Having previously challenged their audience with the lengthy opus Thick as a Brick, Jethro Tull went back to the concept-album for the even more difficult A Passion Play. The sometimes impenetrable work is part biblical allegory, part postmodern epic poem, and part psychedelic fairy tale. Such were the machinations of 1970s prog rock. The music mixes rock, English folk, and neoclassical material, an amalgamation that somehow hangs together. Reviled by critics when it was first released, A Passion Play has been redeemed over time thanks to the devotion of Tull fans, for whom it has always been an essential work. --Daniel Durchholz
Product Description
Digitally remastered reissue of 1973 album includes the enhanced bonus track 'The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles' & theatre programme (enhanced section taken from the album 25 Years Of Jethro Tull Longform VHS video release). Includes liner notes written by Ian Anderson. Chrysalis. 2003.
A Passion Play [Enhanced] [Extra tracks] [Original recording remastered]
A Passion Play,Jethro Tull,Capitol,Album Rock,Flute,Hard Rock,Pop,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop
A Passion Play [Enhanced] [Extra tracks] [Original recording remastered]
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A Passion Play
Jethro Tull Manufacturer: Capitol ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00008G9JM Release Date: 2003-05-20 |
Tracks:
- A Passion Play - Part 1
- A Passion Play - Part 2
Amazon.com essential recording
Having previously challenged their audience with the lengthy opus Thick as a Brick, Jethro Tull went back to the concept-album for the even more difficult A Passion Play. The sometimes impenetrable work is part biblical allegory, part postmodern epic poem, and part psychedelic fairy tale. Such were the machinations of 1970s prog rock. The music mixes rock, English folk, and neoclassical material, an amalgamation that somehow hangs together. Reviled by critics when it was first released, A Passion Play has been redeemed over time thanks to the devotion of Tull fans, for whom it has always been an essential work. --Daniel DurchholzAmazon.com
Following quickly on the heels of their career-defining Aqualung and Thick as a Brick, Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull demonstrated that their musical and thematic ambitions were as muscular as ever on 1973's Passion Play. But if Thick was a bit tongue in cheek about its conceptual conceits, Passion was a dizzying example of the prog-rock era's overweening musical aspirations at their zenith. Anderson now sums up it its obtuse, theater-as-metaphor libretto as "the theme of post-death meanderings in another world," but the sheer propulsive tension of Tull's sprawling musical interplay insures its folk-rooted baroque and roll a tight orbit around this mortal coil for nearly the album's entirety. This digitally remastered, enhanced CD edition features the complete video for the album's Lewis Carroll-esque interlude "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles," a theatrical program and typically self-effacing new introduction by Ian Anderson. --Jerry McCulleyAlbum Description
Digitally remastered reissue of 1973 album includes the enhanced bonus track 'The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles' & theatre programme (enhanced section taken from the album 25 Years Of Jethro Tull Longform VHS video release). Includes liner notes written by Ian Anderson. Chrysalis. 2003.Album Details
Remastered Reissue of their 1973 Classic. Includes Enhanced Bonus Video Track of "The Story of the Hare who Lost his Spectacles".Customer Reviews:
terrible tull!.......2007-05-11
The most underappreciated album in Tull's career up to 1973.......2007-04-12
1973 was seen as the peak of prog commercially as ELP released Brain Salad Surgery, Genesis gave us Selling England By the Pound, Yes gave us both the classic live Yessongs and the derided Tales From Topographic Oceans and Pink Floyd unleashed their arguable classic Dark Side of the Moon.
Also that year, Jethro Tull gave us A Passion Play. The album came to be by accident. You see, initially they were to record an album full of shorter songs at Chateau D'Herouville in France but the band was not happy with the sound so the aborted the sessions (three of those tracks would appear on 1974's War Child whilst the rest of the album would emerge as disc one of the rarities set Nightcap).
