tsty
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response 4 of 9:
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Jun 11 13:44 UTC 2005 |
re #1 & #2 ,,,,phew! some humour has returned to agora .... thankxx
re #3 .... hope you can make one or more of these remmers, took mom
to last night's show ... reeeeeeeeealy good 2 hours. really good
voices and the double-piano playing is (really is) seamless.
we'll go again - dunno which though.
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remmers
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response 5 of 9:
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Jun 11 19:12 UTC 2005 |
I'm planning to go tonight (Saturday) for the "Very Good, Eddie"
performance. "Babes in the Wood" is one of Jerome Kern's loveliest
songs and is not heard that often. Ranks right up there with "Till the
Clouds Roll By", in my opinion.
The starting times listed on the Michigan Union Ticket Office website
are 8pm for the Friday and Saturday shows and 3pm for the Sunday shows,
rather than the 7:15pm and 2:15pm mentioned in #0. Is it possible that
the earlier times are when the doors open?
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remmers
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response 7 of 9:
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Jun 15 13:40 UTC 2005 |
I went to the Sunday afternoon concert. Michael Miller gave a
background talk on Jerome Kern's role in shaping the modern American
musical theater. This was followed by a performance of Kern's "The
Caberet Girl" from 1922.
Notes from Miller's talk: Jerome Kern was born in New York in 1885 and
began contributing songs to Broadway shows in 1904. At that time,
musicals performed on Broadway were mostly European imports featuring
aristocratic characters in far-flung locales. Beginning in the 1910s
and continuing into the 1940s, Kern wrote complete scores for numerous
musicals. He was a pioneer in developing a specifically American style
of musical theater. He wrote the music, to which other librettists then
provided words. This is the opposite of the way Rodgers and Hammerstein
worked, in which Hammerstein wrote the lyrics first, to which Rodgers
supplied music.
"The Cabaret Girl" had a successful run in London in 1922 but was never
shown on Broadway. (Kern re-used some of the material in later
productions.) The book and lyrics are by George Grossmith and P. G.
Wodehouse (of "Jeeves" fame). The setting is England, and it's a silly
aristocrat-falls-in-love-with-commoner-love-triumphs-over-all comedy,
typical of the time.
The music, being by Jerome Kern, is of course lovely. Noteable songs
include "First Rose of Summer", "Shimmy with Me", "Those Days Are Gone
Forever" (a middle-ager's lament on the passing of youth), and "Ka-lu-a".
This production, like the five others in the series, are being done in
recital format with soloists, a chorus, two pianos in lieu of orchestra,
no scenery or choreography, but with the original lyrics and dialog
intact. They're being recorded and are to be archived in the Library of
Congress as a way of filling gaps in an important chapter of American
cultural history. Original recordings of these musical plays simply
don't exist, and although many of the songs have become popular
standards, they haven't been performed in their original context for
several decades.
I greatly enjoyed Sunday's performance of "The Cabaret Girl". Pianists
and vocalists were excellent. My one complaint would be that the
accoustics of the auditorium and the lack of amplification prevented me
from understanding the lyrics much of the time. But that's not a
deal-breaker. I plan to attend as many of the remaining three
productions as I can. The list is in resp:0 .
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