Evita/ Original London Cast (MCA)

As they had with Jesus Christ Superstar, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber presented Evita, an opera based on the life story of Eva Peron 1919-1952, as the album cover subtitle revealed, as a concept album before mounting a stage production. As hoped, the album became a hit, spawning a British number one hit, Dont Cry for Me Argentina, as well as the Top 20 Another Suitcase in Another Hall, feeding anticipation for a theatrical version. (It was much less well-received in the U.S.) The lengthy double album was all music; even the dialogue sections were set to music. Lloyd Webber naturally drew upon Latin themes, at least of an ersatz sort (On This Night of a Thousand Stars aped Perez Prados 1955 hit Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White), to add to his taste in pop/rock and affection for Puccini. Rice had a big, rich story to tell about a social-climbing peasant who achieves the highest rungs of power, only to succumb to early death. As in Jesus Christ Superstar, he used a one-man Greek chorus, the fictional Che (based on Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara), to challenge Evitas ruthlessness. The subject matter attracted the criticism that it glamorized a fascist, but Rices very point was to present a cautionary tale about the deceptive appeal of such a person. The choice of Julie Covington, who could negotiate the musical range of the title role and sing without warmth, was perfect; no stage successor matched her willingness to make Evita unsympathetic. C.T. (Colm) Wilkinsons Che was her match, and the rest of the cast sang effectively. In its first recording, Evita was a long, at times dense work (it would be streamlined for the stage), but it was certainly the best work Rice and Lloyd Webber ever did together. ~ William Ruhlmann

The original Broadway cast recording of Evita, released in September 1979, like the 1976 original studio cast recording from which it was adapted, was a two-LP set containing the entire work; it ran about 100 minutes. This highlights disc, issued 23 years later, does not, as many such abridgments do, simply cull out the most popular songs for a casual audience. Instead, retaining almost 70 of those original 100 minutes, it pairs away enough material to fit the rest on a single CD but attempts to retain the shape of the piece as a whole. This may have been the simplest way to do it, since the songs are often embedded in suites bridged by a recitative that would have been challenging to edit. Given the approach, the choices about what to keep and what to drop are reasonable. Naturally, the show's best-remembered songs -- "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (wedded to "On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada") and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" -- are here, as are several other good songs. Other passages necessary to a minimum explication of the plot have been retained as well. The excisions include some of the choral numbers having to do with the rise of Juan Peron, such as "The Art of the Possible," Evita's "Rainbow Tour" of Europe, and much of the later material depicting her physical decline and death. Patti Lu Pone remains an authoritative Evita, Mandy Patinkin is still a wonderful choice to negotiate the vocal demands of Che, and Bob Gunton, with his Spanish accent, remains a curiosity as Peron. But the purpose of this version of the recording is murky. A better choice would have been to issue a shorter disc containing the show's "greatest hits," as a sticker on this one proclaims, and none of the extra sung-through dialogue. ~ William Ruhlmann

The original Broadway cast recording of Evita, released in September 1979, like the 1976 original studio cast recording from which it was adapted, was a two-LP set containing the entire work; it ran about 100 minutes. This highlights disc, issued 23 years later, does not, as many such abridgments do, simply cull out the most popular songs for a casual audience. Instead, retaining almost 70 of those original 100 minutes, it pairs away enough material to fit the rest on a single CD but attempts to retain the shape of the piece as a whole. This may have been the simplest way to do it, since the songs are often embedded in suites bridged by a recitative that would have been challenging to edit. Given the approach, the choices about what to keep and what to drop are reasonable. Naturally, the show's best-remembered songs -- "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (wedded to "On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada") and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" -- are here, as are several other good songs. Other passages necessary to a minimum explication of the plot have been retained as well. The excisions include some of the choral numbers having to do with the rise of Juan Peron, such as "The Art of the Possible," Evita's "Rainbow Tour" of Europe, and much of the later material depicting her physical decline and death. Patti Lu Pone remains an authoritative Evita, Mandy Patinkin is still a wonderful choice to negotiate the vocal demands of Che, and Bob Gunton, with his Spanish accent, remains a curiosity as Peron. But the purpose of this version of the recording is murky. A better choice would have been to issue a shorter disc containing the show's "greatest hits," as a sticker on this one proclaims, and none of the extra sung-through dialogue.