ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD — Page 2

Yeah, it's weird w/o revisions, but why do you get to a point where you stop revising. I want a complete Martin Guerre based on the reopened version in London.

I just love Aspects though, so I am so excited.

Do you have any of the other remastered ALW? Curious of the LuPone Sunset includes additional music.

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Wow - that's an excellent question about the remastered London Sunset... I haven't read or heard anything about it, and of all the cast recordings, the "World Premiere Recording" was one of the biggest rush jobs of all - They even used (if I remember correctly) some orchestral tracks from ALW's Sydmonton Festival (basically, a semi-polished Workshop performance of his works).

The cuts and everything on it sounds so poor in comparison to the mammoth, gigantic orchestra they had for the American Premiere Recording.

While not a huge fan of LuPone - I do think her "The Perfect Year" and Anderson's "Sunset Boulevard" are two major highlights of the World Premiere Recording (even like "Girl meets boy better on the WPR)

When I directed the show, I wanted to put in the "duet" version of "There is More to Love". But my "Guilietta" was a diva bee-otch who refused to give up one of her solos. (I say that with love, she knows I worship her, and she would get the biggest kick out of me calling her a bee-otch on the world wide web!) So it stayed a solo! Plus, technically, you're not supposed to alter the rental material in anyway, and it's a solo in the score. This thread has gotten me thinking! How much I loved seeing that show and how much I loved seeing my production of it. I was/am really so very proud of it! It's a very ambitious work for any group to put on, least of all an amateur community theatre. But I was surrounded by an awesome cast and a brilliant staff and we got standing ovations every night!

Does anyone have a direct link to the remastered CD? I can't find an IMPORT listing for it, just the original.

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I'm kind'a apprehensious at throwing money around, but I just bought a copy of Sunset Boulevard and The Likes Of Us. I saw this as well, with the sign it was remastered, but I don't know if I should get it.

This is the only Lloyd Webber musical, aside from Beautiful and Woman, I haven't really heard. Is it worth it? I know some of the songs, and the synopsis, but it's not very exciting or something that seems dramatic like Sunset and Whistle. So, should I?

Knowing me, I'll probably get it anyway. But I wanted people's advice in case it's a worthy purchase

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I saw the show in London in early October when the album had already been released - so I guess I must have seen THERE IS MORE TO LOVE as a Giulietta solo. I think the musical opened at the West End in April 1989.

To be honest I can't totally remember whether it was sung as a duet on Broadway ( that was 16 years ago ) - but I do remember a song which was sung as a solo but which became a duet eventually. Maybe it was THERE IS MORE TO LOVE. The problem is that we only have the West End version on CD and my recollections are influenced by this recording. But I do remember distinctly the omission of the reprise of SEEING IS BELIEVING...and that Rose sang parts of the song SHE'D BE FAR BETTER OFF WITH YOU, whereas the West End staging only had Alex and George doing the duet.

Talking about incredible song-switching by ALW --

According to the book by Kurt Ganzl (COMPLETE ASPECTS OF LOVE) :

Quote :

"From a long way back it had been planned that the musical should begin with a big expressive song; a number for male voice sung, perhaps, by an unidentified soloist, who was not otherwise part of the show's story, and describing in the most desperately yearning terms a man and a life consumed and coloured by a great and unfulfilled love. A song which distilled the essence of the novel and the show.

The melody that Lloyd Webber selected for this crucial number - the number which would set the play on its way with all wheels rolling - was a particularly beautiful one which he had been nursing for some time. It had previously been envisaged as the starting point for an additional number for the Broadway production of STARLIGHT EXPRESS and versions of it had, at various times, been set to words by Rice, Stilgoe, Nunn and Hart - but the result had never been truly 'right'.

This time, however, he was convinced that the music had found its home - sung by a passionate human, rather than an anthropomorphic machine..."



When I first saw the show -- I was struck by the opening scene. There was this exciting young musical actor with a golden voice who moved to the front of the side of the stage (where I was sitting in front) and started to sing a capella :

"Love, love changes ...."


Jo

More song-switching :

Rose's eleven o'clock number ANYTHING BUT LONELY was originally sung by a cricketer in the CRICKET cabaret composed by Lloyd Webber and Rice.


CHANSON D'ENFANCE, Alex and Rose's love song, was borrowed by Lloyd-Webber from a young boy who composed the basic melody many, many years ago. It was the young boy's very first composition. His name was Andrew

For anybody interested in Ann Crumb, as well as Broadway Diva, she can be heard on OLC of Goodbye Girl and the off Broadway productions of Inside Out and Johnny Guitar.

For classial fans she can be found on her father George Crumb's albums.

Feathah - so what do you think of the remastered CD? Do you hear the difference in the sound or are all of us deluding ourselves????

My copy of the remastered version came a few days ago and I am reliving the show once again. It sounds like a more alive version of the stage production . The voices are excellent and the orchestral accompaniment/solos even more exquisite. But of course, the musical score and the acting is wonderfully preserved, with some very slight additions.

This is truly ALWebber's best work for me!

Jo

I was lucky to have received a copy of recordings from TV of promotional press reels of the show on Broadway and the 1990 TONY awards show featuring ASPECTS OF LOVE - and together with this remastered edition from the West End production, I am reliving those moments in the theatre again

>& Beautiful Game. They tell me that THAT one is worth checking out too.. but I'm not sure. A soccer musical? Eeek <


Lol -- it is not a soccer musical. The over-riding theme is sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and how it impacts on the lives of young men who used to play in a soccer team when they were younger. True, it starts with some scenes of "the beautiful game" ( as Pele once called the sports) but it is the camaraderie that it illustrates, a forerunner of how their lives and relationships will change once the shadow of the political problems in their country falls on their lives.

It is the saddest ALWebber musical I have ever seen ( I saw it in London) and there are quite a few songs that stand out - God's Own Country and Our Kind of Love and I do enjoy the title song as well. I would recommend getting the CD.

I am not sure if the CD is available on Amazon.com or co.uk but they may have sound clips, if you want to get a feel of the music.

Jo

Updated On: 3/6/06 at 11:40 PM

while I disagree with your take on the recitative, you make a good point - there could have been a highlights CD. It would probably have to be made separate (rather than excerpting stuff from the original recording) since so many of the songs don't "end" or "begin" in a traditional way. It probably would have sold pretty well...