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| If Ever I Would Leave You, songs by Alan Jay Lerner '40 sung by Bryn Terfel, baritone, accompanied by the English Northern Philharmonia, Paul Daniel, conductor. Deutsche Grammophon 457 628-2, $16.99 |
Alan Jay Lerner '40, the author of books and lyrics to such legendary musicals as Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi, also dabbled as a composer--for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals of 1938 and 1939. Lerner contributed both lyrics and music to the shows, and one of his songs, "My Chance to Dream," was published by Chappell & Company in his senior year--a distinction too modest to convince Lerner to pursue composing after graduation. Perhaps easier to understand is why Lerner's performing career was equally brief. In So Proudly We Hail, the 1938 show, which included portrayals of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth, Lerner was cast as a "singing mannequin." He must have continued to admire professional flexibility in others, though: neither Rex Harrison nor Richard Burton had appeared in a musical before they played leads in My Fair Lady and Camelot. So it seems likely that Lerner would appreciate opera star Bryn Terfel's newest effort, If Ever I Would Leave You, a CD of songs to Lerner's lyrics. It is not only an example of an entertainer stretching his limits, but also one of the most successful forays into popular music ever recorded by a classical musician.
"A lyric without its musical clothes is a scrawny creature," wrote Lerner in his memoir On the Street Where I Live. That's true for the most part, even of Lerner's work: "I could have danced all night, I could have danced all night, and still have begged for more. I could have spread my wings and done a thousand things I've never done before." Read that in a normal speaking voice (quiet your humming) and the lines are insipid. Now sing them to the famous music: the three-step run of "I could have," and the leap in pitch to "danced," and the words "still," "begged," and "more" suspended over the song's brisk pace. Then the words' expressiveness swells. Likewise, most Broadway music is easily forgotten without a lyric that communicates the mood of the piece for an audience. Dorothy Rodgers, wife of Richard Rodgers--who was the composer for lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II--believed that lyric writing was more difficult. "The composer just composes," she said, "but the lyricist must somehow find a new way to say, 'I love you.'"
Married eight times, Lerner certainly had enough material to work with. Luckily, he never lost his sense of humor about his romantic struggles. Of his lifelong friend Rex Harrison and himself he wrote, "It is a melancholy fact that between us we have supported more women than Playtex." That humor is often distilled in Lerner's male characters, many of whom are, in their self-absorption, completely bewildered by the fairer sex. Camelot's King Arthur asks "How to Handle a Woman," and Henry Higgins sings "A Hymn to Him," the refrain of which is, "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" These characters often prefer the company of other men, and Lerner, wherever he is now, should try to get used to it, too. He is likely to be wedded, at least symbolically, to the composer Frederick "Fritz" Loewe in perpetuity.
| Among other recent discs received at this office: Bernstein: Reaching for the Note (Deutsche Grammophon 289 459 553-2) is the companion recording to the documentary about Leonard Bernstein '39, D.Mus. '67, that aired on PBS this winter; tenor saxophonist Anton Schwartz '89 offers eight original compositions and two standards on his self-produced debut recording, When Music Calls (AntonJazz AJ-1001). |
While alive, Lerner occasionally strayed from their partnership. But except for his work with Burton Lane on the movie Royal Wedding and the musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, these efforts usually failed. Love Life, written with Kurt Weill during a spat with Loewe following Brigadoon, was considered a flop, as was his venture with Charles Strouse, Dance a Little Closer, which closed after only one performance on Broadway. Lerner's most publicized failure was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, written with Leonard Bernstein '39. Instead of being mercifully euthanized in its out-of-town tryouts, 1600 was forced to open on Broadway, as stipulated by the funding deal that Lerner struck with his college chum J. Paul Austin '36, chairman of the board of Coca-Cola at the time. The debacle closed after only seven Broadway performances. Unfortunately, Terfel doesn't include the one song from this production, "Take Care of This House," that is universally praised.
Nonetheless, Terfel salvages Strouse's haunting "There's Always One You Can't Forget" and Weill's "Here I'll Stay," both sure to be happy discoveries for most listeners. From the less celebrated musicals Lerner wrote with Loewe, Terfel shines particularly in "Little Prince," from the play of the same name, and in songs from Paint Your Wagon: "They Call the Wind Maria," "I Talk to the Trees," and "I Was Born under a Wandrin' Star." These selections call for the voice of a burly frontiersman and Terfel belts them out in his broad, rumbling baritone. Sadly, it is the two most recognizable songs that disappoint. Terfel singing My Fair Lady's "With a Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church on Time" can't compare to the versions made famous by Stanley Holloway on both stage and screen. Kudos to Terfel for not making the same mistake by offering "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." (Even Cary Grant declined the film role of Henry Higgins, saying only a fool would follow Rex Harrison.)
The "Three Tenors" notwithstanding, rarely does one hear show tunes rendered by such a well-trained voice. To hear rigorous classical training improve a performance of popular music is even rarer. Compared with If Ever I Would Leave You, the recordings of West Side Story and My Fair Lady by Kiri Te Kanawa, despite their commercial success, are awkward and starchy (imagine Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk as danced by the Kirov Ballet). Hers is an operatic voice that can't adapt to the dramatic demands of a Broadway tune. But Terfel's is. Though he doesn't include it here, I would have liked to hear him sing Lancelot's other song from Camelot, "C'est Moi." It is a song about a completely confident man, a man who believes he can do most anything. If this album is any evidence, that man is Bryn Terfel.
~ Daniel Delgado