Then lead singer/songwriter/flute player Ian Anderson, guitarist Martin Barre, keyboard player John Evan, bass player Jeffrey Hammond and drummer Barriemore Barlow went to Morgan Studios in London to begin work on the proper follow-up to their 1972 album Thick As a Brick (which consisted of ONE 43 minue song which was split into two halves to accomodate the record format).
Like TAAB, A Passion Play was an album length song but unlike its predecessor was mainly a dark album with some humor (or as the British call it "light and shade") throughout.
The album was the jazziest in musical terms that Tull had recorded up until 1973. The piece was more of a jazzy hard rock than its predecessor. The album saw Ian Anderson utilize more saxophones to his arsenal of instruments (in addition to his usual flute and acoustic guitar and had used some saxophones on Thick as a Brick). Also, John Evan added more synthesizers to the mix. There are plenty of great musical and lyrical passages. The lyrics were some of the darkest Ian Anderson had written to date save for the song's middle section.
The section in particular is called The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. This is hilarious, especially if you watch the accompanying film on the enhanced part of the CD and/or the concert footage. All I can think of when I hear this is a lost Looney Tunes cartoon with Monty Python-esque humor.
Then the rest of the piece is just as good, if not better, than the first half.
A Passion Play, like TAAB, hit #1 on the Billboard album chart. However, its success was short-lived as opposed to TAAB (and even Aqualung and successors War Child, Minstrel in the Gallery, Songs From the Wood and even Crest of a Knave) and was what led the way for punk to become the rage according to rock critics in the mid-1970s (although punk would not hit commercial popularity here in the US until the 1990s, long after critics raved about it).
In 2003, the album was re-released as a remastered CD and sounds excellent.
RECOMMENDED!
Seminal work.......2007-04-03
The complexity of rhythms and textures , the incredible technique of the band's members , the immaginative , yet somehow obscure lyrics , the wittiness and the elegance of the arrangements have indeed no parallel in the "rock" universe. Closer to Bach than rock , it may appear a bit difficult at first , but is allways rewarding and revealing with repeated listenings. I , at least , have been listening to it , continuously over the past 34 years and still am amazed at the genious of Ian Anderson. I even enjoy the "Story of the Hare who lost his spectacles" as the orchestration is clever and leans more to the classical side of things .
"Invest your life in the memory bank.".......2007-03-23
Pleasant Romp Through Heaven @ Hell..Neither Am I Good Nor Bad.......2007-03-11
a Passion Play, an extremely sophisticated rock musical statement for it's day was one of those albums that critics despised but fans loved.
There is no excess as each note flows seamlessly into the next..taken as a whole, as intended to be, The Passion Play, coming after thick As A Brick Ian Anderson explains in this really great remaster was to be an "similarly upbeat concept album" that turned he explains into a "darker set of tunes".
The darkness fuses into lightness, as does lightness into dark throughout the CD,as the seriousness of the subject matter of repentance hearkens back to the unconscious fantasy world (see the attached video selection) meanderings as in the "story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" that then pushes forward into familiar Tull styles of jazzy soundscapes, brilliant accoustic sections of guitar and flute,as well as fierce (and to my ears) some of the most tuneful hard hitting music Tull recorded as evident as on the "Summoned by name I am/the overseer section on Part 2.
Intellectual musings aside, one is advised if interested to research for historical background purposes the original Passion Play and it's controveries that graced European playhouses at the time and for a more serious study look into the poetry of Goethe and Schiller as to their takes on the introvert and extrovert, the basic theme of The Passion Play and the reconciliation and balance of the two....anyway, this "Faustian" as ever Passion Play goes on and the steady mix of classical folk, gorgeous melody, fierce rock hooks makes this concept one song album, one eclectic piece of music that seams together into a whole quite nicely. A rare gem.
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Passion (1994 Original Broadway Cast)
Stephen Sondheim , Donna Murphy , and Marin Mazzie Manufacturer: Angel Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000002SLC Release Date: 2002-11-19 |
Tracks:
- Happiness
- First Letter
- Second Letter
- Third Letter
- Fourth Letter
- I Read
- Transition
- Garden Sequence
- Transition
- Trio
- Transition
- I Wish I Could Forget You
- Soldiers' Gossip
- Flashback
- Sunrise Letter
- Is This What You Call Love?
