ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD- Page 2
ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
#25re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 7:21pm
Yeah, it's weird w/o revisions, but why do you get to a point where you stop revising. I want a complete Martin Guerre based on the reopened version in London.
I just love Aspects though, so I am so excited.
Do you have any of the other remastered ALW? Curious of the LuPone Sunset includes additional music.
"What the hell happened to you? You look like a Make-A-Wish Kid. You know, I just knew you were gonna bring shame on this new family of ours, and it just figures you had to go make yourself over into some heroin-shootin skate board chic on the only day E! could interview you!" - Cherry Cherry, on her daughter Mary Cherry
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#26re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 7:29pm
Would they have recorded the Broadway version ( but not released) onstage? Theatres should really have recording facilities so audio performances can at least be captured onstage.
I saw both versions of ASPECTS OF LOVE - West End and Broadway with the original casts - and there were quite some changes when it transferred to Broadway. Some of the songs became duets, one changed singers, and some of the songs were rewritten. The reprise of SEEING IS BELIEVING ( I love this song!) was omitted in the Broadway version.
Can't wait for my copy of the remastered version to arrive!
Jo
#27re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 7:31pm
Wow - that's an excellent question about the remastered London Sunset... I haven't read or heard anything about it, and of all the cast recordings, the "World Premiere Recording" was one of the biggest rush jobs of all - They even used (if I remember correctly) some orchestral tracks from ALW's Sydmonton Festival (basically, a semi-polished Workshop performance of his works).
The cuts and everything on it sounds so poor in comparison to the mammoth, gigantic orchestra they had for the American Premiere Recording.
While not a huge fan of LuPone - I do think her "The Perfect Year" and Anderson's "Sunset Boulevard" are two major highlights of the World Premiere Recording (even like "Girl meets boy better on the WPR)
#28re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 7:34pm
Jo
Did you see Aspects in London before they added "There is More to Love?" I know that it wasn't in the original opening of it, and it's one of my favorite songs from Aspects. I liked it as a duet with Rose sung like they were sharing their feelings without being together (not sure if I saw that in NY or at the Kennedy Center touring version... in any case, it worked!)
PottstownTeacher
Stand-by Joined: 11/21/05
#29re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 8:31pm
When I directed the show, I wanted to put in the "duet" version of "There is More to Love". But my "Guilietta" was a diva bee-otch who refused to give up one of her solos. (I say that with love, she knows I worship her, and she would get the biggest kick out of me calling her a bee-otch on the world wide web!) So it stayed a solo! Plus, technically, you're not supposed to alter the rental material in anyway, and it's a solo in the score. This thread has gotten me thinking! How much I loved seeing that show and how much I loved seeing my production of it. I was/am really so very proud of it! It's a very ambitious work for any group to put on, least of all an amateur community theatre. But I was surrounded by an awesome cast and a brilliant staff and we got standing ovations every night! 
#30re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 9:01pm
I once read that ALW was working on Aspects of Love at the same time he was working on POTO and that "The Music of the Night" was originally written for Aspects. Is this true?
I much prefer the singing in the WPR recording of Sunset to the Los Angeles recording, but I prefer Close's acting to LuPone's...but the songs "Girl Meets Boy" for example were better in the WPR.
"What the hell happened to you? You look like a Make-A-Wish Kid. You know, I just knew you were gonna bring shame on this new family of ours, and it just figures you had to go make yourself over into some heroin-shootin skate board chic on the only day E! could interview you!" - Cherry Cherry, on her daughter Mary Cherry
#31re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 9:18pmDoes anyone have a direct link to the remastered CD? I can't find an IMPORT listing for it, just the original.
And no one grew into anything new, we just became the worst of what we were."
#32re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/27/06 at 9:49pm
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BT7I78/ref=pd_kar_gw_2/102-7794102-9624955?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=5174
It's this one. I ordered from Amazon. It is improved, that's for sure. The music is so lush and beautiful. The 35 odd additional seconds of "Parlez-Vous Francais" is cool. Wonder why that was omitted on the original release.
"What the hell happened to you? You look like a Make-A-Wish Kid. You know, I just knew you were gonna bring shame on this new family of ours, and it just figures you had to go make yourself over into some heroin-shootin skate board chic on the only day E! could interview you!" - Cherry Cherry, on her daughter Mary Cherry
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#33re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/28/06 at 5:37am
I'm kind'a apprehensious at throwing money around, but I just bought a copy of Sunset Boulevard and The Likes Of Us. I saw this as well, with the sign it was remastered, but I don't know if I should get it.
This is the only Lloyd Webber musical, aside from Beautiful and Woman, I haven't really heard. Is it worth it? I know some of the songs, and the synopsis, but it's not very exciting or something that seems dramatic like Sunset and Whistle. So, should I?
Knowing me, I'll probably get it anyway. But I wanted people's advice in case it's a worthy purchase 
Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
-South Pacific
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#34re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/28/06 at 5:50am
QUOTE:
I once read that ALW was working on Aspects of Love at the same time he was working on POTO and that "The Music of the Night" was originally written for Aspects. Is this true?
