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Dmitri Kabalevsky / The King and I

On this day in classical music: Dmitri Kabalesvky’s opera “Colas Breugnon” was given its premiere in Leningrad in 1938. Set in Burgundy, France around the turn of the 17th century, “Colas Breugnon” tells the story of a sculptor who recalls his experiences at the end of his life. While the opera has largely fallen out of the operatic repertoire, its sparkling overture has remained a popular staple of the concert hall. Listen to Andrew Litton and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia perform the overture to Kabalevsky’s “Colas Breugnon.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIcWCOZKfjE

On this day in the musical theatre: An acclaimed revival of “The King and I” closed on Broadway in 1998 after a two-year run. Starring Lou Diamond Phillips as the impervious King of Siam and Donna Murphy as Anna Leonowens, a British woman hired to teach the King’s children English, this revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won four, including one for Murphy and another for best revival. Watch Murphy and Phillips perform the charming “Shall We Dance” at the 1996 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shVIZAev5L8

Musical musings: Taking the story of Anna Leonowens, the adventurous yet very Victorian English governess who tamed the exotic King of Siam, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2d created a musical play as joyously all-American as anything they ever wrote. It’s beside the point that “The King and I” is set in the Far East and has nothing to do with America. As expressed by its charming score, the show’s spirit is that of an idealized 19th-century America far removed from the Civil War, robber barons, the Industrial Revolution and the winning of the West through the expropriation of other people’s property. Anna may be English and no more historically accurate than Robin Hood’s Maid Marian. Yet she has the fortitude and wit of those legendary frontier women who drove covered wagons across the wilderness, bewitched and outwitted the heathens en route, then found gold mines in California backyards. “The King and I” is romantic, clear-eyed and highly moral. Though ever- optimistic, it doesn’t deny intimations of darkness; it successfully absorbs them. “The King and I” is probably the most critic-proof of all Rodgers and Hammerstein shows. When it first arrived here in 1951 with Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, the musical play had an imposing heritage to live up to, following as it did “Oklahoma!,” “Carousel” and “South Pacific.” Reviewers were polite but discreetly pained. As much as they hated to say it, or so they seemed to write, “The King and I” didn’t quite measure up. They were correct when they pointed out that Hammerstein’s book, adapted from Margaret Landon’s novel, “Anna and the King of Siam,” was sweet though lacking a strong narrative. But they were dead wrong when they took a similarly dim view of the music, which is packed with riches that give definition to the show’s backbone. – Vincent Canby in The New York Times

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Ottorino Respighi / Ain’t Misbehavin’

On this day in classical music: Ottorino Respighi’s orchestral suite “Roman Festivals” was given its premiere by Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic in 1929. The third in Respighi’s Roman trilogy, “Roman Festivals,” or “Feste Romane,” was completed in 1926. Cast in four movements, the work depicts scenes from ancient Rome: Circuses, Jubilee, October Harvest and Epiphany. In typical Respighi fashion, “Feste Romane” is a masterpiece of orchestral color and concludes with one of orchestral music’s most thrilling climaxes. Listen to the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo perform the finale of “Feste Romane.” Massimo Zanetti conducts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXjxAFzdcAM

On this day in the musical theatre: “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” a musical revue that showcased the music of Fats Waller, closed on Broadway in 1982 after a four-year run. The musical was a tribute to the black musicians of the 1920s and ’30s who were part of the Harlem Renaissance, an era of growing creativity, cultural awareness and ethnic pride. The production, which featured Nell Carter, André DeShields, Armelia McQueen, Ken Page and Charlayne Woodard, offered a collection of rowdy and humorous songs that captured the vibrant mood of the era and reflected Waller’s view of life as a journey for pleasure and play. Carter won a Tony Award for her performance, as did Richard Maltby, Jr. for his direction. Watch the women’s trio perform “Off-Time” and the full company perform “The Ladies Who Sing With the Band” on the 1978 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzjL6oR_flg

Musical musings: Jump for joy! “Ain’t Misbehavin’” is a rhapsodic treatment of songs and piano solos (newly equipped with words) either wholly composed by, collaborated on or else simply played or recorded by the late great Thomas (Fats) Waller. In spirit, it evokes the late days of the Prohibition era when “vipers” smoked “reefers” and bootleg booze could be the worst or best, depending on your source of supply. Though the songs — especially such famous Waller numbers as “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now” and the title piece — often became international favorites transcending color lines, their interpretations by blacks (Waller and others) is and always has been matchless. And so it is here. There is a tape deck and a pair of sound consoles at the rear of the theatre that look elaborate and complicated enough to send the show into space. But that’s just what the cast of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” does all by itself. Wow! – Douglas Watt in the New York Daily News

