SONG OF NORWAY at Carnegie Hall
SONG OF NORWAY at Carnegie Hall
#1SONG OF NORWAY at Carnegie Hall
Posted: 3/27/13 at 10:04pm
Okay, this was a big Broadway hit in 1944 with Kitty Carlisle, and I saw it as a kid when they still produced big spectacles at Jones Beach Marine Theatre with wonderful Broadway singers like Robert Rounseville, John Reardon and Stephen Douglass.
And now Collegiate Chorale is doing a one-night concert at Carnegie on April 30 with an amazing cast. Yes, it's an operetta based on Edvard Grieg music, but that music is glorious. Wish I could be there!
#2SONG OF NORWAY at Carnegie Hall
Posted: 3/27/13 at 11:31pm
I LOVE The Song of Norway recording with Kitty Carlisle, but I don't believe she ever performed the role in the Broadway production. Irra Petina, that brilliant flop queen who later starred in Magdalena, Hit The Trail, Candide and Anya, had her only hit originating the role of Louisa in Song of Norway. There was a record label conflict of interest and Petina was unable to record the OBCR, much like Merman with Call Me Madam.
I believe Petina recorded a few of the numbers with her own label; at least we her OBCR recordings of Candide and Anya to treasure!
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
#2SONG OF NORWAY at Carnegie Hall
Posted: 3/28/13 at 7:40am
Right you are as always, Whizzer, Carlisle only did the Decca recording, Pettina (in one of her only hits; she was properly known as the "Queen of the Floppertettas") was actually in the show. Must have been contractual, like Abbe Lane in "Oh Captain, " under contract to RCA, being replaced by the inimitable Eileen Rodgers on the Columbia recording. Or most famously, Merman doing her own non-OBC recording of "Call Me Madam" for Decca, while Dinah Shore sang the role with the OBC for RCA.
Can anyone else think of other examples of this, where the stars did not record the OBC because they were under contract to another label?
