Word: operettas
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Strauss: Wiener Blut (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Erich Kunz, Emmy Loose, Nicolai Gedda; Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus under Otto Ackermann; Angel, 3 sides of 2 LPs). Not so grand a ball as Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss's masterpiece, this operetta is slighter but in spots even more delightful. A composite of Strauss music not originally written for the stage, the score is full of surprises: when sung, some of the waltzes and polkas take on a warbling charm they do not have as orchestra pieces alone. The libretto is preposterous, but offers linguists an unusually rich sampling of Viennese slang...
...produce a musical Christmas Carol. Fredric March harrumphed and hammed as Scrooge, Basil Rathbone clanked and groaned as Marley's ghost and, although there were occasional tuneful moments, most Dickens' fanciers recoiled from the sight of the Spirit-of-Christmas-Present (Ray Middleton) bursting into operetta-like arias. In Manhattan, no viewer had an excuse for missing Scrooge since an excellent 1951 British film, starring Alistair Sim, was shown 16 times during the week over WOR-TV. On Christmas Day, the film's eight sponsors graciously let it be shown three times without one interruption for commercials...
...every organization operates independently, Yale has a Law School Student Association to which all students belong. The group puts out the Yearbook and handles all social, dormitory, dining hall, and athletic programs. There are even a law school jazz band, a choral society, and an annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta...
Easy Payments, by Ray Doyle (Hermitage; $3), is a soap operetta, and its refrain is that a loan collector's lot is not an easy one. With a baby on the way and a stack of unpaid bills, sobersided Dan Cantrell cannot be choosy about his work. His job as "investigator" for the Trustee Personal Finance Co. is to hound the "slows." He soon finds that the slows' lot is not a happy one, either. Families live in crowded walk-ups where dank, paintless walls "shed their plaster skin revealing the ribs of lath." Unkempt women in faded...
With all this to live up to, the players live it up with a will. Howard Keel has never sung better, and Jane Powell is a properly pretty operetta type. But the chorus line is the real star of the show: the six brothers and their six brides...