BaL 4.07.15 - Rodgers: Carousel

[Hornspieler]

Superb! Carousel is a lovely show that fully deserves a BAL slot. One of my happiest memory's is playing Carousel in the pit for six weeks. Very affectionate music.

Are you sure that it didn't just seem like six weeks?

HS

[pastoralguy]

Are you sure that it didn't just seem like six weeks?

HS

Well, I've played the 'Ring' and that felt like a lifetime...

[gurnemanz]

Whether it 'deserves' to be there, whether it is 'dumbing down', it is unquestionably populism. It fits the old Radio 3 mantra of 'reaching out to the general public' - and it's hard to see how that achieves anything except push 'traditional' classical music back into a smaller and smaller corner.

That said, BAL is a treatment that Carousel wouldn't get on Radio 2 which is so 'dumb' it gets 15 million listeners per week. Not a lot to be proud of, in my opinion, but there you are.

Certainly not dumbing down but also not populism, in my view. If their aim were to be to encourage less demanding pop-oriented folk to tune in to Radio Three, it would surely fail. I would hope that the aim is rather to give serious consideration to a work which might be regarded by some as less demanding, but which is in fact a superb piece of music making, great fun but also ready to tackle very dark themes. I can enjoy it almost as much as Parsifal.

Having said all that, I'm still not sure there is a case for doing a BaL on it - not because it would not be worth the effort but because it is a genre outside the channel's specialist scope. Its inclusion might be justified in that it is something of a special case - i.e. more like Porgy and Bess than The Sound of Music. Opera North has had a lot of success with its production using both opera singers and musical theatre performers and with a full "classical" orchestra. We greatly enjoyed it at the Barbican a few years ago. I will admit freely that I couldn't help blubbing like a baby upon seeing "You'll Never Walk Alone" for the first time in its dramatic context.

PS Firefox spellcheck imaginatively wants to change Parsifal to "paralysis".

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, I've played the 'Ring' and that felt like a lifetime...

Reminds me of some old quip - Beecham? Churchill? - along the lines of:

"I spend a fortnight at Lady Cunard's last weekend...."

[vinteuil]

Reminds me of some old quip - Beecham? Churchill? - along the lines of:

"I spend a fortnight at Lady Cunard's last weekend...."

... surely not Beecham : she was his 'companion', after all...

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Cunard

[Stanley Stewart]

Carousel has always been a favourite for me since I saw its first West End staging at Drury Lane Theatre in the late 40s. I have CD recordings of at least four productions and my BAL choice would be Nicholas Hytner's RNT production in December 1992; later transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre in '93 and New York in the following year. Imaginatively designed by Bob Crowley it fully utilised the advantages of developing technology and was often breath- taking in its impact. erm, due apologies to Michael Gove! Kenneth MacMillan's choreography captured the ebb and flow of the ensemble scenes. The production had the advantage of two expansive recordings; one on the 1st Night label and the second on Broadway Angel. Either could be possible winners.

I also favour the 1965 RCA recording at the Lincoln Centre staging with choreography by Agnes de Mille. A clever touch, too, in casting Edward Everett Horton as The Starkeeper, he was around 80 at the time but his immaculate timing and sense of diffidence would have registered well. John Raitt rich voice and strong stage presence indicates a rugged Billy Bigelow.

Carousel has a timeless appeal and I think its rather cute that it will have the accolade of a BAL review on 4th July!

[french frank]

The 'natural' home of R & H would have been Radio 2; but R2's demographic has shifted - it's now listened to mainly by people in their mid-thirties to late-fifties, whose reference points are very much post-1965.

Their average age is 50 which means a considerable number are above that. How old do you have to be to enjoy R&H?

gurnemanz, the argument for calling it 'populism' is not concerned with its musical quality, but the very point that you went on to make yourself:

Having said all that, I'm still not sure there is a case for doing a BaL on it - not because it would not be worth the effort but because it is a genre outside the channel's specialist scope.

It extends Radio 3's appeal from the specialist to the general to appeal to a broader audience.

[visualnickmos]

..... Are we to expect The Sound of Music next?

Ruddy well hope not! I can't abide that film, ergo the show as well.....

[richardfinegold]

The Lyric Opera here routinely includes at least one Musical in their yearly lineup. This year it was Carousel.
Essentially Musicals are now occupying the same niche that Operetta has filled. These genres call for a higher degree of musicality than typical pop fare, while somehow remaining outside the boundaries of 'serious art'. At the time of their writing, the distinctions between 'high art' and more mainstream fare were not so sharp. George Gershwin might be the best example of a 20 the Century Composer who lived comfortably in both high and middlebrow territory. Brahms clearly relished the middlebrow territory, as most of his output is intended for home music making (Liebeslieder Waltzes, for example), was consciously modeled after Johann Strauss II, and probably paid him a lot more than his more 'serious' output. In our times, the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber has tried to occupy that ground, but has had a more difficult time shaking the 'pop' label.
There is some great music in Carousel, but it ranks behind other R&H works such as the Sound of Music, The King and I, and Oklahoma

[cloughie]

Carousel has always been a favourite for me since I saw its first West End staging at Drury Lane Theatre in the late 40s. I have CD recordings of at least four productions and my BAL choice would be Nicholas Hytner's RNT production in December 1992; later transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre in '93 and New York in the following year. Imaginatively designed by Bob Crowley it fully utilised the advantages of developing technology and was often breath- taking in its impact. erm, due apologies to Michael Gove! Kenneth MacMillan's choreography captured the ebb and flow of the ensemble scenes. The production had the advantage of two expansive recordings; one on the 1st Night label and the second on Broadway Angel. Either could be possible winners.

I also favour the 1965 RCA recording at the Lincoln Centre staging with choreography by Agnes de Mille. A clever touch, too, in casting Edward Everett Horton as The Starkeeper, he was around 80 at the time but his immaculate timing and sense of diffidence would have registered well. John Raitt rich voice and strong stage presence indicates a rugged Billy Bigelow.

Carousel has a timeless appeal and I think its rather cute that it will have the accolade of a BAL review on 4th July!

I settle for the singing and guitar playing of his daughter Bonnie. Not keen on R&H musicals but like some of the songs when properly arranged or jazzed. Then in my view R&H not far removed from G&S.
The BaL should be done on the R2 Arts Programme.

[seabright]

The actor / singer Julian Ovenden (one of Lady Mary's suitors in 'Downton Abbey') gave a superb performance of the "Soliloquy" at the 2010 'Rodgers & Hammerstein' Prom. I wonder who ES will single out as the best of the recorded performances ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-6UH4nxCg

[Conchis]

The actor / singer Julian Ovenden (one of Lady Mary's suitors in 'Downton Abbey') gave a superb performance of the "Soliloquy" at the 2010 'Rodgers & Hammerstein' Prom. I wonder who ES will single out as the best of the recorded performances ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-6UH4nxCg

That was excellent! Thanks for posting. :)

[jean]

Opera North have done it recently, and very good it was.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/15/carousel-review-opera-north-revival

[gradus]

I don't think Carousel misplaced on BAL or R3 for that matter. I've seen it on stage and film and I think it's a masterpiece, according to Wiki, the second in that great series of R and H shows. Scanning the list of the show's numbers reminds me just how astonishing were the melodic gifts of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's genius for lyrics. Affectionate music? Yes certainly, written by someone able to get inside the thoughts and actions of the characters and produce memorable music that in turn inspires great affection in listeners as the work's continuing prominence in the musical theatre repertoire plainly shows.

[antongould]

Opera North have done it recently, and very good it was.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...-north-revival

Indeed it was.

Max Boyce .........