- Soldiers' Gossip
- Transition
- Forty Days
- Loving You
- Transition
- Soldiers' Gossip
- Farewell Letter
- No One Has Ever Loved Me
- Finale
Amazon.com
Based on the Italian movie Passione d'amore, Stephen Sondheim's Passion is a story of obsessive love. Giorgio (Jere Shea), a soldier, and Clara (Marin Mazzie), a woman with a husband and child, are deeply in love, but their idyllic happiness is disrupted when Giorgio is transferred to another post. Here, he meets Signora Fosca (Donna Murphy), a homely and ill woman who is the cousin of the regiment's commanding officer. Fosca soon falls in love with Giorgio and pursues him relentlessly, saying "Loving you is not a choice / It's who I am." He is repulsed and resists her advances, but eventually, he succumbs to the power of her love.Rather than a succession of individual songs strung together by dialogue, Sondheim's score is a constant flow of gorgeous music. (The original theater program listed no individual songs.) The plot is conveyed by song, some dialogue, letters between the characters, and a group of soldiers that serves as a Greek chorus. The result is more of a chamber opera than a conventional musical. Passion won Tonys for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book of 1994, and Murphy also won a Tony for her powerful performance as Fosca. Mazzie is in glorious voice as Clara, and Shea brings a pretty voice and a wooden personality to Giorgio. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews:
didn't play.......2007-02-21
Love Without Reason.......2006-12-16
Many listeners may have a hard time understanding why Giorgio's affections turn from the beautiful young (albeit married) Clara to the sickly Fosca, but the lyrics and the score weave such a spell that you are caught up in it. Love here is not necessarily a happy thing. Yes, the opening song, a duet sung by Giorgio and Clara, is an ode to the joy of being in love, but Giorgio's idea of love progresses to something darker and deeper as he comes to know Fosca more and more. As Clara attempts to schedule her affair with Giorgio around her husband, Giorgio arrives at a conclusion that his feelings were something else:
Love isn't something scheduled in advance
Not something guarenteed
You need
For for fear it may pass you by
You have to take a chance
You can't just try it out
What's love unless it's unconditional?
Love doesn't give a damn about tomorrow and neither do I!
He comes to know his feelings for Clara as "Love within reason/ that isn't love". At the same time Fosca is literally staking him, which at first he resents and later relents to an idea of:
Love without reason
Love without mercy
Love without pride or shame
Love unconcerned with being returned
No wisedom, no judgement, no caution no blame
It is Fosca that loves him with this completeness, and he can't help but return it.
Many of the songs are letters written from one character to another and that stucture takes some getting used to. In fact it's hard to isolate individual songs here. Each one flows into the next to create the effect of a unified whole. At the end all the characters sing bits of each song in the show as Giorgio reads Fosca's final letter to him they come together in a musical climax before fading out, leaving only Giorgio and Fosca softly singing "your love will live in me"
Marin Mazzie is a gorgeous Clara who's voice shimmers in a luminious way. As Giorgio Jere Shea sounds fine but falls rather short emotionally. He hits all the notes but with little feeling (Michael Ball of the London cast is far better, I think). However as the doomed, dark Fosca Donna Murphy gives one of the most stunning performances I've ever heard. Her understated performance is devistating. Her voice is perfectly suited to the scare and we have one of those all too rare perfect combinations of actor and material.
I have got two defective Passion CD!!.......2006-07-10
Goregous Operetta.......2006-03-26
As for performances, it's the females who own this show. Marin Mazzie is as glorious as ever as Clara (she's even better in Ragtime), and Tony-winner Donna Murphy brings all of the emotion forward in her portrayal of Fosca.
For those who are used to the usual Sondheim, this one may dissapoint. Others, however, will love this opera of love.
