
Criswell who starred in the title role of Annie Get Your
Gun, belted out her songs, in the tradition of Ethel
Merman, in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town and starred
in so many other classic musicals such as Anything Goes and On
the Town, is the committed and enthusiastic narrator.
A
most enjoyable history that would have gained a place in
my top recommendations for the year had it arrived sooner.
Ian Lace
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NAXOS NON-FICTION
HISTORIES NA422712 [4 CDs:
79:26 + 79:12 + 78:40 + 77:40] 
