Prom 2 (14.7.12): Lerner & Loewe – My Fair Lady

[Mary Chambers]

I knew the play before the musical existed! We did Pygmalion at school. To this day my favourite bit of the musical or the play is the scene with the Eynsford-Hills (not at Ascot in the play) where Eliza describes her aunt's death from influenza in her newly acquired received pronunciation, but her old vocabulary. Very funny.

The publicity before the songs were first released (in my mid-teens, I think), and hanging over the radiogram to hear them. I was deeply unimpressed by On The Street Where You Live. The funny ones are much better, and I've always wickedly enjoyed the illiteracies that Professor Higgins would never have used. "I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling than to ever let a woman in my life". What kind of a sentence is that?

[PJPJ]

Ev'ry time we looked around
There he was, that hairy hound
From Budapest
Never leaving us alone
Never have I ever known
A ruder pest
Fin'lly I decided it was foolish
Not to let him have his chance with her
So I stepped aside and let him dance with her
Oozing charm from ev'ry pore
He oiled his way around the floor.

And what does she shout at the horse? Was it "Shift your Pelleas"?

[french frank]

What it's all about - hitting the media headlines.

[Note the caption 'Performances by the John Wilson Orchestra have become a popular Proms fixture'; oh, and also the top caption pointing out that Anthony Andrews is the one standing on the right ].

And, of course, that's why the front page of Radio Times features Wallace and Grommit.

Sadly, it doesn't take a genius to work out that for the general public this is becoming 'what the Proms are about' - not in making 'classical music' more accessible, but in making the Proms more accessible. Still, who's going to sniff at a 'packed house'?

[Mary Chambers]

Something like that, PJPJ :) In the play she says "Not bloody likely", terribly shocking in 1912!

What about "People stop and stare, they don't bother me,
For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be"?

That's an American rhyme. 'Bother' and 'rather' don't rhyme in Freddie-Eynsford-Hill-speak.

[Nick Armstrong]

And what does she shout at the horse? Was it "Shift your Pelleas"?

[Mary Chambers]

Sadly, it doesn't take a genius to work out that for the general public this is becoming 'what the Proms are about' - not in making 'classical music' more accessible, but in making the Proms more accessible. Still, who's going to sniff at a 'packed house'?

Most orchestras have to do this sort of thing now. It's changed in my lifetime. When I was still singing we had to do 'popular' concerts of Classic FM sort of stuff, opera choruses or even 'show tunes', simply for the money. When I grumbled (and I did!) I was told "It's the price we have to pay for having the chance to sing Bach and Mahler"

[Nick Armstrong]

Something like that, PJPJ :) In the play she says "Not bloody likely", terribly shocking in 1912!

What about "People stop and stare, they don't bother me,
For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be"?

That's an American rhyme. 'Bother' and 'rather' don't rhyme in Freddie-Eynsford-Hill-speak.

That always bathered me! My folks had the LPs at home (they went to see the original production on their honeymoon). That damned non-rhyme troubled the infant Caliban

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Benny Green would take any and every opportunity to point out that Americans live "on" streets whilst the English live "in" streets.

The linguistic inaccuracies in Camelot are even more pronounced!

[MrGongGong]

Most orchestras have to do this sort of thing now.

I seem to remember that in my lifetime there has always been loads of this
"your 100 best tunes" , all those Readers Digest classical music LPs that I remember my parents having in the 1970's
etc etc

and if you are there take a look at the content of some of the programmes on display at the Wigmore hall, hardly the kind of hardcore "classical" music temple that one might imagine

not that I would have any interest at all in pseudo 1970's Radio 2 prom gigs anyway

[MrGongGong]

The linguistic inaccuracies in Camelot are even more pronounced!

"It's only a model"

[amac4165]

Was it being filmed for later transmission?

nope - strangely although I guess it would still be in copyright so there might be cost implications

amac

[LHC]

Sadly, it doesn't take a genius to work out that for the general public this is becoming 'what the Proms are about' - not in making 'classical music' more accessible, but in making the Proms more accessible. Still, who's going to sniff at a 'packed house'?

The public's perception of the proms is also influenced by what the BBC chooses to show on TV. In the last few years a much higher proportion of the 'crossover' proms have been shown on TV than the more serious clasical proms. Although My Fair Lady is not being televised, the over-representation of the non-classical proms can still be seen in this year's TV schedules. As you state, for most people now, the proms equals show tunes, film music and the last night knees-up.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Benny Green would take any and every opportunity to point out that Americans live "on" streets whilst the English live "in" streets.

The linguistic inaccuracies in Camelot are even more pronounced!

The American film company, MGM, wanted to set "Brigadoon" in the USA rather than Scotland, but Lerner and Loewe dug their heels in.

(But Walt Disney still had raccoons wandering around England in 101 Dalmations. )

[french frank]

The public's perception of the proms is also influenced by what the BBC chooses to show on TV. In the last few years a much higher proportion of the 'crossover' proms have been shown on TV than the more serious clasical proms.

I sort of gathered there's a bit of negotiation between the Director of the Proms and the Controller of BBC One. It was reported that the (then) Controller won her battle over the choice of Last Night presenter, hence Alan Titchmarsh.

Although My Fair Lady is not being televised, the over-representation of the non-classical proms can still be seen in this year's TV schedules. As you state, for most people now, the proms equals show tunes, film music and the last night knees-up.

And as we 'move with the times and changing public tastes', there will be pressure on succeeding Directors, willingly or unwillingly, to programme more money-spinning hall-packers ...

[amateur51]

Benny Green would take any and every opportunity to point out that Americans live "on" streets whilst the English live "in" streets.

The linguistic inaccuracies in Camelot are even more pronounced!

Ah Benny Green - how I miss him

Hans Keller, Norman Lebrecht, Benny Green - The Line of Beauty