So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)- Page 2
So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Operagod01
Chorus Member Joined: 7/5/05
#25So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/13/10 at 3:14amI should know better. It's Fredrik NOT Frederik.
#26So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/13/10 at 3:47am
Operagod1, it seems to me that with eight musicians, you can't help but have dull and lifeless. Assume two of the players are carrying the rhythm, that leaves just six players for the meloriy and counter-melody. Where can the richness and color possibly come from? We all know how complex this score is. In order to produce the harmonics, you would need to be using three of the six musicians at any given time, so now you're down to three players to both carry the melody AND produce "the color?" Forget it. The only way these reduced bands can work is if they ditch the strings and go all woodwinds, doubling like crazy, and a trumpet of two and a trombone. Then you have a brassy sound, so that won't work either.
I just don't see how this score can be done justice with eighjt people in the pit (unless the strings are pre-recorded. Are they?)
I have a friend who is one hell of an arranger and he often visits this site. I'll ask him.
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#27So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/13/10 at 4:12am
The strings are live. I don't think the chamber version of this show is anything like the harbinger of doom for Broadway as some have made it out to be. Yes, I love the Tunick original orchestrations and you miss a few moments here and there that only a large orchestra can deliver. But in a 900-seat small playhouse, the eight-piece orchestration is appropriately scaled for this production. I also think it allowed a lot of Sondheim's lyrics to land in ways I haven't experienced before, with a cast who seemed to want every word to be heard and understood.
Kad, in your original post, where you said kvell, you meant kvetch. Kvell is to revel in. Kvetch is to complain about.
#28So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/13/10 at 12:49pm
Let Jonathan Tunick, the original arranger and orchestrator explain it all to you:
http://books.google.com/books?id=90jK8A_nzqUC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=broadway+orchestra+minimum+number+of+players&source=bl&ots=OiDWr_jqqC&sig=dqOpHFbTg7Qly1kf4ljiSZEtNbY&hl=en&ei=FwZOS_SbBpTYsQOFwZnQBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=broadway%20orchestra%20minimum%20number%20of%20players&f=false
#29So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/13/10 at 12:52pm
#30So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/13/10 at 3:41pm
"but the re-working for Nunn's concept ruins everything (for me and for MANY of the NYC actors that have seen the show."
I didn't realise this production was for actors only.
Someone should have told me. I wouldn't have gone to see it.
#31So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/14/10 at 12:19amThanks ljay. I prefer to list the big links because several times I have clicked on a tinyURL link and been taken to an attack site. At least the way I do it, you know what you are getting.
MusicSnob1
Broadway Star Joined: 10/19/09
#32So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/14/10 at 1:07am
Yeah, but look at what you did to the effing thread. Ugh.
.... For what it's worth, I absolutely loathed Ramona Mallory but I LOVED the revival (as a whole). The audience eats up Angela and so did I.
Their music & vocals sounded beautiful and Leigh Ann was amazing. A wonderful day spent in the theatre - no debate or doubt about it.
#33So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/14/10 at 1:13pm
"Kad, in your original post, where you said kvell, you meant kvetch. Kvell is to revel in. Kvetch is to complain about."
You're absolutely correct. I'll amend that.
"The audience eats up Angela and so did I."
The audience ate up the whole damn production- Angela, CZJ, really everything about it. It was really wonderful to be seeing it so well-received.
LayerBoy4
Chorus Member Joined: 5/2/09
#34So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/14/10 at 8:26pmThe shouty B was a choice of Mr. Nunn and Mr. Murray asked of Hunter as early as his first audition, and apparently also a choice used in the Menier production. Nunn purportedly sees the note as a climax point of Henrik's frustrations which should thus be closer to a shout than a tenor float. Hopefully that solves a little bit of the mystery. It is a brave choice for sure, if not necessarily a smart one, or one that focuses on the cello solo, as Sondheim originally intended.
#35So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/14/10 at 8:49pmI had figured that was reason- especially considering Herdlicka has a very nice voice. And who knows, the choice might be more effectual for people who don't know the show and aren't expecting to hear the note sung.
Operagod01
Chorus Member Joined: 7/5/05
#36So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/15/10 at 1:52am
I never said that it was only for actors. I also see why others might have it enjoyed it more than I did. I WANTED to adore it, I kept waiting to adore it, but it never happened. Now, it's live theater and I might have seen a bad show. It happens, but I don't think so... it's the concept it did not enjoy. I had a house seat in row four (maybe that was a disadvantage?)and as a show, it never took me in......... that's all. If it worked for you, then that's great!
#37So, I Saw A Little Night Music (a month and a half behind the world)
Posted: 1/15/10 at 2:29amDramatically, I think the moment works and Hunter nails it.
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