Original and Powerful Stuff.......2005-11-20
As a collector of Broadway Cast recordings, I made myself buy the OBC of "Passion" and only by listening to the score did I finally get what Sondheim was striving to accomplish. Every time he takes on a new show Sondheim goes where other composers fear to tread. And, because he is the foremost world-class composer of this generation, everything he writes causes quite a stir. And "Passion" is no exception. There is nothing like it, just like there is nothing like "Follies," "Company," "Pacific Overtures," "Merrily We Roll Along," "A Little Night Music," "Assassins," "The Frogs," and "Bounce." And there never will be because as long as he continues to write Sondheim will always expand the envelope of the American Musical form.
Thank God he does.
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Renee and Bryn: Under the Stars
John Harold Kander , Andrew Lloyd Webber , Claude-Michel Schoenberg , Richard Rodgers , Gerard Presgurvic , Jason Robert Brown , Meredith Willson , Lucy Simon , Cole Porter , Stephen Flaherty , Ralph Salmins , and David Hartley Manufacturer: Decca ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000088E7D Release Date: 2003-02-11 |
Tracks:
- "Not While I'm Around" (from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim)
- "Moonfall" (from The Mystery of Edwin Drood by R. Holmes)
- "I Don't Remember You The Happy Tim" and "Sometimes a Day Goes By" (from Woman of the Year by Kander & Ebb)
- "All the Love I Have" (from The Beautiful Game by Ben Elton & Andrew Lloyd Webber)
- "I Wish I Could Forget You / Loving You" (from Passion by Stephen Sondheim)
- "Stars" (from Les Misirables by Boublil & Schvnberg)
- "All I Ask of You" (from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber)
- "Hello, Young Lovers" (from The King and I by Rodgers & Hammerstein)
- "Pretty Women" (from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim)
- "Aimer" (from Romio et Juliette by Presgurvic)
- "All the Wasted Time" (from Parade by J. Brown)
- "Seventy-Six Trombones" (from The Music Man by Willson)
- "How Could I Ever Know" (from The Secret Garden by Simon and Norman)
- "So In Love" (from Kiss Me Kate by Cole Porter)
- "Wheels Of a Dream" (from Ragtime by Ahrens & Flaherty)
Amazon.com
In these days of the crossover, it is hardly surprising to find two great opera singers making a foray into numbers from Broadway musicals by such composers as Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. What's remarkable is that they seem completely at home in this music. Both say they grew up listening to it, and indeed they approach these songs with no less care and seriousness than they'd give the most demanding operatic arias, and without a trace of condescension. However, their vocal, expressive, and interpretive styles are very different, both in the solos and the duets. Terfel projects assertive manliness, tender, intimate affection, and rollicking humor without external effects, using only his incomparably sonorous voice and powerful personality. His diction is impeccably clear, and though he has sometimes let his theatrical flair spill over into Schubert songs, he is the soul of simplicity here. This is in stark contrast to Fleming's tendency to exaggerate colors and dynamics and to turn sentiment into sentimentality. Moreover, though she claims a background as a jazz singer, her "crooning" sounds artificial and unnatural. However, her top notes, culminating in a triumphant high C at the end of the final number, ring gloriously. Her voice glows and shimmers with irresistible luster, soaring from seductive whispers to thrilling climaxes. The program features a great variety of love songs, and includes an antiwar protest (from Beautiful Game), a celebration of the American dream (from Ragtime), and a rousing fun piece (from The Music Man). Unfortunately, even the best songs are marred by thoroughly corny arrangements. Listeners will find their own favorites, but the real "stars" on this record are the two singers. --Edith EislerCustomer Reviews:
Delightful .......2006-07-24
A Master Class in Singing.......2006-06-20
Bryn is swell, but the bombast is annoying.......2006-05-03
It starts out beautifully. "Not While I'm Around" has never sounded more intimate to me than Terfel's caressing pianissimo. Fleming's "Moonglow" is stunningly good. Terfel makes a medley out of "I Don't Remember You and Sometimes a Day Goes By" that makes you want to cheer, and Fleming does a lovely Sondheim medley as well. Bryn sings "Stars" and makes me long for him in Les Mis. And then...things tend to go downhill. The bombast takes over and gets to you - it overwhelms two of the biggest voices now recording. Then Fleming begins to swoop and scoop, over-coloring and often coming off as simply self-indulgent, reminding one of a kid who makes a point of putting his face in a camera shot.
