There was a series of programmes on Radio 3 a while ago about musicals; the man was argueing that there was more social comment of a controversial kind in Broadway musicals than in operas. Take "Showboat" about racial prejudice. Take "South Pacific", again racial prejudice. I can't recall if "Carousel" had any social comment in it of any substance but it did have a strong plot with a socially disfunctional character as the "hero". What a charmer but what a nasty piece of work he is: always down on his luck, according to him; boastful without much to boast about; conceited and brutal.
But he knows all this and when his big song comes, his soliloquoy, he admits it all, how dreadful a person he is.
I was listening to this sung by the man who did the most recent London show (don't know his name, great singer) while chewing on a sandwich; when he got to the end - "I'll make it or steal it or take it - or die!" I very nearly died. The emotion in the song had welled up in my throat to such an extent that I could not swallow and, as a result, had the mouthful caught so that I could hardly breath.
I survived. Just.
The song is one of Rogers and Hammerstein's greatest pieces, and one of the hardest they had to compose I am told. I used not to like it at all: I found it highly sentimental and mushy. Then I heard a version (the fiilm's) by Gordon Mackrae and I fell for it.
This version was said, by two knowledgeable men on Radio 3, to be "the definitive version".
Mark Stein in his song of the week on his website reckons that the Frank Sinatra version is unbeatable.
I prefer the unknown guy from the London show. Tremendous delivery, great emotion..... but I won't be eating sandwiches if and when he sings it again.
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