Music and a Musical
I've seen bits of Handel's Messiah on TV for the Easter weekend--in both cases, Boris Brott conducting a group in Jerusalem (on the Christian TV network, or whatever it's called). Very nice. Appeals to both the long-lapsed Protestant and the music lover in me. Last night I got to see and hear "A Trumpet Shall Sound"--my favourite, partly because I played trumpet in high school and got to see my teacher perform this piece.
I also saw the end of "My Fair Lady." I don't know. I guess the whole thing is brilliantly written--even the spoken dialogue. There are some wonderful performances--everyone talks about Stanley Holloway, and I guess Rex Harrison was born for his role, which he delivers with gusto.
On the other hand, Audrey Hepburn's accent comes and goes, and there's the whole story about how her singing was almost 100% dubbed. (She seems to have admitted to the producers that she couldn't sing it all, and the next thing she knew, she wasn't even nominated for an Oscar in a movie which won several of them, in a year when Julie Andrews--the famous stage Eliza who didn't get the part--won an Oscar for Mary Poppins).
It gets grating to me that Harrison doesn't sing much of the wonderful music. Especially "I've Grown Accustomed to her Face."
On accents: in the Brit com "As Time Goes By," there's a story arc about Americans shooting a movie on an English estate in the country. They want the "toffs" to wear hunting gear, complete with a scarlet jacket. The real toffs whose property is being used say "but we've never known anyone who dresses like that." "It doesn't matter," is the reply. "This will communicate to Americans that they're seeing British aristocrats." By way of explanation, young Alistair says: "You know the Dick Van Dyke role in Mary Poppins?" "Yes." "Well, Americans think that's a Cockney accent."
The sets, costumes, lots of money, blah blah. Hollywood sometimes thinks it can turn any sow's ear into any silk purse.
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