If they can it hasn't happened yet. Something I absolutely love about Donna Murphy's performance is the texture of her voice when she sings the various lower notes throughout the score. It is so distinctive - I get chills when she sings "They hear drums, we hear music, be my friend". There is nothing special about the way others sing this line, for example.
I usually can easily see what other people bring to a role - that's why for example I enjoyed both Mazzie and Ripley in NEXT TO NORMAL, so I hate to be one of *those* people but it is difficult for me to see what Judy Kuhn and Rebecca Luker, for example, bring to their roles here. Except perhaps Kuhn does a better job than Murphy sounding that she is sick and a tiny bit breathless. She does sound convincingly sick on the "I came to thank you for the books...I would have sooner but I've been so ill" lines, particularly. Sounding actually sick makes her character a little more sympathetic to me.
I think this recording has somewhat changed my mind about the show though in a negative way. There are a lot of really great things about it though. First, I can't think of a leading character in another musical that explores something quite as confronting as PASSION. I mean, even the struggles for the leading ladies in FOLLIES are quite tame in comparison to Fosca. It truly is awful to be ugly, dying and experiencing unrequited love. And the musical does not attempt to censor it at all - she is relentless and depressing. The kind of person you just don't want to be around at all.
Second, I think the score has some great moments, particularly with Fosca. In terms of scope, "I Read" is the EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES/LOT'S WIFE//AND I'M TELLING YOU/EVE WAS WEAK/EPIPHANY-style song in the musical in terms of expressing an extreme emotion. But instead of anger or deluded excitement it's hopelessness. Listen from 2:08 to 2:17 of the new recording's I READ...the lyrics and those dissonant strings..it just sounds so frightening. This is what I love about Sondheim's music, it often really fits the character and scene so well. But I totally understand why people would not 'like' it - it's not pleasant sounding and it's not fun or uplifting. But sometimes I really enjoy listening to how a hopeless character can be explored through music, which is often really done well in PASSION.
I also love some of the lyrics in the show:
For now I'm seeing love like none I've ever known.
A love as pure as breath, as permanent as death.
Implacable as stone
A love that, like a knife, has cut into a life
I wanted left alone.
A love I may regret, but one I can't forget.
---
But what listening to this recording (after not having listened to the show in a while) has really made clear to me is just how cringeworthy some of the writing is. Of course, this has nothing to do with the recording - you can pretty much trust PS Classics to make perfect recordings these days.
Anyway, in Happiness I really find the line - "unhappiness can be seductive" so cringeworthy and unbelievable….I mean really? I don't see how it can be seductive at ALL. People don't like unhappiness. I wonder if this is meant to be foreshadowing Giorgio falling for Fosca, but still. It just doesn't make sense to me. "We'll make love with our words" - lol cringeeee so corny. It is said so seriously and dramatically obviously, so it's not meant to be ironic or anything.
"I've begun to fear for my soul" - again I just find this cringeworthy. Who speaks like that? I realise that it isn't set in the 21st century, but still, it's just not something I can conceivably believe something someone would feel is the result of Fosca's actions.
And the absolute WORST thing for me is the damn 'soldiers'. "It smells to me like Captain blah has an admirer" - it actually makes this show seem so campy to me……all the "Soliders' gossips" are also so god damn camp. When you listen to "Third Letter", and Giorgio talks about how he is in "living hell" it is just so unbelievable. I don't know why Sondheim and/or Lapine didn't actually make his living conditions or his solider colleagues abhorrent so that there is a REAL contrast between what it must be like in bed with Clara's "breasts, [her] lips" and living in a remote village sausage fest.
Also, in the end I have decided at the moment that I just can't believe that Giorgio could ever like Fosca back. I don't believe a very good looking man who has tasted the flesh of good looking women could ever fall in love with Fosca. I mean, regardless of her dying, ugly body and face - what in her personality does he find attractive? Is there a single moment that Giorgio and Fosca have together where they have fun or a good time together?
Giorgio sings that "No One Has Ever Loved Me As Deeply As You" to Fosca. I absolutely believe this, but I don't see any suggestion why that would mean he could love her back.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
