SONG OF NORWAY (1958 Jones Beach cast recording)

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 4:06am

I just finished playing Sony/Arkiv's new reissue of SONG OF NORWAY. Now this is a show rarely (if ever) mentioned on BWW, but in the mid 1940's it was a huge hit and Decca's cast album sold almost as well as OKLAHOMA! (In those days adults bought the music and prized anything with a Classical connection. Hammerstein's CARMEN JONES also sold well.)

Decca's album came out on CD a few years ago, and there is a note-complete 2 CD set from JAY/TER, but I grew up with a mono copy of this 1958 Jones Beach cast (and have never found the stereo pressing!) Hearing it again - and finally in stereo - is like meeting an old friend. The score is very well sung and even if a few minor trims have been made here and there, you get a good theatrical version of the score (although Decca's set has more dialogue - much of it cut from their LP release but restored on the CD.)

What a great cast on this album: Brenda Lewis (REGINA) and John Reardon (of Columbia's ON THE TOWN album) have the operatic voices needed for this score, and Sig Arno recreates his original Broadway role singing "Bon Vivant."

Best of all is the finale - 6-minute abridgment of Grieg's A-minor concerto that in the Jones Beach production was accompanied by an elaborate skating ballet. I have never been to Jones Beach but would love to see this fascinating outdoor theatre, even if it is not longer configured the way it was when SONG OF NORWAY, A NIGHT IN VENICE and ARABIAN NIGHTS played there in the 1950s.

The way Wright and Forrest adapted Grieg's melodies is ingenious. "Strange Music" was the show's big hit but I always favoured "Bon Vivant" and "Freddy and his Fiddle."

If you are not familiar with this show Arkiv's reissue is a must-have. Yes, it is a creaky operetta and the book is more fiction than fact - Grieg aside from writing a lot of music, didn't have a very interesting life - but it is a glorious score and this version has a rich full-bodied sound that eclipses the flat, tinny sound of the Decca set.

Avoid at all costs the 1970 movie called SONG OF NORWAY unless you need help getting to sleep.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 4:21am

Thanks for the review. Haven't heard this recording yet, but I love Brenda Lewis. A friend who really likes Song of Norway thinks this is the best recording of it.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 2:35pm

I am definitely going to pick this up. I missed the Decca reissue of the original recording but I don't feel the loss as much since I have this to fall (rise?) back on. (Plus, I have the crummy public domain reissue if ever I feel a burning need.) I am waiting for Make A Wish to appear, though. Do we know when that will be? Later this month?

Sure wish Arkiv would do one of those sales again, too.

Strange there was no announcement made of its release on Masterworks Broadway. Thanks for the review!

Updated On: 8/11/10 at 02:35 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 3:14pm

I tend to agree with your friend. Decca's album is fine (better than fine if you get the complete version on CD - the Lp truncated several tracks)but it does have that flat sound that all Decca albums of the era have. This Columbia version was taped in stereo in that rich full-bodied sound that was a hallmark of Columbia records in the 1950s.

Last night I found an article online (and of course can't find it now) that said one night in July 1958 the theatre set a house record with over 8300 attendess - some 300 of them standing - to see a performance of SONG OF NORWAY. This production was clearly a big hit.

The album was out of print by 1968 (the earliest Schwann catalog I have) which means it didn't last 10 years. It probably sold well the summer the show played - it was out in time for the 2nd summer's run - but then sales declined. As of 1968 only the fake stereo Lp edition on Decca OC and the Angel studio cast version are listed s being in print.

The Angel version was issued on CD in EMI's Music for Pleasure series a few years ago paired with a 1960 album of LILAC TIME. The SONG OF NORWAY selection is complete except that it drops the finale - The Concerto - which is the whole point of the piece.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 4:00pm

Dern, I didn't know the Decca Song of Norway reissue had added material! Now I really want it, but not for the price Amazon Marketplace is offering it for.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 4:35pm

It';s not really additional. When they first transferred the 78-rpm set to LP in 1949, Decca deleted dialogue intros and some dance music because they believed (wrongly) that an LP side maxed out at 22 minutes. (They cut 2 songs from CARMEN JONES, a song from UP IN CENTRAL PERK, 4 songs from BABES IN TOYLAND and ignored the Volume 2 selections from OKLAHOMA! for their LP reissues.)

The bogus CD releases of SONG OF NORWAY from England are usually taken from the incomplete LP copies. Decca Broadway's CD has the best sound (and is still available as a download) but Naxos has a CD transfer that is very good (and quite cheap) that also includes Irra Petina and Robert Weede's 6-track Columbia album of songs. She was in the show but not allowed to appear on the cast album because she was under contract to Columbia. Kitty Carlisle does an admirable job replacing her on Decca's set sounding as if she was part of the cast all along.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 5:59pm

Oh, weird, I had kinda wondered what that Naxos thing was but didn't play close attention. Thanks for pointing that out! I'm assuming it has everything the Decca reissue had but also those Petina/Weede bonus tracks?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 6:29pm

I live on Long Island and the Jones Beach Marine Theatre is a wonderful memory of my youth. Every year we'd have a grand night at the theater watching such shows as FINIAN'S RAINBOW, SHOWBOAT, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (featuring the young Dom DeLuis!), THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE KING AND I, PARADISE ISLAND and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Up until the current Lincoln Center production, their SOUTH PACIFIC was the most perfect interpretation of the show for me: performed on an actual lagoon with real palm trees planted around the stage and working 80' waterfalls on either side of the stage for the Bali H'ai sequences. The cast was stunning, too--Kathleen Nolan, Jerome Hines and Barney Martin.

