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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