I don't mind Bryn as Prof. Harold Hill - I frankly think the Welsh accent is kinda cute - and it doesn't bother me on "Wheels of Dream," either, but Fleming seems to have lost her mind on that great song, and rather than indulging her, it would have simply been better left off the album. Ditto "All that Wasted Time" which is pretty much unlistenable. Ms. Fleming needs to stop thinking she is a jazz singer.
The four stars are because this album does contain some truly GLORIOUS moments, particularly in the duets, and in Terfel's solo's which are warm and memorable. Without him, the kettle drums and Fleming's self-indulgence would have made the whole endeavor unbearable.
Surprisingly Fine Crossover from Fleming and Terfel.......2006-04-18
BREATHTAKING VOCAL MAGNIFICENCE~BRAVO!!!.......2004-10-11
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Barbara Cook Sings Mostly Sondheim (Live at Carnegie Hall 2001)
Manufacturer: Drg ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000059LFF Release Date: 2001-05-08 |
Tracks:
- Everybody Says Don't
- I Wonder What Became of Me?
- The Eagle and Me
- I Had Myself a True Love
- Into the Woods / Giants in the Sky (Malcolm Gets)
- Another Hundred People / So Many People (Malcolm Gets)
- Let's Face the Music and Dance / The Song Is You (duet with Malcolm Gets)
- Happiness
- Loving You
- You Could Drive a Person Crazy
- Not A Day Goes By / Losing My Mind
Tracks:
- Buds Won't Bud
- I Got Lost in His Arms
- West Side Story Segment: Something's Coming / Tonight (Malcolm Gets)
- Move On (duet with Malcolm Gets)
- Medley: Hard Hearted Hannah / Waiting for the Robert E. Lee / San Francisco
- Ice Cream
- Send in the Clowns
- The Trolley Song
- Not While I'm Around (duet with Malcolm Gets)
- Anyone Can Whistle
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Barbara Cook is one of today's most accomplished song stylists, and if you don't believe us, just listen to this live album. It's a master class in the art of singing. It documents an evening at Carnegie Hall during which Cook proved that she can dissect and extract the substance out of the simplest of lyrics. One of the best surprises is "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" (from Company), which is taken at an amiable trot and allows the singer to display its humor. Cook is not a swinging singer and uptempo is not her pace; give her a ballad, though, and she'll wring the last drop of emotion out of it. Her version of "Losing My Mind" (here paired with "Not a Day Goes By") is simply astonishing. The singer also performs songs that Sondheim has said he wished he had written, an awful lot of them by Harold Arlen. No complaints here. Guest Malcolm Gets solos on a few songs and duets with Cook on others, including "Let's Face the Music and Dance." This is classic material done masterfully by a classic singer. --Elisabeth VincentelliCustomer Reviews:
Wow!.......2004-02-20
Everyone Should Whistle.......2003-10-11
An amazing intro to the body of work of a true master.......2003-06-16
Beautiful, moving concert.......2003-04-13
I do have to say that by 2001, when this concert was recorded, Cook seemed to have a lost a little bit of power and intensity in her singing. This is only natural for someone of her age. Her voice is still lovely, but you can sense her keeping it in reserve a bit. She's as expressive as ever, but compare the rendition of "I got lost in his arms" on this album to the one on her previous album recorded in 1999, "The Champion Season", and there's less urgency and vocal depth in her singing here. That said, the high B at the end of "Ice Cream" is sensational.
So, despite that caveat, this is, again, a wonderful album, a must for Cook fans, especially for the gorgeous renditions of songs I'd never thought I'd get to hear her perform: "Not a Day Goes By", "Happiness/Loving You", "San Francisco", etc. Buy it!