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Percy Grainger / My Fair Lady

On this day in classical music: Australian-born American composer and pianist Percy Grainger died at age 78  in White Plains, N.Y. in 1961. An iconoclast who composed music that often employed unusual forces, Grainger was inspired by the folk tunes he heard on his travels throughout England and Scotland. He’d often transcribe these tunes and subsequently feature them in his works. Grainger would also arrange his music for different ensembles, something he referred to as “elastic scoring.” Grainger’s music had an enormous impact on the wind band repertoire, with such classics as “Lincolnshire Posy,” “Hill Song No. 2” and numerous folk tune settings regularly heard today. Listen to Eugene Migliaro Corporon and the North Texas Wind Symphony perform the “Horkstow Grange” movement from “Lincolnshire Posy.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nxaNJCfGCo

On this day in the musical theatre: A 1976 revival of “My Fair Lady” closed on Broadway in 1977. Lerner and Loewe’s classic musicalization of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” had become a musical theater classic when it premiered on Broadway in 1956. Christine Andreas starred as Eliza Dolittle in the 1976 revival, with Ian Richardson as Henry Higgins, George Rose as Alfred P. Dolittle and Robert Coote as Colonel Pickering. Rose won a Tony Award for his portrayal as Eliza’s high-spirited father.  

Musical musings: The new cast does have a very special authority. It stems from Ian Richardson and George Rose, who are both essentially far more serious performers — and better actors — than their illustrious predecessors. Richardson, one of the finest Shakespearean actors of our time, who happens to have an outstandingly good singing voice, takes command early on. In his first number — “Why Can’t the English?” — he suddenly replaces (Rex) Harrison’s bored gravity and genteel exasperation with a genuine flash of anger. Latger, when he sonorously extols “the majesty and grandeur of the English language,” you hear a man in love with his native tongue, a man of seriousness, a scholar. This is much more Shaw’s Higgins than was Harrison, and Richardson also eschews the patter-song delivery that Harrison made his own, and sings out in his own voice. As Dolittle, the recalcitrant garbage man who becomes entrapped in the web of middle-class morality, Rose is totally without thorns or peers. He explodes across the stage like a Cockney firecracker, every lewd gesture and lubricious grin, every rich and twisted syllable. “My Fair Lady” has come back as fair, as ladylike and, yes, as welcome, as ever. She can still dance all night — and does. – Clive Barnes in The New York Times

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Irving Fine / Crazy for You

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Alberto Ginastera / Nikos Kazantzakis

On this day in classical music: Alberto Ginastera’s “Harp Concerto” was given its premiere by Nicanor Zabaleta and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1965. Eugene Ormandy conducted the premiere. While Ginastera’s compositional style had moved well beyond the era in which folk elements featured strongly in his music, the harp concerto combined folk influences with 12-tone practices. The work demands a virtuoso harpist. Listen to Remy van Kesteren play the opening movement of Ginastera’s “Harp Concerto” with Clark Rundell and the NJO Chamber Orchestra. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GYg3xjzc3E

On this day in the musical theatre: Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Crete in 1883. His 1946 philosophical novel “Zorba the Greek” made him world famous. Michael Cacoyannis filmed Kazantzakis’ work in 1964. John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joseph Stein adapted the work for the stage in 1968. Herschel Bernardi starred as the title character, who befriends Nikos, a young man who has inherited an abandoned mine on Crete. Anthony Quinn starred in a 1983 Broadway revival. On the 50th anniversary of his death, Kazantzakis was honored with a 10 Euro commemorative coin. Listen to the original cast of “Zorba” perform the lively “Life Is.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMRb9Elttns

Musical musings: Beware of Greeks bearing scripts. Herschel Bernardi wasn’t Greek, of course, but then neither was Anthony Quinn. Bernardi — Tevye number three — enlisted “Fiddler” librettist Joe Stein to adapt Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel, and the pair ran the project over to “Fiddler” producer Hal Prince. Who duly drafted his “Cabaret” songwriters and choreographer, his “Fiddler/Cabaret” set and costume designers, and Bernardi’s own Golde, the Robbins-ballerina-turned-comic-actress Maria Karnilova. Everybody was primed for a smashing “Fiddler” follow-up — including audiences, who provided a two-million-dollar advance. Only trouble was, the show was ponderously leaden and just plain dull. “Zorba” begins with the refrain “Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die.” After around forty minutes it felt like “Zorba’s” what you do while you’re waiting… – Stephen Suskin in More Opening Nights on Broadway