We had just moved to Long Island (1959?) when there was a hurricane which dislodged one of the sets from SONG OF NORWAY (actually they were barges) and it floated in the storm to Patchogue River. Some fellow in Patchogue looked out his window the next morning and found a Norwegian fjord outside his home. As it was several days before the barge could be returned to Jones Beach, we had a grand time climbing all over it and having our pictures taken while doing so.

I wonder where those pictures are today?

Updated On: 8/11/10 at 06:29 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 7:05pm

Twinbelters: Yes, the Naxos release has all 12 sides of the original 78-rpm album. It was produced with great care by Toronto broadcaster and record collector David Lennick. (It was David who played the complete OKLAHOMA! album on the air many years ago alerting me to the fact that Volume 2 existed but had never been included on the LP releases.)

Dolly: Great story about the Fjord! The more I read about Jones Beach the more I wish I could have seen it in its heyday. (IF you ever find those picture please scan them and post them.)

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 7:28pm

Thanks for your input everyone. I just ordered it and am looking forward. I have to admit I am not a huge operetta fan. I'm going to give it another go with this recording. My operetta collection is sadly lacking.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 7:29pm

Any other operetta must haves you all would recommend?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 8:07pm

I came across this article about the Jones Beach Marine Theatre. It has some decent photos from SHOWBOAT. It gives an idea what the stage was like.

(Obviously SHOWBOAT had been done several times at Jones Beach.)


Jones Beach Marine Theatre

Updated On: 8/11/10 at 08:07 PM

[JOak]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 8:37pm

Mildred do you have Anya and the Gay Life?

[twinbelters]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 8:49pm

Mildred: The studio recording of Magdalena is lush and fantastic.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/11/10 at 9:09pm

Mildred - Get the Readers Digest set TREASURY OF GREAT OPERETTAS.

It presents condensed versions of classic operettas. It was originally a 9 LP set in the U.S. and Canada (18 operettas - 1 per side) with a 12-LP edition (24 operettas) in the U.K. and Australia.

Not all of it has made it to CD but 6 are found in the Digest set YOU ARE MY HEARTS DELIGHT featuring music by Friml, Lehar ad Romberg. This set includes reissues of THE MERRY WIDOW, ROSE MARIE, THE VAGABOND KING, THE DESERT SONG, THE STUDENT PRINCE and THE NEW MOON. These are well sung selections and at approx 25 minutes each no operetta overstays its welcome.

In 1994 Digest issued a 3 CD set called TREASURY OF GREAT OPERETTAS that has 9 of these potted programs. It has 5 of the above listed titles (it doesn't include VAGABOND KING) as well as Herbert's NAUGHTY MARIETTA, Kern's SHOW BOAT and ROBERTA and Youmans' NO NO NANETTE.

Both CD sets are now out of print but regularly turn up on E-Bay. A few months ago I picked up a 2nd copy of TREASURY for a friend and paid $20 for it. I also got YOU ARE MY HEART'S DELIGHT a while back for $10. The Lp set regularly shows up there as well and includes some others that I wish were on CD: MLLE MODISTE and BABES IN TOYLAND by Herbert, BLOSSOM TIME by Romberg (based on Schubert Melodies), THE GYPSY BARON and A NIGHT IN VENICE by Johann Strauss, THE WHITE HORSE IN by Robert Stolz, A WALTZ DREAM and THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER by Oscar Straus, and (bringing us full circle) SONG OF NORWAY.

Posted: 8/12/10 at 11:29pm

I have vague memories of being taken to Jones Beach in my youth to see Guy Lombardo conduct "The Sound of Music."

All I remember is thinking who thought putting a moat between the stage and the audience was a good idea?

But as Dollypop mentioned, they always made the water work for them. For instance, when the Nazis were chasing Maria and the family, they sped through the moat in a motorboat festooned with swastikas.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/13/10 at 3:51pm

Oh, that moat was put to great use in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS: it hosted all sorts of water vessels in the great chase. Also, in SOUTH PACIFIC, lots of Navy boats were used, as well as Billis' jaunt to Bali Hai. Of course, SHOWBOAT turned that moat into the Mississippi River.

Really, it was a grand place for a summer's night!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/13/10 at 6:07pm

The CD will be released next Tuesday (August 17) - see link below.

If you are curious to hear some of it - and you are up early on Saturday morning - I'll be featuring 5 tracks from the recording on my radio program tomorrow (Sat Aug 14) between 8 and 9 am and available here: http://www.proudfm.com/show_details.php?id=42



SONG OF NORWAY