... and I love Barbara Cook.......2003-02-11
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Magnificathy: The Many Voices of Cathy Berberian
Manufacturer: Wergo Germany ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000025QZS Release Date: 1993-12-08 |
Tracks:
- Claudio Monteverdi: La Lettera Amorosa
- Chansons De Bilitis: La Flute De Pan
- Chansons De Bilitis: La Chevelure
- Chansons De Bilitis: Le Tombeau Des Naiades
- A Flower
- The Wonderful Widow Of Eighteen Springs
- O, Atti Vocali (Aus La Passion Selon Sade)
- Surabaya-Johnny (Aus Happy End)
- A Ticket To Ride
- Summertime (Aus Porgy And Bess)
- Stripsody
Customer Reviews:
Perfect album not to play in cafes.......2004-09-30
ABSOLUTELY THE GREATEST SOPRANO OF THE 20TH CENTURY.......2003-12-02
The event was one of the high points of my childhood.
As at home singing avant-garde as she was singing pop and classical music, many composers wrote for Ms. Berberian simply because there were no other singers accomplished enough to bring their musical visions alive.
This disk offers up a wonderful cross-section of all of the
kinds of music in Cathy's vast repertoire. I recommend it most highly
Greatest Soprano of the 20th Century(?).......2002-06-22
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Passion Play
Teena Marie Manufacturer: Dead Line ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00000E9LP Release Date: 1994-07-19 |
Tracks:
- Warm as Mommas Oven
- Main Squeeze
- Wild Horses
- Smooth Tip
- Hypnotized Prelude
- Hypnotized
- Parking Music
- Sweet on You
- Slow Grind
- Climb the Walls
- Breakfast in Bed
- Passion Play
- Pretty Man
- Air I Breathe
Customer Reviews:
Get This One.......2006-11-26
ympriya.......2006-05-27
All the Praise by Other Reviewers is True!.......2006-04-14
Wild Horses couldn't drag away my 'Passion Play' CD!.......2006-02-20
For me, "Passion Play" picks right up where "Ivory" (my fave LT CD of all time) left off: X-tremely sensual, sexual, romantic, and passionate. You can make love to this cd all night and never need to put another disc in! Just hit repeat!
Favorite songs for me are:
1) Hypnotized (remake of late 60s Linda Jones classic). T harmonizes with a male soul group on this one and it has a magical intro!
2) Breakfast In Bed! WOW! You've got to give it up for anyone who writes and sings the lyrics "Breakfast in bed / heavy on the cream / kisses over easy / and a side of everything". 'Nuff said.
3) Wild Horses - passionate.
4) Main Squeeze - features Lenny Kravitz on harmony vocals! They sound great together.
And there's more where all that came from! My advice for true Teena aficionados is to just fork over your 30 or 40 bucks and call your honey over for some hot lovin'! For those new to the Lady T experience, take your pick of 2 or 3 greatest hits packages to make sure you get a good sampling of both her Epic and her Motown work, preferably cds featuring LONG original LP versions, not single edits. With T you need to have the full effect as she writes mini-symphonies!
Phenomenal.......2006-02-11
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Passion (1997 London Cast)
Stephen Sondheim , Michael Ball , Maria Friedman , and Helen Hobson Manufacturer: First Night ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000026A17 Release Date: 1997-01-01 |
Tracks:
- Happiness
- First Letter
- Second Letter
- Third Letter
- Fourth Letter
- Fosca's Entrance
- Garden Sequence
- Transition
- Fifth Letter
- Scene Seven, Part One
- Scene Seven, Part Two (Clara's Letter)
- I Wish I Could Forget You
- Soldiers' Gossip
- Flashback
- Sunrise Letter
- Is This What You Call Love?