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John Adams / Ethel Merman

On this day in classical music: American composer John Adams was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1947. One of the most performed composers of the last quarter century, Adams has written a large body of music, including works for orchestra, chamber ensembles and opera. Adams won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for “On the Transmigration of Souls,” a choral piece that commemorated the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Adams is also known for his operas “Nixon in China,” “The Death of Klinghoffer” and “Doctor Atomic.” Listen to Jiri Belohlavek and the Czech Philharmonic perform Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42r5mMAgB0k

On this day in the musical theatre: Ethel Merman, the grande dame of the early to mid-20th century American musical theater, died at age 76 in New York City. A brash stage actress with a clarion voice that had no trouble reaching the far reaches of any New York theater balcony, Merman was a genuine musical star who starred in the Broadway productions of “Girl Crazy,” “Anything Goes,” “Annie Get Your Gun, “Call Me Madam,” “Happy Hunting” and, arguably her greatest triumph, “Gypsy.” Jerry Herman had written the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi with Merman in mind but she turned down the role that catapulted Carol Channing to international stardom. As “Hello, Dolly!” neared the end of its nearly seven-year run, Merman finally stepped into the Broadway production as the meddling lady seeking to marry Horace Vandergelder. Listen to Merman perform her signature tune, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” with the Boston Pops. Arthur Fiedler conducts this 1975 broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZEihF6a6I

Musical musings: When David Merrick asked (Jerry Herman) to write “Hello, Dolly!” for Ethel Merman, his first idol, he was in seventh heaven. “I wrote the whole score hearing Merman sing it,” Mr. Herman said. “The day the score was finished, I was in David Merrick’s office when he phoned her. ‘Ethel,’ he said, ‘I’ve got a new show for you. It’s perfect for you.’ I watched his face cloud as a terrible silence ensued. Then he turned to me. ‘She doesn’t want to do another Broadway show,’ he said. ‘Ever.’” Miss Merman, however, didn’t mean “ever” literally. She simply did not want to undertake a Broadway run in a new show and she eventually took over the lead in “Hello, Dolly!” at the end of its run. Meanwhile, however, Mr. Herman had adapted his score for Carol Channing. “I believe in making my stars comfortable,” he said. “I would sacrifice a good song rather than have someone sing it with strain. So when Carol went in, I took two songs out of the score that were very rangy songs, songs based on Ethel’s most exciting notes, and replaced them with two new songs for Carol. But when Ethel finally played Dolly, I put the songs back in and left in the two I’d written for Carol as well. They made the show 10 minutes longer and made the same points twice.” – John S. Wilson in The New York Times 

 

 

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John Cage / Gregory Hines

On this day in classical music: John Cage’s “Second Construction,” a chamber work for four percussionists, received its premiere in Portland, Oregon in 1940. The second of three works bearing the title “Construction,” the second was composed while Cage was working at the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, Washington and touring the West Coast with a percussion ensemble he and Lou Harrison had founded. The work is notable for its use of prepared piano, with a piece of cardboard and a screw placed in the piano strings. Listen to the Simantra Grupo de Percusao perform Cage’s “Second Construction.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RtwvPpeEsw

On this day in the musical theatre: Gregory Hines was born in New York City in 1946. He began dancing as a child and would often appear with his older brother Maurice. Hines worked in film and television, but late in his career, he enjoyed considerable success in musicals. He earned Tony Award nominations for his roles in the Broadway productions of “Eubie!,” “Comin’ Uptown,” “Sophisticated Ladies” and “Jelly’s Last Jam,” and earned a 1992 best actor Tony for “Jelly’s Last Jam,” a musical bio of Jelly Roll Morton. Hines died of liver cancer in 2003. Listen to Hines and cast perform “That’s How You Jazz” from “Jelly’s Last Jam” on the 1992 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJN0hWe-PRg

