Word: duet
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Miss Schechtman had to fill in for the ailing ingenue on 2 day's notice, and her performance is quite good, if a bit weak in song. Anthony Thompson, on the other hand, sings magnificently in the role of Rackstraw, but acted somewhat woodenly. Consequently, the first act duet, and the "Dungeon Cell" song, lacked the verve of the rest of the show. Here Sullivan can be blamed. The parts of Josephine and Rackstraw get the worst musical treatment in the score, and even then D'Oyle Carte players have trouble with them...
...DREAM DUET (RCA Victor) is not Flagstad and Melchior any more but Anna Moffo and Sergio Franchi. No kidding. Here they sing a syrupy selection (Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life, Sweethearts) and, but for the bad repertory, all but live up to their brazen billing...
...Alzira, it represents Verdi's single lapse from musicianship and inspiration, and the preposterous libretto, inspired by Byron's The Corsair-the story of an Aegean pirate whose ill-starred romance leads to murder and suicide-scarcely helps matters. The one pleasing aria and the single engaging duet could hardly be expected to mollify a fastidious audience. Even the most pious Verdi worshipers could not help applying to their hero the only couplet in Byron's windy poem that is worth remembering...
Abstraction in art seemed to reach some sort of apogee when Kasimir Malevich painted White on White. But Paul Taylor, an avant-garde dancer, may have topped that ploy by choreographing stillness: he once fashioned a dance called Duet in which a cocktail-party couple stood stock still for four minutes. He has composed dances to the sound of rain, and he has taken a collection of human postures and set them to the chant of the telephone operator - "At the tone the time will be . . ." The whole thing lasted 20 minutes, longer than a good many of the audience...
...Strings lacks greatness, but it is still one of the best musicals to have come from Broadway recently. Rodgers achieves a simple, pacific beauty in "Look No Further;" "Loads of Love" and "Be My Host" are bouncy and exciting. The duet "Maine" will probably end up as that state's official song...