Weill Street Scene
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Kurt (Julian) Weill
Genre:
Opera
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 8/1991
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 148
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 433 371-2DH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Street Scene |
Kurt (Julian) Weill, Composer
Angelina Réaux, Rose, Soprano Arleen Augér, Nursemaid 1, Soprano Barbara Bonney, Jenny, Soprano Della Jones, Nursemaid 2, Soprano Emile Belcourt, Abraham, Tenor Fiona Kimm, Olga, Mezzo soprano Jerry Hadley, Sam, Tenor John Mauceri, Conductor Josephine Barstow, Anna, Soprano Kurt (Julian) Weill, Composer Meriel Dickinson, Emma Samuel Ramey, Frank, Baritone Scottish Opera Chorus Scottish Opera Orchestra |
Author: Andrew Lamb
Street Scene is the most ambitious product of Weill's American years, and the work he reckoned the fulfilment of his dreams for a fusion of music and drama. It is something of a Porgy and Bess transferred from Catfish Row to the slum tenements of New York—a kind of 1940s 'soap' complete with crime passionel. Where Porgy and Bess, though, is through-composed with recitatives, Street Scene fuses music and drama in a way that recalls Show Boat—a mixture of set musical numbers, straight dialogue, and dialogue over musical underscoring. The musical numbers themselves range from genuine operatic arias and ensembles to rousing 1940s dance numbers.
The only previous substantial version was the original 1947 cast recording, subsequently transferred to CD (CBS (CD) CD44668, 5/89). That contained most of the major numbers but had some notable omissions. On those grounds alone this recording is highly welcome, for it brings us for the first time such numbers as the Ice Cream sextet and the swinging dance number ''Moon-faced, starry-eyed''. Unlike EMI'sGramophone Award-winning Show Boat, which offered most of the underscored dialogue and just some straight dialogue, this gives us everything. In demonstrating how Weill fused dialogue and music, it proves fascinating, rewarding, highly impressive listening.
This is, in fact, the first of two complete recordings resulting from the joint Scottish Opera/ENO production of 1989. For it Decca have reinforced the cast of the stage performances with major 'names'. Jerry Hadley makes a fine romantic lead, creating the necessary frisson in ''Lonely house'' (recorded by Lotte Lenya and others) and, with Angelina Reaux, the glorious lyrical outpouring of ''We'll go away together''. Samuel Ramey is suitably forbidding as the tragic Sam Maurrant in ''Let things be like they always was''. Even the smaller roles, in which the work abounds, are strongly cast, with Barbara Bonney in the delicious graduation celebration ''Wrapped in a ribbon'', and Arleen Auger and Della Jones as a couple of bloodthirsty nursemaids. As conductor, John Mauceri proves in typically commanding control of the score's range of idioms.
Yet the atmosphere of the work doesn't fully come through. In importing major operatic singers, Decca have destroyed something of the vernacular tone that Weill sought. Most unconvincing in this respect is Josephine Barstow. To be sure, the part of Anna Maurrant requires a genuine dramatic soprano; but a work styled as a 'Broadway opera' requires the more natural, unaffected projection that Polyna Stoska produces in the original-cast recording. The range of immigrant accents, too, is less than fully convincing, and I can't help thinking that Decca would have been better advised to import some genuine Scandinavians and Neopolitans to get the required authenticity.
Let me not seem too harsh. There is glorious music here that was long overdue a major recording. Nobody should miss having the work on record. It does seem wise, though, to await the release of the ENO cast recording (scheduled by TER for release early autumn) before deciding which version to prefer on the shelves.'
The only previous substantial version was the original 1947 cast recording, subsequently transferred to CD (CBS (CD) CD44668, 5/89). That contained most of the major numbers but had some notable omissions. On those grounds alone this recording is highly welcome, for it brings us for the first time such numbers as the Ice Cream sextet and the swinging dance number ''Moon-faced, starry-eyed''. Unlike EMI's
This is, in fact, the first of two complete recordings resulting from the joint Scottish Opera/ENO production of 1989. For it Decca have reinforced the cast of the stage performances with major 'names'. Jerry Hadley makes a fine romantic lead, creating the necessary frisson in ''Lonely house'' (recorded by Lotte Lenya and others) and, with Angelina Reaux, the glorious lyrical outpouring of ''We'll go away together''. Samuel Ramey is suitably forbidding as the tragic Sam Maurrant in ''Let things be like they always was''. Even the smaller roles, in which the work abounds, are strongly cast, with Barbara Bonney in the delicious graduation celebration ''Wrapped in a ribbon'', and Arleen Auger and Della Jones as a couple of bloodthirsty nursemaids. As conductor, John Mauceri proves in typically commanding control of the score's range of idioms.
Yet the atmosphere of the work doesn't fully come through. In importing major operatic singers, Decca have destroyed something of the vernacular tone that Weill sought. Most unconvincing in this respect is Josephine Barstow. To be sure, the part of Anna Maurrant requires a genuine dramatic soprano; but a work styled as a 'Broadway opera' requires the more natural, unaffected projection that Polyna Stoska produces in the original-cast recording. The range of immigrant accents, too, is less than fully convincing, and I can't help thinking that Decca would have been better advised to import some genuine Scandinavians and Neopolitans to get the required authenticity.
Let me not seem too harsh. There is glorious music here that was long overdue a major recording. Nobody should miss having the work on record. It does seem wise, though, to await the release of the ENO cast recording (scheduled by TER for release early autumn) before deciding which version to prefer on the shelves.'
Weill Street Scene
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