Jerome Kern's ROBERTA Full Studio Cast Recording

Already preordered it. Very very excited to listen to it.

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I worked on a production of ROBERTA in the early 1980's at what is now Maine State Music Theatre. Back then it was Brunswick Music Theater run by Victoria Crandall. The show starred Dorothy Stinnett as Madame Roberta along with Betsy Kiser, Ken Prescott and Ginger Prince. The exquisite fashion show (Gowns by Roberta) was designed by David Robinson. The score is beautiful and features the hit "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Vicki Crandall often did operettas. I got to see and hear such shows as Blossom Time, The Student Prince, Song of Norway, and Bitter Sweet. Those scores are so beautiful. I eagerly look forward to the release of this CD.

There was also a TV production in 1969, starring Bob Hope, John Davidson, Michelle Lee and Janis Paige.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371917/

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This should be an amazing recording, with such musical luminaries as Rob Berman and Larry Moore to provide a rediscovery (and for most of us, an introduction) to a remarkable score by one of the greatest theatre composers of the 20th century, Jerome Kern. I've preordered my copy, cannot wait! And with Rob Berman behind it, can an Encores production be far off?

We really have the marvelous Larry Moore to thank for this recording. He worked tirelessly restoring the original Robert Russell Bennett orchestrations, beautifully interpreted for this recording by Rob Berman. I agree with the poster who suggested that an Encores production could be in the offing.

Of all the lovely songs, beginning with "Smoke Get in Your Eyes," It was "Lovely to Look At" that received the Oscar nomination. Go figure.

Didn't Oscar nominated songs have to be written specifically for the film in those days? "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was in the original stage show and was already a monster hit by the time of the film.

Per posters above, "Lovely to Look At" was added for the film and, thus, eligible.

Or were rules different in those days?

I finally got this recording!

I must say I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's very different from many of the other studio restorations, because it includes a boat-load of dialogue between songs as well as during them. Apparently that's the way the show was structured originally, in a rather progressive step for 1933 (of course it is by the composer of SHOW BOAT so that's no surprise). In the liner notes it likens it to a radio broadcast, which is very appropriate comparison.

The score itself is just a whole bunch of wonderful Kern songs, but all the dialogue does make it hard to listen to them individually at times. I think it works best for listening in one sitting rather than just selectively (the Goddard Leiberson set is still probably the best one for that). The songs themselves are a nice balance of "modern" songs of the period with more operetta-ish material.

The sound is very good, and the orchestrations are wonderful to hear. There's a great deal of dance music and such that shows off the wonderful orchestra. The cast is very good too, even when having to work with pesky Russian or Polish accents.

One of the things I found most astonishing was the plot itself and the historical context. I had only passing familiarity with the basics of the story, but there's quite a lot I was unaware of, especially the part regarding Russian nobility having to work as servants due to the Russian Revolution (a similar conceit is used in the play and musical TOVARICH I believe). It really is a lovely story, if not a bit melodramatic at times.

The notes go into great detail with all of the historical context (perhaps too much detail) in addition to including a lovely bio of Kern himself and detailed notes on the reconstruction and adaptation of the surviving materials for the recording, as most of these recordings do.

One final note: The reprises of "Let's Begin" would give the infamous title song from THE LAST SHIP a run for it's money.

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They should bring this show back!

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Re: The Goddard Leiberson album

I'd still say that the '52 version is best for just casual listening for just the songs, but I find this new recording to be a better one overall. I like a great deal of the voices better, as well as the very fine Robert Russell Bennet orchestrations, which I suppose must have largely been considered "lost" in the early '50s. The guitar parts sprinkled throughout are especially lovely, as well as a few sections with some beautiful xylophone accents.

There are also the obvious perks of it being a double disc set in stereo, allowing for a ton of material not on the other disc and far better fidelity. I quite like the two Schwarenka specialty numbers "Clementina" & "Hot Spot" which are both absent from the '52 album. There's also the lovely incidental music and dance arrangements. Some of the songs like "The Touch Of Your Hand" and even the famous "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" play much better for me within the context of the scenes they were written for, as opposed to standalone pieces where they're kind of just there.

I've always been slightly annoyed by the glacial tempos on some tracks from the Leiberson discs (OH, KAY has some of the slowest ever), in this case "Yesterdays." On the new recording it's relatively short (2 minutes) and has a pretty swift countermelody whereas on the '52 recording it stretches out to four and has a very lugubrious arrangement.

Like many of the Leiberson recordings ROBERTA was done in a very slow "easy listening" style, which while lovely lacks a certain livelihood that this new recording has. Overall I'd say the new recording has more life than the rather business-like earlier version. That's probably because it was done as if it were an actual performance instead of like a '50s era pop music album.

They're still both really great albums of a great score, and it all depends on what you're looking for.

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Updated On: 10/22/14 at 11:52 PM

Well, Pawnee bill, Peter filichia disagrees with you:
http://www.kritzerland.com/filichia.htm