Word: allegros
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Last spring he took the baritone part in the performance by the Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society of Handel's "L'Allegro and Il Penseroso." He also sang with them in "The Messiah" this fall and with the Polyphonic Choir in Mozart's Mass in C-Minor at Trinity Church. Last month he played the role of Polyphemus in the Lowell House Opera, "Acis and Galatea...
...good" because like all shows, it is not perfect. For one thing, Oscar Hammerstein II has succumbed to a fit of moralizing for a few minutes in the second act, and although it is only a passing fit, one that is practically flippant compared with the attack that laid "Allegro" low, it is nonetheless a blotch, a mar, a flaw. And the song that does most of the moralizing, called "You've Got To Be Taught"--the full line is "You've got to be taught to hate"--is as unnecessary as it is didactic. It simply repeats in italics...
...songs, they are the best Rodgers and Hammerstein have written in years. Just how many years I hesitate to say on one hearing, but my impression is that they outclass "Allegro's" songs by several leagues and run well ahead of "Carousel's." "Oklahoma!" probably has them beat on sheer quantity, but there was nothing in "Oklahoma!" quite so lovely as "Bali Hai," and nothing quite so boisterously whacky as "A Hundred And One Pounds of Fun," which contains, among other phrases of equal distinction, one that goes like this: "Where she is narrow she's as narrow...
...most spontaneous composition of the evening was Gordon Binkerd's rollicking Prelude and Allegro for flute and piano, and it provided a lot of highly enjoyable listening. The spectacular and extremely difficult flute part was handled magnificently by Howard Brown, whose capabilities were also exhibited in the Diamond Quintet. Karl Kohn's performance of the piano part was equally fine...
...which I bring upto support a theory of mine that Oscar Hammerstein II ("Allegro's" Creator and Lyricist) has always been bad when he tries to say something deep, and always good when he lets his sense of humor creep in. And in line with this theory, all the scenes that most people appear to like best in "Allegro" are the lighter ones...