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[bk]

Well, you've read the notes, the notes were nice and also calm, and now it is time for you to post until the nice, calm cows come home.

[bk]

And the word of the day is: KVELL!

[bk]

Listening to the London cast album of 1776 - a shame it was never released on CD - and why?

[elmore3003]

Good morning, all!

[elmore3003]

I'm debating if I should do laundry or follow the weatherman's advice and hold off. Temperatures may get in the 100s today and there's a heat watch alert.

[elmore3003]

BK, much as I think there are some wonderful things about the Sutherland=Lansbury-Bonynge recording, it's the recording of "The Beggar's Opera" I really dislike. The concept for this arrangement  - I believe it was for the Australian Opera - was a movie studio producing "The Beggar's Opera," hence the large orchestra and lush orchestrations, and most of the recording cast was not in that production. My biggest problem is that several of the tunes are completely rewritten by Gamley or Bonynge.

[elmore3003]

"The Beggar's Opera" had a huge revival in London in 1922 in a small theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith, using singers from Thomas Beecham's opera company. It had new arrangements by Fredric Austin, who also played Peachum, and a cleaned up text. It was pretty, rather sanitized, and ran for several years. There was an original cast recording, which I find hard to listen to because of the sound. The Lyric Hammersmith and Austin then produced "Polly," John Gay's sequel to "The Beggar's Opera," and that too got recorded. Symposium reissued both cast recordings together.

 It was this successful revival that led to the Brecht-Weill "Threepenny Opera."

[elmore3003]

In December 1966 I made my first visit to Manhattan. At Sam Goody's I found two recordings of "The Beggar's Opera," an Argo recording the Austin version with its original chamber orchestration, conducted by Fredric Austin's son. It used a cast of actors doing a condensed version of the dialogue and a cast of singers. It's very prettyand I like Austin's version for what it is, but I find his arrangement too pretty-18th century pastiche.

The second recording was an English cast of actors and singers conducting Broadway conductor Max Goberman's arrangement. This was actually Goberman's second recording. I have never heard the first, but both recordings were the first to record all 69 tunes in the original play. Goberman was the original conductor of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Where's Charley?, and West Side Story.

The Goberman recording also included a beautiful facsimile of the original publication of the 1728 publication of the play with the songs and overture.

[elmore3003]

The last London revival of the Austin version was in the 1940s, directed by John Gielgud, and starring Michael Redgrave. It began at the Glyndebourne Opera. The recording's fun, but by this time it was becoming apparent that Austin's prettified arrangements maybe didn't suit the bawdy and seamier sides of a gritty 18th century.

[elmore3003]

In the 1950s, Sir Malcoln Sargent, who may have conducted at some point the 1920s Lyric Hammersmith production, re-orchestrated the Austin version for a full orchestra and recorded it with a cast of singers and actors doing the dialogue - still bawdlerized - for EMI. It has good moments, but I prefer Austin's chamber orchestra arrangement.

[elmore3003]

Then along came Benjamin Britten in 1948 with an arrangement for The English Opera Group, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, who also edited the text. The aim was to get closer to the gritty side of the 18th century, since the piece was supposedly written by a Beggar and performed by beggars in their "great room at St Giles." I think this is the first attempt to give the songs some dramatic urgency and push to match the drama. I think it's a great work, much in the style of Britten's wonderful folksong arrangements.

The first recording was in the early 1990s, conducted by Steuart Bedford who assisted Britten on the 1963 English Opera Group production. I like the music, but I hate the adaptation of the text for the spoken dialogue.

The second recording of the Britten version was the discovery of the 1948 BBC radio broadcast of the opera. It's nice to hear the cast it was written for.

Recently, the work was performed by Covent Garden, and Chandos produced a new recording, which O like very much.

[elmore3003]

Early Music specialist Jeremy Barlow attempted an authentic 1728 edition which was published by Oxford University Press, He recorded it for Hyperion. I think the dialogue is complete, and if you like faux-Purcell and Handel, you'll enjoy it. His edition was also used for a BBC television broadcasty starring Roger Daltrey and Patricia Routledge. My friend Rosemary Ashe plays Lucy Lockit.

[elmore3003]

There are London cast recordings of two later arrangements. They're interesting and both have good moments.

[singdaw]

Good morning, friends.

[singdaw]

What an amazing survey, DR elmore3003.   Thank you!

[elmore3003]

And, last, two more DVDs. The first is the early 1950s fi;m starring Laurence Olivier, Stanley Holloway, and Dorothy Tutin in Peter Brook's first film. The songs got new lyrics by Christopher Fry and a score by Arthur Bliss. I like it very much.

The 1963 English Opera Group production, conducted by Britten, got a BBC TV broadcast, and it finally turned up on DVD.

[elmore3003]

To blow my own horn, Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera was the last thing I directed in Ohio before my move to Manhattan in 1979.

[John G.]

Good morning, all.

[John G.]

Back in San Antonio after a 1193-mile ride yesterday.

[John G.]

We’ll see if I hold up.

[John G.]

I finished Stephen King’s Billy Summers yesterday and started a new book called The Bookstore of Second Chances. It’s funny because it touches on cleaning out an estate filled with a library of books.

[John G.]

Some of the titles are the same as those in Louisville like a set of Robert Burns.

[ChasSmith]

Good morning, all.

[ChasSmith]

Oh, my. That is quite the education from DR Elmore this morning. My goodness!

Thank you for that!

[ChasSmith]

To blow my own horn, Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera was the last thing I directed in Ohio before my move to Manhattan in 1979.

I believe we need a DVD of this one! 

[Jrand74]

Welcome home the DR JOHN G.

[Jrand74]

Wonderful posts about TBO.....and I loved the shout out to Guys & Dolls in the notes.

[ChasSmith]

Back in San Antonio after a 1193-mile ride yesterday.

I don't know how you do that. I have more driving stamina than most anyone I know, but I can't compete with that. My 720-mile drives to Cincinnati, which at a reasonable pace with rest stops take me 11 or 12 hours, are quite enough, thank you.

[Jrand74]

Of course I can't think about The Beggar's Opera without also thinking about Alan Ayckbourne's play "A Chorus of Disapproval" about an amateur theatrical troupe in England doing TBO...it is hilarious.

[ChasSmith]

Back in San Antonio after a 1193-mile ride yesterday.

I don't know how you do that. I have more driving stamina than most anyone I know, but I can't compete with that. My 720-mile drives to Cincinnati, which at a reasonable pace with rest stops take me 11 or 12 hours, are quite enough, thank you.

And to think I used to split that drive up, stopping in western PA or eastern OH. Sometimes that was for a good reason, but I eventually learned it wasn't necessary.