Bad Studio Recordings

If I remember, West Side Story was the first during that time.  It was a really big deal, being conducted by Bernstein and the recording received a Grammy, which led to a flood of studio/concert recordings featuring either opera singers or celebrities.  They were quite popular.  McGlinn also utilized opera singers for some of his concerts and recordings that preserved original scores and orchestrations (Show Boat and Anything Goes spring to mind).  I love the McGlinn recordings and the Cincinnati Pops recordings of Sound of Music and Music Man.

Both West Side Story and South Pacfic also had documentary features of the recording sessions.

Updated On: 12/14/17 at 01:16 PM

Except for a handful of isolated tracks, I find them all to be somewhat unlistenable. On that West Side Story, Carreras, Te Kanawa, and Troyanos all have voices that are far too mature and heavy for their roles, and Bernstein conducts everything at a funereal tempo. Ditto for Te Kanawa and Carreras on South Pacific (although listening to Sarah Vaughan do Bloody Mary' numbers as pure Sassy is hilarious, like Sedaris' Billie Holiday version of "Away In A Manger"*). The Andrews/Kingsley King & I is best left unmentioned. The Nonesuch Gershwin shows are interesting as a quasi-historical hint as to how these shows might have sounded, but the vocals are always far too contemporary. The 2011 version of Sweet Bye and Bye isn't even a real thing, as no score or orchestrations exist of the work, so they just sort of made something up. Everyone on the Sherry! recording sounds really aged and terrified that their voices will shatter like thin glass if they were to actually let loose.

I do enjoy most of Faith Prince's tracks on Breakfast At Tiffany's, and a few tracks on Drat! The Cat! (The Overture and Ballet, and "Wild and Reckless"*). But other than that, original cast recordings of original productions (or even mediocre quality bootlegs) are always my go to.

Updated On: 12/14/17 at 02:48 PM

Don't forget the recording of OLIVER! featuring the hilariously miscast opera sopranoJosephine Barstow as Nancy

I mentioned this once in a different thread as well, but there's a two-disc studio recording of Sweet Charity that's pretty terrible. The tempos are glacial and there's far too much incidental music on it that kills the momentum.

It seems to me we are mixing apples and oranges
on this thread. The OP asked about reconcieving
musicals with opera singers, which was a thing
for a while. I agree it mostly showed why opera
voices aren't right for musical comedy or musical
play roles.

But some are discussing a different trend, which
was to rerecord classic scores that had been cut
severely for release on 78s or LPs. With the
greater space on CDs, they could release
something like SOUTH PACIFIC (the Paige
O'Hara version) or OF THEE I SING and record
the entire score, scene change music and all.

I find the opera casts silly and sometimes the "full
score" recordings wear me out after the seventh
orchestral reprise of "Bali Hai", but they really two
different kind of animals.

Updated On: 12/15/17 at 07:31 PM