Best singing I've heard for a long time....

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  • Nick Armstrong
    Host
    • Nov 2010
    • 26601

    Best singing I've heard for a long time....

    from Julian Ovenden in the live transmission of The Sound of Music on ITV this evening.

    Not my cup of tea (I've never seen the whole thing from end to end, either in stage form - the version used tonight - or the rearranged movie version... and I haven't seen all tonight's either) but due to an Am Dram / Musical fan Aunt, I watched a lot of it.

    Ovenden (oft seen at the John Wilson Proms etc - also Foyle's son in 'Foyle's War') seems to me to be exceptional. Alexander Armstrong was pretty good too (ex Trinity College, Cambridge choral scholar, so he should be - although his career's too diverse I think, it's impossible to suspend disbelief and take him seriously). All sang far better than I'd believed possible, in fact, from the lead, ex-Eastenders' actress Kara Tointon, all the way down to the smaller parts.

    I suppose the main thing was that they didn't have to sing out - some songs were clearly done very intimately, and to my ears, benefited hugely. I do have a problem with sections of the piece as a whole, I find some of the songs toe-curlingly awful - but the best were done as well as I can imagine is possible tonight.

    The whole thing was a technical triumph, actually, too - 2 live, complex hours of faultless camerawork and sound, as well as performance (bar one von Trapp child who fell headfirst out of shot during one of the dances.). Glad we watched a recorded version, with a 30 m delay, so the exasperating advert breaks could be eliminated.
    "...the isle is full of noises,
    Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
    Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
    Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

  • Eine Alpensinfonie
    Host
    • Nov 2010
    • 20578

    #2
    He has a great pedigree: St Paul's Cathedral Choir, music degree at Oxford and training as an opera singer. He's sung at the Proms (in musical theatre programmes).

    It was a good evening.

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    • AjAjAjH
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 209

      #3
      Sorry to disagree but having watched a live performance at The Lowry in Salford last Thursday night, tonight's ITV version seemed very slow and badly cast. I realise that I prefer my music, of whatever genre, live and watching so soon after a live performance, I had 'Sound of Music' overload.

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      • Barbirollians
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 11882

        #4
        Did you not watch Andrea Chenier then Cali ?

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        • french frank
          Administrator/Moderator
          • Feb 2007
          • 30654

          #5
          It reinforces my opinion that, for me, the music is head and shoulders above the performer: I'd rather hear an indifferent performance (in my view) of music I love than sit through any sort of performance of music that just makes me want to run away.

          But I don't want to take anything from JO's musical performance as given the seal of Cali's approval!
          It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

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          • gradus
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 5645

            #6
            Sorry to have missed the musical which i would have enjoyed but I watched the Andrea Chenier recording which was also outstandingly well sung. No 'ugly voices' to be heard in either production.

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            • Nick Armstrong
              Host
              • Nov 2010
              • 26601

              #7
              Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
              Did you not watch Andrea Chenier then Cali ?
              Alas no, it passed me by... Might try and regroup.

              Originally posted by french frank View Post
              It reinforces my opinion that, for me, the music is head and shoulders above the performer: I'd rather hear an indifferent performance (in my view) of music I love than sit through any sort of performance of music that just makes me want to run away.
              Is "It" in that sentence the SoM production, ff? I must agree that some of the songs in the musical are toe-curlingly saccharine, it's not my cup of tea at all... But a couple are top drawer... And I think I disagree with you to the extent that I love it when excellent performance makes second-rate music seem splendid. However I agree that there is some music that no performance, be it ever so excellent, can make bearable!
              "...the isle is full of noises,
              Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
              Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
              Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

              Comment

              • Padraig
                Full Member
                • Feb 2013
                • 4262

                #8
                Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                I think I disagree with you to the extent that I love it when excellent performance makes second-rate music seem splendid. However I agree that there is some music that no performance, be it ever so excellent, can make bearable!
                Ah! Abraham Lincoln I believe, before he took up politics.

                Comment

                • french frank
                  Administrator/Moderator
                  • Feb 2007
                  • 30654

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                  Is "It" in that sentence the SoM production, ff?
                  "It" was what you said, and then my response to it.

                  Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                  And I think I disagree with you to the extent that I love it when excellent performance makes second-rate music seem splendid. However I agree that there is some music that no performance, be it ever so excellent, can make bearable!
                  As to what is great music and what is second-rate, I refer you to a local T-shirt seen walking down Gloucester Road: 'I like great music You like crap' I'm afraid the qualities of musical theatre pass me by utterly. They were all the rage in my circle when I was in my late teens esp Hollywood, but now saccherine and sentimental is how it all seems. Except Carmen Jones.

                  But I repeat that your comment about Julian Ovenden has been duly absorbed!
                  It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                  Comment

                  • VodkaDilc

                    #10
                    I was also pleasantly surprised by this. My enthusiasm for the film version dimmed many years ago, but I conducted a version staged by our local Operatic Society about 35 years ago, so I thought I'd watch the beginning and see what I thought of it. I was interested enough to watch the whole thing and thought it was a fine achievement. It was not until I saw the follow-up programme on the making of it that I realised that it was actually live - even more impressive.

                    I watched with the vocal score to hand and was surprised to find that the production followed the score pretty well - except for some cuts in the longer songs. Two songs from the original show, but not in the film, were reinstated; and the turgid "Must have done something good" song, which was added later, was also included.

                    The performances were good. I'd never heard of the Maria, but she was quite adequate, despite looking a bit old for the part. Ovendon was good, as mentioned above, and Alexander Armstrong was predictably at home in the part of Max. (He is a very versatile chap - can I be the only one who finds his weekend programmes on Classic FM much more enjoyable than the R3 competition at the same time? He seems to actually know the music he's introducing - and has interesting things to say about it.)

                    All in all, this was a surprisingly welcome introduction to the festive season - which seems to have little to offer via the television set in the corner of the room.

                    (I wish they'd given some attention to German pronunciation though. After the whole von Trapp family constantly referring to "Frorlein" Maria, it was a relief to hear polymath Armstrong get it right in the final act.)

                    Comment

                    • Eine Alpensinfonie
                      Host
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 20578

                      #11
                      It's being repeated on ITV1 at 2.20 this afternoon.

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                      • Beef Oven!
                        Ex-member
                        • Sep 2013
                        • 18147

                        #12
                        i didn't see it, but i was surprised at how many of my friends mentioned it - including those who don't care for this sort of thing

                        Comment

                        • Pulcinella
                          Host
                          • Feb 2014
                          • 11252

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
                          i didn't see it, but i was surprised at how many of my friends mentioned it - including those who don't care for this sort of thing
                          You've got friends?

                          Comment

                          • Beef Oven!
                            Ex-member
                            • Sep 2013
                            • 18147

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post
                            You've got friends?

                            I have 9 on Facebook and I've had 4 likes, this year alone. And you ask if I've got friends!

                            Comment

                            • gradus
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 5645

                              #15
                              Make that 10 and counting......

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