While I am glad this cast is getting recorded (even slightly truncated) and look forward to getting the album when it is released, I do feel that somehow two major needs in the SWEENEY discography are being missed:
1. We NEED a good single disc of highlights
(RCA originally issued SWEENEY on CD in 1985 as highlights to get the 2 LPs down to one cd. Finally in 1988 they replaced that with the 2 CD edition that has been in print ever since.)
2. SWEENEY needs a full "symphonic" Cd of the entire score including the sections normally cut for performance.
Back when Cd's were new, there wre a number of "opera" cast recordings starting with Leondard Bernstin conducting WEST SIDE STORY. The orchestra on this was fine but the cast headed by Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras was awful. Still the CD sold really well so the same two stars were cast in SOUTH PACIFIC. (That Carreras is a tenor, not a bass as the role was written for Ezio Pinza, and that the character of Emile is French ...not Spanish seems to have eluded the record producers.)
Imagine a studio recording of SWEENEY (Brynn Terfel in the lead?) with a full opera orchestra of 51, large chorus and singers who can act, recorded under optimum conditions (not a "live" recording) and produced with the same care and attention to detail that goes into leading Opera recordings.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com