Musical musings: On the short list of people who have so much talent they hardly know what to do with it all, count Gregory Hines, the star, and George C. Wolfe, the author and director of the new Broadway musical “Jelly’s Last Jam.” Mr. Hines’ brilliance is no secret. Few, if any, tap dancers in this world can match him for elegance, speed, grace and musicianship, and, as if that weren’t enough, he also happens to be a silken jazz crooner, supple in voice and plaintive in emotions. In the role of Jelly Roll Morton, Mr. Hines gets to display these gifts to the fullest, not to mention his relatively unsung prowess as an actor. Even when the band is taking a break, every note he hits rings true. In one remarkable sequence that seems to be Mr. Wolfe’s pointed response to the vendors’ scene in “Porgy and Bess,” the young Jelly, played by that exuberant dancer Savion Glover, leaves behind his strait-laced Creole upbringing to assimilate the authentic indigenous music of a diverse army of New Orleans street singers. This leads to a show-stopping tap challenge between Mr. Glover and Mr. Hines — in which their heads, wrists and elbows are choreographed (by Mr. Hines and Ted L. Levy) as tightly as their feet — and then into a galvanic blues belted out in a Storyland brothel by Mary Bond Davis. As Jelly moves on toward fame and fortune in 1920’s Chicago, he passes through a dance hall in which a whirlwind of a chorus picks up his steps, much as his tinkling piano is echoed by the blast of horns. “That’s How You Jazz,” as the number is called, makes the invention of jazz a miraculous, eruptive theatrical event. – Frank Rich in The New York Times

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Leonard Bernstein / The Most Happy Fella

On this day in classical music: Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story” was given its premiere by Lukas Foss and the New York Philharmonic in 1961. Bernstein’s Broadway musical, “West Side Story,” had premiered on Broadway in 1957 where it ran for 732 performances. But it was the 1961 big screen version of the “Romeo and Juliet” tale that turned “West Side Story” into a huge success. The popularity of Bernstein’s score prompted the composer to prepare a suite of orchestral music from the show, which became the “Symphonic Dances.” The suite, which featured the Mambo, Cha-Cha, “Somewhere,” “Cool” and five other excerpts, quickly entered the symphonic repertoire and has been recorded by Bernstein (with the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Seiji Ozawa and most recently, with Gustavo Dudamel with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. Listen to Dudamel and his Venezuelan orchestra perform the “Mambo” from the “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFUmQpjGZXE

On this day in the musical theatre: A revival of Frank Loesser’s “The Most Happy Fella” opened on Broadway in 1992. Based on Sidney Howard’s play “They Knew What They Wanted, “The Most Happy Fella” was a poignant tale about a California grape grower who develops a sort of May/December romance with a young waitress. The original 1956 production ran for just over a year. Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House mounted a production in 1991 which featured a two-piano arrangement (in place of a full pit orchestra) that was approved by but never used by Loesser. That production transferred to Broadway where it ran for 229 performances. Scott Waara won a Tony Award for his role as Herman. Listen to Spiro Malas and Sophie Hayden perform “Happy to Make Your Acquaintance” on the 1992 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i5rLSSLjcA

Musical musings: Nostalgia alone does not explain why Americans still adore Broadway musicals of the 1940’s and 50’s. The appeal of these shows is much plainer than that. Men and women step forward and express their most primal desires in simple poetry and unforgettable melodies: I want this. I must go there. I love you. These feelings, which are no less profound for being universal, will never go out of fashion, and neither will the musicals containing them if they are as powerfully acted, sung and staged as the revival of Frank Loesser’s 1956 musical, “The Most Happy Fella,” which opened at the Booth Theater last night. As directed by Gerald Gutierrez and performed by a cast led by Spiro Malas and Sophie Hayden, this work can hold its own with “Carousel” and “The Music Man” on the hit parade of Broadway romantic classics of the golden Rodgers and Hammerstein era. It is so stirring that even as your head tells you that you cannot possibly be moved by its preposterously simple love story of a middle-aged immigrant Napa Valley grape farmer of the 1920’s and his young mail-order bride, the rest of you is tugged right in. One does miss the musical colors of the haunting Don Walker orchestrations at first; the twin pianos that usurp them sound more out of place in a Broadway house than they did at Goodspeed. But I must confess that when I went home after the performance and put on the exemplary 1956 cast album, a boon companion for most of my theatergoing life, it seemed for the first time a little heavy, a little hollow. Or is it just that the new “Most Happy Fella” leaves one’s heart so full that there is no room for anything more? – Frank Rich in The New York Times

