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 WSS CD Oct 17, 2009
I saw West Side Story on Broadway. Loved the music and bought the CD on Amazon. I received the CD on time.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 If it ain't broke - - - I agree Oct 07, 2009
West Side Story came out the year I graduated prep school. I saw it on Broadway at the Winter Garden in August 1960, which was an experience that still resonates within me. I love the show and I love the music, and it struck me as a bit unusual that there is such a diversity of opinion in the reviews here at Amazon.
Not wanting the whole CD particularly, I downloaded two songs, Tonight and One Hand, One Heart, in an attempt to evaluate the leads, and I have to concur with the critics that find fault. Scaglione's voice does not have the quality I would expect in a lead of a show of this magnitude. Not only does it thin as the pitch goes higher, she seems to have trouble hitting notes right, and her vibrato comes when it detracts from the song. I assume she must be miked for the production as I can't see that voice filling a theater. When I saw the show, Lawrence and Rivera had departed, but the woman doing Maria had a fine voice, and once I accepted that she wasn't Carol Lawrence, I was totally engrossed in the show.
Cavenaugh comes across better, but his voice is nasal and he sings tentatively as if he was not comfortable with the part. There is a sense of urgency, a tension, in many of the WSS songs and this was particularly lacking in Tonight.
It seemed to me, particularly in Tonight, that there was much more orchestra than was needed. The OCR sounds as if they used the pit band and this track sounds like they have the whole symphony and it dominates when the singers should be front and center. Perhaps this is just poor engineering and mixing. I wonder also about the tempi. It seems to me they are slow.
A reviewer mentioned that instead of using the cast to snap their fingers, an electronic device is used. That probably says more about current performers than needs to be said and the use of Spanish is a bad idea. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, but it seems to me, in trying to make it better, they broke it. There apparently isn't a Jerome Robbins to get it done right.
One question: I would love to see the original production, if only to see the dances, even if it wasn't the whole show. Is any of it available on DVD?
 Good, but the lead voices don't match previous versions Sep 23, 2009
This is a good new version of the great Broadway classic, but unfortunately the voices of the two lead characters (Tony and Maria) don't have the resonance and beauty of previous versions, including the film soundtrack. Good orchestration throughout. The Spanish language versions of the songs didn't bother me, but didn't impress me, either.
Stephen Rees
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Must to see and listen Aug 09, 2009
I bought this the next day after I watched the broadway show. The studio-quality recording is much better than live. There is no discount tickets of WSS as of July 2009. I bought them from ticketmaster two weeks before. WSS is full of dancing, even the gang fight was performed in a dance which added the uniqueness of the masterpiece. Bernstein is the genius behind the scene by mixing classical, jazz and latin music. Almost all kind of percussions such as timpani, xylophone, wood blocks, conga, etc were used. I don't understand Spanish, but the Spanish songs could be the main attraction for me to buy the music. I stopped buying CD-format anymore, but for this I need the print-out libretto (lyrics). Anyway it's only $3 more than the MP3 download.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Aug 07, 2009
So disappointed with the bi-lingual version...why must people insist on fixing something that isn't broken. On the contrary, this musical is a classic, and trying to change a beautiful thing is always the WRONG decision...anyone who loved the original, just stick with that...
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