Recordings Review: A Show For Our Troubled Times

Opera Saratoga unleashes The Cradle Will Rock.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The cast of Opera Saratoga's searing new recording of The Cradle Will Rock.
Image © Opera Saratoga and Bridge Classics.

There is no show in the history of New York theater with a more troubled history than The Cradle Will Rock. This hybrid between serious drama, operetta and musical comedy was written in 1937 by composer Marc Blitzstein, only to run smack dab into government bureaucracy, anti-Communist paranoia and union regulations that conspired to kybosh its planned first performance at the Maxine Eliot Theater. (The show had been sponsored by the Federal Theater and the Works Progress Administration, but the theater was padlocked four days before the scheduled premiere.) Mr. Blitzstein took the show, its actors and singers twenty-one blocks  uptown to the Phoenix Theater. There, he led the performances from a stage piano as actors, sitting in the house, sung out their parts on cue.

Concert Review: Savories, But No Salvation

The New York Philharmonic revives Sweeney Todd.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Savories: Emma Thompson (left) and Bryn Terfel serve up "A little priest"
in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.Photo by Chris Lee © 2014 The New York Philharmonic.

The audience never saw it coming.

When the lights went down in Avery Fisher Hall for the final performance of the New York Philharmonic's concert production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the stage looked set for a typical and staid gala in the usual manner of this venerable orchestral institution. Charming floral arrangements sat in pedestal vases at the wings. Alan Gilbert and the cast entered in neat evening wear, filing to music stands past an enormous concert grand downstage. They carried scores in neat binders, as if about to sing some Mendelssohn oratorio or perhaps Handel's Messiah.

Concert Review: A Diva's Return...to Earth

"Anything you can do..."
Paulo Szot and Debbie Voigt at Carnegie Hall.
Photo by Erin Baiano © 2011.

Deborah Voigt Sings Broadway at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul Pelkonen


"It's good to be back among the mortals, and on a stage that isn't moving." So said soprano Deborah Voigt as she opened "Something Wonderful," a benefit for the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night.

Ms. Voigt's relief was audible at this concert, which also featured baritone Paulo Szot. The two Metropolitan Opera veterans led the audience on a 90-minute excursion through Broadway songbooks, backed by the American Symphony Orchestra and the 180 voices of the Chorale.

Although Ms. Voigt regularly powers her way over the giant orchestras of Wagner and Strauss without electronic help, she sang much of this concert with help of a microphone. The opera star seemed uncomfortable with the amplification for much of the evening. A voice of her power and magnitude does not need improvement, and she seemed to have difficulty adjusting to the lower volume levels required.

From the opener ("It's a Grand Night for Singing") Ms. Voigt chose not to announce the program, surprising the audience with numbers from Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, Jerome Kern's Sweet Adeline and the little-heard Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration Allegro.

A number from Mame (accompanied by an anecdote of the diva's first high school stage appearance in the role of the secretary Ms. Gooch) was an early highlight. "Something Wonderful" floated beautifully, and Ms. Voigt seemed about to abandon the mic. "Can't Stop Loving That Man of Mine" (arranged for jazz quartet) was more problematic. A brief halt came in the middle, and Ms. Voigt was heard to gather herself with a murmured "hojotoho" before continuing.

Mr Szot made hearty contributions throughout the evening, and his obvious comfort level with the Broadway songs seemed to cheer and inspire Ms. Voigt. They were at their best in the excerpts from Annie Get Yor Gun, the Irving Berlin show that Ms. Voigt is scheduled to sing this summer at Glimmerglass. A rip-roaring performance of the title song from Oklahoma! brought out the best in all the singers--including the choristers.

The finest part of the 90-minute set was its conclusion, with soaring performances from "a show they'll never do onstage", Porgy & Bess. her best in the excerpts from Porgy & Bess.. It was fascinating to hear Ms. Voigt soar through "My Man's Gone Now", using her experience in the operas of Richard Strauss to bring out the long melodic lines in Gershwin's music.

The encores featured two tributes to Herbert von Karajan's 1960 recording of Die Fledermaus, with Ms. Voigt emulating another Brunnhilde, Birgit Nilsson, in "I Could Have Danced All Night." Mr. Szot then returned, and the two Met stars did the opera version of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," complete with a full-out, effortless Valkyrie battle cry at the peak of "I can sing higher."

Songs from Steeltown, USA

Two songs from Marc Blitzstein's superb (and pro-union) musical Cradle Will Rock, which was subject to a government shutdown before its premiere, and then taken down the street and performed anyway. Ms. Patti LuPone as Moll.




"I'm Checking Home Now"




"The Nickel Under Your Foot"

Two songs from Marc Blitzstein's superb (and pro-union) musical Cradle Will Rock, which was subject to a government shutdown before its premiere, and then taken down the street and performed anyway. Ms. Patti LuPone as Moll.

The story of the show was made into a movie by Tim Robbins, also called Cradle Will Rock. For the movie, Emily Watson played Moll opposite John Turturro as the actor who originated the role of Larry Foreman in the show. Hank Azaria played piano and did his own singing as Marc Blitzstein.

Posted in support of the Wisconsin union workers, and their struggle in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin against Governor Scott "Mr. Mister" Walker.

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