Homodox

Barack's Campaign Theme Song

You Can't Stop The Beat--From Hairspray--of course!

Sweeney Todd Redux

One further comment on Sweeney Todd, the movie v. the stage.  It's the music, stupid.  The only two musicals that are presently in the canon of opera houses, are Candide (Bernstein) and Sweeney Tood (Sondheim).  In the year 2238, these two works will still be in the repertory of opera houses as representative of late 20th century music.  There's a reason why will still listen to Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi.  It's the music.  We don't worry about the plot lines (what plot lines??) or the words (My name is Mimi, I don't know why. . . . ).  The power of the music tells us the story and transports us to where the composer wants us to be.  So, don't truncate the music in a movie version.

I'd Give It All For You

I fell in love with Jason Robert Brown upon listening to Songs for New World and that love became passion upon hearing the show Parade.  One of my favorite songs was Stars & Moon, but that has become such a staple of cabaret singing, that I've had to switch.  I always have a thing about liking something that few people know about; then when they know about it, it seems like you're just part of the crowd and not the true sophisticate you know you are.  One of the truly best songs he wrote from Songs for a New World, is I'd Give It All For You.  The beginning is dedicated to my friend G. this week:

I had a house while you were gone
The week after you left me
I found a couple acres
Near Sarilla Park
I had a house while you were gone
A house with silver shutters
And a driveway laid in marble
And thousands of rooms to fill
And miles of space to fly

After that it devolves away from G.'s life.  I love this line though with all my heart:

Nothing about us was perfect or clear
But when paradise calls me
I'd rather be here
There's something between us
That nobody else needs to see

So I've always felt that was so true in relationships.

He Can't Lip-Synch No Mo'

Why do we care now that Luciano lip-synched his last performance?  He was Italy's #1 star and they wanted him to open the winter Olympics.  A month later he would find out he had cancer, which a year later would end his life.  Why is this a story today?

Je ne Regrette Rien

Internationally, Edith Piaf's signature tune is most likely known to be La Vie En Rose.  However, in France, and if you know anything about her life's story, her anthem was certainly Je Ne Regrette Rien (literally, I regret nothing, or more poetically, I don't regret a thing).  Michael and I finally watched the latest biopic on Piaf (1915-1963) with the actress Marion Cotillard (not her pictured, that's the real Edith).  The actress was great--the movie wasn't so great.  It could have been titled C'est La Vie En Rose.  However, wouldn't it be great to live your life and at the end be able to sing this song and mean it? 

Perlman Perfection

We saw the great Itzhak Perlman on Sunday at Boston Symphony Hall.  There's so much to be amazed at when you see Perlman perform.  The music.  The fact that he shuffles on stage due to childhood polio and then sits and plays with a dexterity that would rival any Olympic athlete.  There's Symphony Hall itself, built in 1900, with acoustics that are remarkable.  Yet, the oldest thing at the concert was the Stradivarius violin Perlman uses.  He owns two, one from 1714 and the other from 1721.  So those violins have been making music for close to 300 years, longer than the Schumann or Strauss pieces they played so magnificiently.   Live performances never get old.  The immediacy of the music and the fleeting nature of the event.  You live it and it's then only a memory.  Providentially, during his encores, he had a broom brought out on stage to sweep up some stuff from the floor.  He joked that for Boston, it was for a sweep--which the Red Sox accomplished later that evening.  Perlman noted he was a Mets fan!