- Soldiers' Gossip (reprise)
- Nightmare
- Forty Days
- Loving You
- Scene Twelve
- Scene Thirteen (Farewell Letter)
- Just Another Love Story
- No One Has Ever Loved Me
- Scene Fourteen
- The Duel
- Finale
Amazon.com
Based on the 1981 Italian film Passione d'amore, Stephen Sondheim's multiple Tony Award-winning musical/chamber opera Passion follows a self-centered soldier, Giorgio (Michael Ball), whose idyllic happiness with a married woman, Clara (Helen Hobson), is interrupted by his transfer to another post. There, he meets Signora Fosca (Maria Friedman, best known these days for the video production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), a homely and ill woman who soon falls in love with Giorgio and pursues him relentlessly. Giorgio believes he would never leave the beautiful Clara, but he underestimates the power of Fosca's passion. "Loving you is not a choice, it's who I am," she tells him, in Sondheim's rich tapestry of a score that is less individual numbers than a constant flow of gorgeous melodies, dialogue, letters between the characters, and a group of soldiers that serves as a Greek chorus.After a 1996 London revival, the same cast recorded the score live in concert at the BBC Hippodrome in 1997. Ball is perfectly cast as Giorgio, and Friedman and Hobson excel, even if they can't quite match Tony-winner Donna Murphy and Marin Mazzie of the original Broadway cast. It's almost a moot point, though, because the original Broadway cast recording is currently out of print (although a video version is available). So if you want Passion, this is your only option, and it's a good one. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews:
No Passion Here.......2007-01-27
Excellent, and more complete, interpretation.......2007-01-04
For musical lovers everywhere.......2005-08-22
Passion tends to be either loved or hated by its audience (p.......2004-10-30
I found the American orchestra slightly synthesized where as the London recording has a wonderfully classical orchestration that fits the piece to the tea. The numbers flow from one to the other without any detectable breaks. As others before have said, I find the whole piece more operatic than musical theatre. I imagine that opera companies will take to performing Passion like they've done with Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music. His composing ability is at its top form comparable to any modern classical composer.
I do challenge the people who say the musical contains no songs to look deeper than the surface. There is the Love that Flies duet, I Read solo, I wish I could forget you, and Happiness. Everything, the song, the dialogue, and the music, is about the scene. The craft of construction is more Wagnerian than pop like your Stephen Schwartzes (who I like by the way). Each is crafted with beautiful melodies that twist the subtle changes in lyrics. As an example "just another love story that's what they would claim" to "Just a simple love story needn't end the same" (probably misquoting, but you get the idea). Georgio with the same theme makes an about face in his concept of love. Sondheim has used his lyrics extremely well in revisiting the same melodies with new shading completely changing the meaning. The desperation and pain in Fosca with the first statement of the melody is restated by Georgio as his desperation and pain toward the end of the musical. The king of lyricists, he remains strong and firm with scepter in hand.
I found that the London cast tends to act more and read lines less. Some of the scenes on the Broadway recording sounded read as opposed to really acting the musical. Maria Friedman's voice is rough and dispirit while singing and husky while speaking. I believe it works well for the tragic Fosca. Michael Ball, clearly the star of this recording whether you are listening or just looking at the cover, dominates the recording with vocal power. Jere Shea's Georgio is a wilting flower compared to Ball and his force of will. He is no victim in this recording. Helen Hobson has a nice soprano voice, a good contrast to Friedman's, but sinks into the background in this recording. I read once, as said by the director of the Kennedy Center's production of Passion in 2003, that the musical requires a balance between the three leads. He said Donna Murphy so wonderful in her performance destroyed the Broadway production because she overshadowed the other performers. That is why I don't find the dueling divas in this production distressing. It is the conflict between Georgio and his choice of Clara or Fosca. I am not sure what Hobson could have done to be more prominent, but she does a good job in the recording.
The first time I listened to this musical I hated it. I didn't get it. It wasn't until the third time I listened to it; I actually began to enjoy the skill and craftsmanship. Passion is not a passive musical it requires active listening. Now I think it is wonderful and endearing.