That would have been me who said that. I mentioned it in a thread a while ago (I'm just full of irrelevent trivia :P But you never know when it comes in handy )
Aspects of Love was first given to Tim Rice as a concept for a film treatment. The more Rice studied the novel, the more "thinner" it got. He showed it to Lloyd Webber who proposed a collaboration (all of this took place during Evita). Lloyd Webber and Rice camped in Pau, or somewhere near where the Aspects story is set, and were to start work on it. Nothing came out of it.
In 1983, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn premiered The Aspects Of Love Cabaret at the Sydmonton Festival. This was, initially, very dark and Brechtian / Kurt Weill-like. One of the songs that was included in this version became The Music of the Night. Here, it was known as Married Man.
Sarah Brightman recorded this song with the London Philharmonic, but because of the explicit nature of the lyrics related to Andrew's divorce, it was not release. Andrew recycled the melody for Music of the Night. Angel of Music and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again were also in the show, but different lyrics obviously. It's a testament to Trevor Nunn's tolerance that he remained involved...
Not only did Andrew rob him of his lyrics, but denied him the chance to direct Phantom: giving the role to Hal Prince instead. Trevor returned to the production in 1989 but completely s-crewed with it. He tried to make it into something big when it was only supposed to be a small chamber-piece.
Lloyd Webber and Rice did reunite, Andrew was very upset that he turned down Aspects (eventually), for a musical of CRICKET. Andrew recycled a bulk of the score for Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.
With the successful release of Likes of Us, I'd love to see a CD release of the original Aspects cabaret, not to mention Cricket and Come Back Richard
Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
-South Pacific
Updated On: 2/28/06 at 05:50 AM
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#35re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/28/06 at 6:36am
I saw the show in London in early October when the album had already been released - so I guess I must have seen THERE IS MORE TO LOVE as a Giulietta solo. I think the musical opened at the West End in April 1989.
To be honest I can't totally remember whether it was sung as a duet on Broadway ( that was 16 years ago ) - but I do remember a song which was sung as a solo but which became a duet eventually. Maybe it was THERE IS MORE TO LOVE. The problem is that we only have the West End version on CD and my recollections are influenced by this recording. But I do remember distinctly the omission of the reprise of SEEING IS BELIEVING...and that Rose sang parts of the song SHE'D BE FAR BETTER OFF WITH YOU, whereas the West End staging only had Alex and George doing the duet.
Talking about incredible song-switching by ALW --
According to the book by Kurt Ganzl (COMPLETE ASPECTS OF LOVE) :
Quote :
"From a long way back it had been planned that the musical should begin with a big expressive song; a number for male voice sung, perhaps, by an unidentified soloist, who was not otherwise part of the show's story, and describing in the most desperately yearning terms a man and a life consumed and coloured by a great and unfulfilled love. A song which distilled the essence of the novel and the show.
The melody that Lloyd Webber selected for this crucial number - the number which would set the play on its way with all wheels rolling - was a particularly beautiful one which he had been nursing for some time. It had previously been envisaged as the starting point for an additional number for the Broadway production of STARLIGHT EXPRESS and versions of it had, at various times, been set to words by Rice, Stilgoe, Nunn and Hart - but the result had never been truly 'right'.
This time, however, he was convinced that the music had found its home - sung by a passionate human, rather than an anthropomorphic machine..."
When I first saw the show -- I was struck by the opening scene. There was this exciting young musical actor with a golden voice who moved to the front of the side of the stage (where I was sitting in front) and started to sing a capella :
"Love, love changes ...."
Jo
#36re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/28/06 at 6:47am
rockfenris2005 -- If you have "The Likes of Us" cannot imagine not having Aspects in your collection! There's really not a track in the two Cd's I find boring or uninteresting. To me it's one of ALW's most expressive, emotional scores. Every song is appropriate in it's place and helps propel the story along.
The problem with Aspects has always been the story. The actors/actresses and director always is walking a tightrope between their characters and the story being seen as either completely ridiculous/outrageous (at least to Americans) or they come across as incredibly unsympathetic. If they can straddle the line though between those two extremes, it is very effective. Fortunately for me, Ann Crumb was still in NY when I saw it and was phenomenal. I have a feeling the Sarah Brightman's arrival in NY, seen as a boost for the show made it less relatable to people. Vocally she might have been a good choice (although she's not my favorite) - but the acting was probably a bit under par from her predecessor...
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#37re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/28/06 at 6:56am
More song-switching :
Rose's eleven o'clock number ANYTHING BUT LONELY was originally sung by a cricketer in the CRICKET cabaret composed by Lloyd Webber and Rice.
CHANSON D'ENFANCE, Alex and Rose's love song, was borrowed by Lloyd-Webber from a young boy who composed the basic melody many, many years ago. It was the young boy's very first composition. His name was Andrew 
#38re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 2/28/06 at 7:17am
'I think by now I'm old enough' and The Mermaid Song also came from Cricket
The London Sunset Boulevard has not been remastered, only the American Premiere (which I've always thought has sounded fine sound-quality wise)
baz
Swing Joined: 9/17/03
#39re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:05am
For anybody interested in Ann Crumb, as well as Broadway Diva, she can be heard on OLC of Goodbye Girl and the off Broadway productions of Inside Out and Johnny Guitar.