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Roy Harris / Me and My Girl

On this day in classical music: American composer Roy Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma in 1898. At age five, Harris moved with his family to southern California where he would study with Arthur Bliss and Arthur Farwell. Thanks to a recommendation by Aaron Copland, Harris studied with noted pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1926 to 1929. After returning to the United States, Harris established long associations with Howard Hanson, director of the Eastman School of Music, and Serge Koussevitzky, music director of the Boston Symphony. The latter gave the premiere of Harris’ “Symphony No. 3” in 1939. It would become his most popular work and was frequently performed during the mid-20th century. Listen to Howard Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra perform an excerpt from Harris’ “Symphony No. 3.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ft9LqD3pXY

On this day in the musical theatre: The London production of Noel Gay’s musical comedy “Me and My Girl” opened in the West End in 1985. The musical was originally produced in 1937 and was frequently revived. Set in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair and Lambeth, “Me and My Girl” followed the story of Bill Snibson, a Cockney who learns that he is the long-lost Earl of Hareford. In order to gain his title and estate, Snibson must satisfy the very proper executors (Maria, Duchess of Dene and Sir John Tremayne) by learning gentlemanly manners. Much of the show’s comedy came from Snibson’s challenges with transforming himself into a man of privilege. The London production ran for 3,303 performances. Robert Lindsay won an Olivier Award for playing Bill Snibson. He recreated the role for the 1986 Broadway transfer and won a Tony Award for his performance. Watch Lindsay and the Broadway cast perform “The Lambeth Walk” on the 1987 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oimHJCURbo

Musical musings: There is nothing more primal in the lexicon of musical comedy than the number in which the young hero declares his undying love for the woman of his dreams. About a half-hour into “Me and My Girl,” the restored 1937 English musical now on Broadway, that number is to be found in its most cliched form: every word, note and gesture collides with a civilization’s collective memory of vintage stage and movie musicals. Yet, astoundingly enough, one finds oneself wishing that the title song of “Me and My Girl” would never end. When the leading man, Robert Lindsay, croons and twirls his way through his romantic declaration, the audience is as enraptured as Maryann Plunkett, the fresh-faced heroine who eventually joins him for a delirious tap pas de deux on top of a banquet table. “Me and My Girl” — both the number and the show — has uncorked the innocence of the old-fashioned musical comedy so ingenuously that for once a theatergoer is actually sucked directly into that sunny past rather than merely suckered into nostalgia for it. Some actors keep audiences hanging on every word. The extraordinary Mr. Lindsay, who makes a nonstop charade of intricate vocal and physical details look relaxed, compels us to cherish his every syllable, wink and step. His subversive timing snares the laugh on each hoary pun, double entendre and malapropism. (Asked if he likes Kipling, Bill typically replies, “I don’t know — I’ve never kippled.”) The slapstick sequences — which require the star to play leapfrog with a seductress on a couch and to wrestle a royal robe and tiger rug to the floor — are full of surprising, daredevil pratfalls. As a singer, Mr. Lindsay captures the reedy vocal style of the 30’s without falling into stylized parody; as a dancer, he’s just as graceful gliding about a lamppost in debonair evening clothes as he is tapping up a vaudeville storm. Nor can one overlook this one-time Hamlet’s acting: while his performance boasts more funny walks and quicksilver flashes of mimicry than some whole farces, it’s never marred by star mannerisms or showiness and is always informed by an astringent wit. – Frank Rich reviewing the Broadway production in The New York Times 

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / They’re Playing Our Song

On this day in classical music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466” was given its premiere in Vienna in 1785 with the composer as soloist. One of the most popular of Mozart’s 27 piano concertos, the D Minor became a favorite of the young Beethoven who kept it as part of his repertoire. Pianist and author Charles Rosen called it “as much a myth as a work of art: when listening to it … it is difficult at times to say whether we are hearing the work or its reputation.” Listen to Mitsuko Uchida perform the “Romanze” from Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhNITXBguSs

On this day in the musical theatre: Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bager Sayer’s “They’re Playing Our Song” opened on Broadway in 1979. Featuring a book by Neil Simon, the musical was based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer who finds a new, offbeat lyricist. The collaborators would undergo a series of trials and overcome a number of hurdles before finding true love by the final curtain. Listen to original cast members Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz perform the title song on the 1979 Tony Awards broadcast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3IKrYzbDdc 

Musical musings: A few days after the first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, Mozart’s father, Leopold, who was visiting Vienna, wrote to his daughter Nannerl about her brother’s recent success: “(I heard) an excellent new piano concerto by Wolfgang, on which the copyist was still at work when we got there, and your brother didn’t even have time to play through the rondo because he had to oversee the copying operation.”

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