London cast recording sucks !.......2003-12-01
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Flute Passion
Manufacturer: EMI Classics Imports ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B00008PW65 Release Date: 2003-11-04 |
Tracks:
- IV. Bourrees 1 & 2 - Elaine Schaffer
- V. Polonaise & Double - Elaine Schaffer
- VI. Menuet - Elaine Schaffer
- VII. Badinerie - Elaine Schaffer
- II. Siciliano - Michel Debost
- Ouverture - David Munrow
- Les Plaisirs - David Munrow
- Sonate Pour 2 Flutes En Sol Majeur, Op.2 No.1: II. Andante - Allegro - James Galway
- I. Largo - Bruno Cavallo
- II. 'Fantasmi' Presto - Bruno Cavallo
- III. Largo - Bruno Cavallo
- IV. Presto - Bruno Cavallo
- V. Largo 'II Sonno' - Bruno Cavallo
- VI. Allegro - Bruno Cavallo
- I. Allegro - Michel Sanvoisin
- Concerto Pour Flute, Harpe & Orchestra En Ut Majeur, K.299: II. Andantino - James Galway
- Romance Pour Flute & Piano En La Majeur, Op.94 No.1 - Jean-Pierre Rampal
- L'Arlesienne: Menuet - Michel Debost
- Carmen: Entracte (Acte III) - Michel Debost
- L'Oiseau Des Bois, Idylle Pour Flute & 4 Cors, Op.21 - John Solum
- Casse-Noisette: Danse Des Mirlitons - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- Adagio - London Symphony Orchestra
- L'Oiseau Bleu Et La Princess Florine - London Symphony Orchestra
- Le Carnaval Des Animaux: Voliere - Francois Laurent
- Pelleas Et Melisande: Sicilienne - Patricia Nagle
- Daphnis Et Chloe: Pantomime - Michel Debost
Tracks:
- Syrinx Pour Flute Seule - Michel Debost
- Danse De La Chevre Pour Flute Seule - Jonathan Snowden
- Entr'acte - Roger Bourdin
- I. Allegro Malinconico - Eric Le Sage
- II. Cantilene - Eric Le Sage
- III. Presto Giocoso - Eric Le Sage
- Density 21/5 Pour Flute Seule - Michel Debost
- I. Pan - Raymund Havenith
- Ballade Pour Flute, Orchestre A Cordes & Piano - Aurele Nicolet
- Le Merle Noir - Karlheinz Zoller
- Vermont Counterpoint - Ransom Wilson
- I. Allegretto - Kathleen Chastain
- II. Andante - Kathleen Chastain
- III. Anime - Kathleen Chastain
- Sequenza Pour Flute Seule - Karlheinz Zoller
- Chant De Linos, Pour Flute & Piano - Eric Le Sage
Customer Reviews:
Review of Flute Passion CD.......2004-08-08
Average customer rating: |
Music of the Oberammergau Passion Play - Passionspiele Oberammergau 2000
ProductGroup: Classical Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000KDRV9U |
Product Description
booklet is in German and English.
Average customer rating: |
Loving You
Manufacturer: Jay Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00005YNGQ Release Date: 2002-03-05 |
Tracks:
- Loving You - Sean McDermott
- All I Ask of You - Gary Mauer and Laurie Gayle Stephenson
- Hopelessly Devoted to You - Shona Lindsay
- The Way You Look Tonight - George Dvorsky
- Till There Was You - Alice Ripley
- With You - Ethan Freeman
- Can You Feel the Love Tonight - John Barrowman
- I Will Always Love You - Salena Jones
- Only You - Grania Renihan
- They Were You - Catherine Porter and Alexander Hanson
- I'll Never Say No to You - Ron Raines
- I Love You - Valerie Masterson
Rap Music:
- Aerial [Import]
- After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80 [Live]
- Alligator
- Amused to Death
- An Absence of Empathy [Explicit Lyrics]
- Anxiety [Explicit Lyrics]
- Apostrophe [Original recording remastered]
- Awake
- Baja Sessions
- Bare
Recommended Music:
City to City [Explicit Lyrics]
Breakin Pt.2 [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
Canta Como: Marisela [Karaoke]