For classial fans she can be found on her father George Crumb's albums.
#40re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/5/06 at 12:03amI got my CD today! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone for this thread! and the kind PMs directing me to Amazon! YAY!
"The theater is my life. I live it. I breathe it. I fondle it till it falls asleep." Jack (Will And Grace)
http://feathah.blogspot.com
#41re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 1:09pmFeathah - so what do you think of the remastered CD? Do you hear the difference in the sound or are all of us deluding ourselves????
PitPro2004
Broadway Star Joined: 2/15/04
#42re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 1:40pm
I saw this show at least 5-6 times on Broadway and with at least 4 different Rose's, all who brought something different to the boards. Whereas I missed Michael Ball completely (he was out sick each time...rats!), Marcus Lovett was fine except for the high notes that he kept cracking at the very end of Act I. That always sort of destroyed the show for me...*sigh*. Anyway, I met Ann Crumb numerous times and she was always tremendously sweet, as was Kathleen Rowe McAllen, whom I miss terribly. Someone, ages ago on ATC, posted that they had found her, she was working in an office somewhere and had gotten out of the business. My loss...anyhoo, the score remains one of my faves and I may have to look into this new cleaner version. Yay!!
Oh, and Sarah Brightman does a pretty nice version of Anything But Lonely...but I still think Ann Crumb's was the definitive version. oh yeah!!
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium!"
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#43re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 9:17pm
My copy of the remastered version came a few days ago and I am reliving the show once again. It sounds like a more alive version of the stage production . The voices are excellent and the orchestral accompaniment/solos even more exquisite. But of course, the musical score and the acting is wonderfully preserved, with some very slight additions.
This is truly ALWebber's best work for me!
Jo
#44re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 9:42pm
Hey everyone!
I finished listening to the entire remastered recording today. While I was waiting for the CD to arrive I had listened to the original version twice.
WOW! What a difference! No one is deluding themselves here. To my ears, it almost sounds brand new. Lush and gorgeous! So worth the money. It sounds so exciting and fresh! It's truly a beautiful score and this remastered recording really does it justice. I wish I could see this show again.
Thank you again to everyone!
"The theater is my life. I live it. I breathe it. I fondle it till it falls asleep." Jack (Will And Grace)
http://feathah.blogspot.com
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#45re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 10:27pm
I was lucky to have received a copy of recordings from TV of promotional press reels of the show on Broadway and the 1990 TONY awards show featuring ASPECTS OF LOVE - and together with this remastered edition from the West End production, I am reliving those moments in the theatre again
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#46re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 10:50pm
Well guys,
I finally went out and got this one. I listened to it late last night and was really shocked. This is so different for Andrew Lloyd Webber. I was expecting something like Sunset Boulevard. It's actually almost an opera..
I won't give a full review, since I don't have the time, but wow. And I think that's all his shows I've got now: with the exception of the London Palladium Joseph & Beautiful Game. They tell me that THAT one is worth checking out too.. but I'm not sure. A soccer musical? Eeek
The one thing I would improve on is Act Two, make it more faster, cut Journey of a Lifetime, extend Falling and (lol) make Hand me the Wine sound less like something out of Cats. The whole time I could envision a bunch of jellicles prancing around :P
Thanks for the recommendation Chernjam, if you didn't see my other thread
Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
-South Pacific
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#47re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/6/06 at 11:40pm
>& Beautiful Game. They tell me that THAT one is worth checking out too.. but I'm not sure. A soccer musical? Eeek <
Lol -- it is not a soccer musical. The over-riding theme is sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and how it impacts on the lives of young men who used to play in a soccer team when they were younger. True, it starts with some scenes of "the beautiful game" ( as Pele once called the sports) but it is the camaraderie that it illustrates, a forerunner of how their lives and relationships will change once the shadow of the political problems in their country falls on their lives.
It is the saddest ALWebber musical I have ever seen ( I saw it in London) and there are quite a few songs that stand out - God's Own Country and Our Kind of Love and I do enjoy the title song as well. I would recommend getting the CD.
I am not sure if the CD is available on Amazon.com or co.uk but they may have sound clips, if you want to get a feel of the music.
Jo
Updated On: 3/6/06 at 11:40 PM
#48re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/7/06 at 7:58amI'm actually surprised by all the Aspects love on this thread. I think there are some great songs in there, don't get me wrong, but if ANY show needed a highlights disc, it was this. The recitative is SO boring - it just goes on and on and on, making the entire thing nearly unlistenable for me. Add to that the fact that I don't like the guy who plays George's voice at all, and it becomes a CD I don't listen to very often at all (although, to be fair, I listen to it more than Cats or SE....)
Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.
#49re: ASPECTS OF LOVE - remastered CD
Posted: 3/7/06 at 8:16amwhile I disagree with your take on the recitative, you make a good point - there could have been a highlights CD. It would probably have to be made separate (rather than excerpting stuff from the original recording) since so many of the songs don't "end" or "begin" in a traditional way. It probably would have sold pretty well...
Videos