Carmen Jones

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:53:11
Original cast includes: Muriel Smith (Carmen Jones); Napolean Reed (Corparl Morell); Robert Clarke (Foreman); Edward Roche (T-Bone); Cozy Cole (Drummer); June Hawkins (Myrt); Jessica Russell (Frankie); Glenn Bryant (Husky Miller); Carlotta Franzell (Cindy Lou); William Dillard (Poncho); William Jones (Tough Kid); Melvin Howard (Bartender); Sibol Cain (Sally); Luther Saxon (Joe); Edward Christopher (Waiter); Dick Montgomery (Dink); J. Fashe Riley (Boy); Royce Wallace (Girl). Recorded at The Broadway Theater, New York, New York on September 17-20, 1944. Includes liner notes by Brian Drutman. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Personnel: Cozy Cole (drums); Audrey Graham, Dorothy Williams, Erona Harris, Richard James, Posie Flowers, Al Bledger, Chris Eddy, Joseph Noble, Frank Green, Valerie Black, Tony Fleming Jr., Mabel Hart, J. Prioreau Gray (dancer). Liner Note Authors: Robert Russell Bennett; Brian Drutman. Recording information: 01/17/1944-11/20/1945. Director: Charles Friedman. Carmen Jones is lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II's restyling of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. Where Bizet and his lyric collaborators Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy took novelist Prosper Merimee's setting among Spanish gypsies working at a cigarette factory in Seville for their 1875 French opera, Hammerstein put it in a parachute factory in South Carolina in the present day and wrote it for an all-black cast. But the story of love, betrayal, and death remained the same, as did the music, minus a couple of arias and in slightly re-orchestrated form, courtesy of Robert Russell Bennett. Casting was a challenge for two reasons: first, the vocal demands of the score meant that, as with the opera, two casts had to be employed to alternate performances for the eight-times-a-week schedule, and second, in the still racially restricted time, it was hard to find African-Americans with enough voice training. Luther Saxon, who played one of the Joes (aka Don Jose) and does so on this recording, was working in a naval yard when he was cast; Glenn Bryant, who became Husky Miller (Escamillo), was a New York police officer on leave. But when they all turned up on Broadway on December 2, 1943, the result was a triumph. Carmen was given a new lease on life in a version in which the "Habanera" became "Dat's Love," the "Toreador Song" was "Stan' up and Fight," and the "Chanson Bohemienne" was now "Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum." The show ran 502 performances. It is unfortunate that Decca Records was able to record only one of the two casts, so that, while Muriel Smith's Carmen is impressive, succeeding generations will not be able to compare it with Muriel Rahn's. But this was in the early days of recording Broadway shows, and we can be thankful there is any record of this masterpiece. (The 2003 reissue contains a sticker proclaiming, "First Time on CD," which is not quite true. There was a Japanese CD on MCA, and, in Europe, where the album is out of copyright, Pearl Records released an unauthorized version in 2001. The American reissue contains a performance of "Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum" by Kitty Carlisle with Russ Morgan and His Orchestra as a bonus track.) ~ William Ruhlmann
録音 : ステレオ (Studio)