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Untitled Document
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GRIEG, E.: Song of Norway (Recording with Original Cast memb |
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Composer: |
Edvard Grieg |
Artist: |
Irra Petina, Lawrence Brooks, Robert Shafer, Robert Weede, Helena Bliss, Kitty Carlisle, Ivy Scott, Walter Kingsford, Kent Edwards, Gwen Jones, Sig Arno |
Conductor: |
Sylvan Shulman, Arthur Kay |
Choir: |
Studio chorus |
Orchestra: |
Studio orchestra |
Lyricist: |
George Forrest, Robert Wright |
Label: |
Naxos Nostalgia |
Catalogue No.: |
8.120879 |
Format: |
CD |
Barcode: |
0636943287927 |
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Song of Norway
Music of Edvard Grieg
Adaptation and lyrics by Robert Wright & George Forrest
Original Cast Recordings 1944–45
One of the fascinating things about the
history of musical theatre is how the show that
people initially set out to produce often bore
little relation to the one that finally opened.
That frequently happened to Edwin Lester
and one of the most striking examples was Song
of Norway.
Who was Mr. Lester? He was a lover of
operetta who had stars in his eyes, schmaltz in
his heart and—most importantly—money in his
pocket. In 1938, he founded the Los Angeles Civic
Light Opera and two years later, added an
affiliate in San Francisco. The two theatres
combined had a powerful subscription base and
were capable of generating giant audiences. But Lester also had dreams of conquering
Broadway and he felt that he had a singular
vision of how to do it. He believed that what audiences needed
were the themes of great classical composers
bent into the format of operetta-style songs, all
wrapped up in a big, lavish package that would
feature glorious costumes, endless dances, groan-inducing
comedy and lots of romance.
In the middle of World War II, he decided that
what would cheer the people of America up the
most would be the story of author Hans
Christian Andersen set to the music of Edvard
Grieg. The fact that Andersen was Danish and Grieg
was Norwegian seemed to have slipped right by
Lester, or else he lumped them together in his
mind under the heading of ‘Scandinavian
Culture’. What he wasn’t able to ignore, alas, was film
producer Samuel Goldwyn who was working
on his own life story of Andersen. He threatened
a lawsuit and Lester withdrew. (The Goldwyn
project would finally emerge in 1952 as Hans
Christian Andersen, starring Danny Kaye, with a
screenplay by Moss Hart and a score by Frank
Loesser.) Undeterred, Lester decided instead to use the
music of Edvard Grieg to tell the life story of…Edvard Grieg.
It made perfect sense except that, well, there
really wasn’t much of a life story to tell.
Certainly not enough of a one to support a full-scale
operetta. Except for the tragic death of his
only child in infancy, Grieg lived a simple, drama-free
life, devoted to his wife and his music. But that didn’t stop Lester. He turned to his
friend, fellow producer and sometime
playwright Homer Curran, to concoct a story
about Grieg, his childhood friends, and a
scheming Italian opera diva who nearly wrecks
all of their lives. The fact that it didn’t contain a word of truth
wasn’t of much concern to anyone, and away
they went, with author Milton Lazarus turning it
into a juicy libretto which they christened Song
of Norway. Lester’s next—and most significant—stop
was to Robert Wright and George Forrest. This
team had just ended a ten year contract as
songwriters with MGM, where their speciality
had been the operetta. Back in 1937, in fact, for the Jeanette
McDonald/Nelson Eddy version of Maytime,
they had started adapting themes from
Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and other
classical works into popular songs. At liberty, and used to putting words where
none were meant to be, Wright and Forrest
sprang to the challenge of turning a lifetime of
lush Grieg melodies into a full-fledged score.
They would repeat the assignment several
times in the future for Lester, most successfully
with his 1953 Arabian nights hit, Kismet.
But for now, Norway was the thing and titles
poured out of them such as Hill of Dreams,
Freddy And His Fiddle and Strange Music.Just to hedge his bets, Lester hired the ballet
master George Balanchine to provide the
choreography and gave him full rein. So
Balanchine brought along the Ballet Russe de
Monte Carlo, headed by Alexandra Danilova. There was so much choreography, in fact,
that one critic described it as ‘a dance piece
interrupted by theatre’ and another one noted
that it had ‘all the choreographic staples of
operetta, from peasants dancing in the
marketplace to fashionable folk waltzing in a
ballroom’.
And Lester wasn’t finished yet. To make sure
there would be sufficient low comedy, he hired
Sig Arno, the veteran of over fifty films (such as
Pardon My Sarong), where he specialized in
playing what he himself later called ‘funny
Europeans’. But the final touch was provided with the
casting of Irra Petina as Louisa Giovanni, the
home-wrecking Italian diva.
At the time, Petina was a well-regarded
performer of the Metropolitan Opera, although
never considered a star of the first rank. Russian-born,
she made her Met debut in 1933 and was
most highly acclaimed for her performances as
Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro and Berta
in The Barber of Seville. But by 1944, she was being used for touring
companies and she seized onto Lester’s offer as
the possible start of a new career and scored a
personal triumph in the role. She later went on to play similar rôles in less
successful ventures (which would be christened
‘floperettas’) such as Magdalena and Hit the
Trail, but she did have one more solid success,
creating the role of the Old Lady in Leonard
Bernstein’s Candide, which won her a Tony
nomination.
All of Lester’s ministrations paid off and after
a successful run on the West Coast, Song of
Norway came to Broadway where it lasted for
860 performances. It was revived (usually at
giant outdoor summer theatres) through the
1950s, but a wildly unsuccessful 1970 film
version starring Florence Henderson helped to
put an end to its popularity.
This recording represents two distinct
versions of the score which came out on 78s in
1945, a result of the bizarre artist contracts of
the period. Decca had the rights to record the show and
so it did, using almost all of the original cast
members such as Lawrence Brooks, Helena
Bliss, Robert Shafer and Sig Arno. But the leading attraction, Irra Petina, was
signed with Columbia at the time and so she
was replaced with the much-loved Kitty
Carlisle. Not to be outdone, Columbia recorded an
album of six songs featuring Petina and fellow
Met star, Robert Weede (later famous as the star
of The Most Happy Fella).
This recording allows you to hear both and—between them—to get a crystal-clear picture of
a show that was an enormous hit over sixty
years ago, but was so much of its time and
place that it will probably never know that
popularity again.
Unless, of course, a second Edwin Lester
comes along.
Richard Ouzounian
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