Most Happy Fella

Product Description There are three Opera masterpieces from Broadway, George Gershwin's PORGY AND BESS, Kurt Weill's STREET SCENE and Frank Loesser's THE MOST HAPPY FELLA. JAY Records are proud to add the second to it's proposed complete recordings of the trilogy.As with STREET SCENE (CDJAY2 1232), this recording of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA is absolutely complete. Not only complete but it includes over 30 minutes of cut material not previously heard. The reason for the cut was that the original actress who sang the role of Marie could not sing the music, but with the great opera/musical star, Nancy Shade who sings the role on JAY's complete recording, the glorious music have been recorded to stunning perfection for the first time.Opera legend Louis Quilico, recognised as one of the world's greatest Rigolettos takes on the taxing lead role of Tony, one which he sang to great acclaim at the New York City Opera a few years back. When the original production first opened on Broadway, Mrs. Loesser (Jo Sullivan) sang the role of Rosabella and now over 45 years later, her daughter, the Broadway star Emily Loesser takes on the same role for the recording. This all star cast recording includes Tony award winners as Karen Ziemba (currently wowing them on Broadway with the smash hit, CONTACT), Richard Muenz and Don Stephenson (currently starring in the Broadway bound revival of FINIAN'S RAINBOW). John Owen Edwards conducted The National Symphony Orchestra.Although it's sung through (almost), the score is jam packed with hit songs such as STANDING ON THE CORNER, JOEY JOEY JOEY, BIG D, MY HEART IS SO FULL OF YOU, SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, HAPPY TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTENCE, WARM ALL OVER, ROSABELLA amongst others.Recorded in Digital Dolby Surround Sound at Abbey Road Studios in London and Clinton Studios in New York. Amazon.com Today The Most Happy Fella may not be as well known as Guys and Dolls or How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but with this lavishly imagined "musical musical" Frank Loesser left us one of the finer nuggets from the golden age of 1950s musical theater. Its story line may not have dated so well, but the show's many-leveled examination of the nature of love and bonding is timeless. Tony is a rich, aging Italian vintner who dupes the object of his affections--the beautiful young Rosabella--into marrying him. And despite Tony's initial deceit, Rosabella eventually does fall in love with him, but not before a sudden romance with Tony's handsome worker Joe leaves her pregnant. As in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, complications are swept away through the healing power of forgiveness, and the musical ends in the truly classic sense of comedy. For this installment in its Original Masterworks Editions series, JAY Records has pulled out all the stops. This CD presents the first complete recording of Most Happy Fella and includes not only an illustrated booklet with notes but a separate full libretto (also published for the first time): a completist's dream even if you already own the 1956 OBC recording or the fine 1992 revival (economically scaled down for two pianos). There is a considerable amount of underscored dialogue, so listening to the three CDs here really is like a night out, encouraging you to produce the show in the theater of your mind; six bonus tracks make the picture even fuller. The Most Happy Fella is often described as on the "operatic" spectrum of musical comedy, and this applies as much to the lushly orchestrated, harmonically dense fabric of Loesser's score (intricately performed by London's National Symphony Orchestra) as to the big, juicy vibrato of its vocal style. Completed just before his sudden death, Louis Quilico's performance as the titular lead is warm and big-hearted, full of personality but able to blend in the show's wonderful assembly of ensemble numbers. Loesser's widow Jo Sullivan Loesser (the original Rosabella) makes a special cameo appearance, while daughter Emily Loesser brings to her own Rosabella enough fire and sexual chemistry with Richard Muenz's Joe to help counterbalance the character's sentimental passivity. Love of detail makes many of the smaller roles--such as Tony's sister Marie (played by Nancy Shade)--particularly vivid. It's a rich package for lovers of vintage musical theater. --Thomas May