[Magdalen] Show Boat.

[Sibyl Smirl]

Thank you for this, David!  Almost all the music is "standards" for me, 
and I can hear the songs in my head at any time that I like, but my LP 
is long since unplayable for me, and I ordered a cd from Amazon.com, by 
the "London Studio Cast", whatever that is.  It came today, and I'm 
enjoying it like crazy.  "In my head" or singing it myself just is not 
the same as hearing professional singers with my ears!

One disappointment, however, is "Ol' Man River".  :o(  The singer is 
Inia Te Wiata, apparently a Maori.  He's a fine singer, of course, but I 
have the feeling that the key's been moved up a tone or three from the 
magnificent bass that I hear in my head, and he just doesn't have the 
accent quite right for the American Southern Negro (though he tries) 
that I hear in my head.  The tempo's too fast, too.  It just doesn't 
have the right feel.

Fish gotta swim, and birds gotta fly,
I gotta love one man till I die!
Can't help lovin' that man of mine.

Marlys Watters and Don McKay have "Only Make Believe" nailed solid. (to 
my taste).  It puts me right into trance.

But I wonder who sings Ol' Man River to perfectly suit me? Paul Robeson? 
  Now I've got a temptation to buy another recording  :o(


On 10/17/15 10:28 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
>
> I caught a portion of the PBS presentation of the Kern/Hammerstein  musical
> play, "Show Boat" last night.  This was a concertized version, with
> orchestra
> and singers on stage together.  Norm Lewis sang the theme song of  the
> musical play, "Old Man River."  He was interviewed in a little  documentary
> at the conclusion, and allowed that he was tense but exhilarated to  sing
> this song "because everyone knows it."
>
> Is this so?  Is it likely that many under, say, 60, are familiar with  this
> song or the several other big numbers from the musical?
>
> The popular movie of the musical was in 1951.  The play dates from  1927.
>
> The other revivals strike me as not having a widespread impact.
>
>
>
>
>
> David Strang.
>
>


-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net