Passion's Score?

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:05pm

I have an Amazon giftcard to round out, and was thinking about buying this. The only thing I know about it is that Sondheim did it, which is normally enough assurance for me, but what do you think of Passion's score?

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:08pm

PASSION, in my opinion, is one of Sondheim's most beautiful and emotional scores. Every character gets a chance to shine, and the musical techniques (Fosca's music getting more "major key" as Clara's get more "minor", etc.) really get the story across.

However, the score is still only my third favorite of Sondheim's. My first favorite would be (of course) SWEENEY TODD, while my second is ASSASSINS.

[SahDu]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:17pm

I love it. Bought it on a whim and listen to it all the time. Donna Murphy sounds great and really does a nice job with Fosca. Just my opinion though.

Updated On: 2/15/14 at 05:17 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:19pm

Before you buy the CD make sure you listen to the music samples they provide on Amazon (and make sure you buy the Broadway cast recording with the brilliant Donna Murphy instead of the one with the horrendous performance by Maria Friedman).
I believe this is one of the most romantic, touching, emotional, and passionate scores I've listened to. The story centers around Fosca, Giorgio, and Clara. The cast recording has a great synopsis so I won't give away much. Fosca's intense emotions and actions are probably only comparable to Momma Rose's, she feels so deeply.
This is not a typical by the numbers show. Sondheim and Lapine created a musical where sometimes it's quite hard to distinguish between the book and the music. I find it a brilliant show, probably not the most accessible one but if you're already familiar with Sondheim's work and you like it, then I highly suggest getting this CD. It features a first-rate cast (Murphy, Jere Shea, Marin Mazzie, Tom Alredge, Gregg Edelman) and it's just so beautiful. Let us know what you think if you do get it.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:23pm

Thanks for your help, guys. I think I'll get it.

P.S. Yes, it's the one with Donna Murphy.

[Piercemn]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:26pm

You all sound like you've had a better time with it than I did. Minnesota Opera staged it a few years ago, and while Patricia Racette was terrific as Fosca -- I'd seen her at the Met in Dialogues des Carmelites -- the production was a dead bore. I wanted to gnaw my arm off, and I almost didn't come back for the second act, but my partner convinced me that I had to see it. He said it would get better. He was wrong.

Every time I want to sit in the lobby while he watched the second act, I give in, and every time, he's wrong. He made me sit through an horrendous production of Company, too. I've seen two other, excellent productions, but this third one was a strike out.

Enjoy Passion. I love much of Sondheim's work. Last year I finally got to see Follies, and it was glorious, but I don't ever need to see or hear this one again!

Updated On: 3/3/07 at 05:26 PM

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:52pm

Passion is such a beautiful score.Basically,ray-andallthatjazz said what I wanted to say.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:06pm

I don't know if it is still in print but Terry Trotter's Trio did a CD PASSION...In Jazz that I really enjoy a lot. It preenets the major musical themes, in jazz arrangements.

[jo]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:11pm

Michael Ball is excellent in the London concert version ( it is not a cast recording, technically-speaking). You may want to give this recording a chance, if only to hear him sing the incredible NO ONE HAS EVER LOVED ME/ I LOVE FOSCA. He sings the extended version of the song, which was reinstated in the London production of PASSION.

I also have the jazz version - and it's also enjoyable.

You may also want to get the DVD version of the show, with Donna Murphy.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:13pm

I hate "I Love Fosca." It ruins the beautiful moment in "No One Has Ever Loved Me."

Anyway, BUY IT! Though it's the sort of score you have to listen to; you can't just put it on in the background. It's my favorite Sondheim show, at any rate.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 9:20pm

Watch "Passions" on NBC Daytime before it goes away!

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 3/3/07 at 11:43pm

The penultimate of Sondheim's increasingly uninteresting scores. Suffering from logorrhea, the score is exhaustingly prosaic in its lyrics, grindingly monotonous in its music, and fails to compensate for the slack and static dramatization (the reading of one letter I could understand, but six?)It plays like a parody of Sondheim's bag of 'tics' and bad 20th century opera and has none of the lustre of his best work. Unsurprisingly, not one measure of music suggests the heat of its title but how could it? Despite Sondheim's claims, this musical isn't a rhapsody on the theme of love but a thanatopsis. Perhaps a different composer could have invested it with greater vitality and variety but I doubt it. This story doesn't seek its release in song but in the grave.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 4:06am

Absolutely untrue, Hunter, and you know it. First of all, you accuse this lyrically spare musical of logorrhea. Certainly no 'Getting Married Today's in this one. Suddenly Sondheim's wild intentiveness, in check, the master in full control, becomes prosaic and predictable (although you'd probably be hard pressed to admit exactly what you predicted in this score). You know that the score finally finds its release in rejoicing in the potential of life, and love, and music, which is where it opens as well with very much the same thematics and three notes. I'm not sure what your beef is with the letters since I find the dramatic device ultimately heartbreaking in the final moments. There are few dramatic moments as heartbreaking as Giorgio's final reading of the letter. I'm glad you reduce Sondheim to a bag of tics though. I wonder what you consider good writing since your posts insist on criticizing everything. Hammerstein's self conscious coy nature in exchange for Sondheim's heartfelt and topical observations about life and love, maybe? You're probably Shakespeare reincarnated.

Even then. When is love fully appreciated but when's it's lost, in life or in the grave? Even Shakespeare could have told you that. That's what his most famous play is about. Fosca's love could have never meant as much except that she died to achieve it.

I agree that Passion is thematically confused. But it poses a lot of questions and answers many of them. More than we can ask from most musicals.

Most debilitating, to me, is that I think the ultimate disintegration of Clara and Giorgio's romance is more saddening than the consumnation of Fosca's and Giorgio's romance (and its end, as consequence). But remember that that Sondheim's favorite scene in the movie the show is based on (I don't know if he ever read the novel) is one of confusion and disarray. Sometimes I think the guy finds chaos more appealing than reason.

[Justice]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 4:18am

Forgive my ignorance...but isn't it a cast recording and not a score? Isn't a score music, much like that of an "underscore"...or more or less the written sheet music?

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 4:29am

Um, a score is all the music written for the production. So I suppose you could refer to a soundtrack as a score as well although it would probably be kind of incomplete.

A cast recording is just that. The cast recorded singing the music.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 7:26am

Raviolisun, get Passion.

EnchantedHunter, find a new interest