いやはや暑いさかりに外国語と格闘するのももう終盤だ。マラソンだと競技場に入ったあたりか。ここで転ばぬよう注意しよう。
さあ、このあたりで活気ある音楽、それも愛惜してやまぬ倫敦ならではの曲を。うまい具合にプロムズの第二夜はそれに打ってつけだ。
Prom2 of 2012
Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Broadcast yesterday, 19:00 on BBC Radio 3.
Lerner & Loewe:
My Fair Lady
Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl takes speech lessons from
professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a
well-born lady in Lerner and Loewe's classic Broadway musical
'My Fair Lady' performed complete by the John Wilson Orchestra.
Anthony Andrews as Professor Henry Higgins and Annalene
Beechey as Eliza Doolittle lead an all-star cast in the John Wilson
Orchestra's first ever recreation of a complete musical. As
conductor John Wilson says "this really is the perfect light opera,
flawless in its construction, book, lyrics, the way the songs weave
in and out of, and develop the narrative - it's a joy." Although a
Broadway classic it's also the archetypal London show with its
roots in George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' and so it fits neatly
into the London theme running through this year's Proms. For this
semi-staged performance, Wilson has dusted down the
orchestrations for the 1964 film version of the work rather than the
original stage orchestration, to let the full-bodied sound of an
orchestra of 70 to fill the Royal Albert Hall in what promises to be
one of the highlights of the season.
Anthony Andrews (Professor Henry Higgins)
Annalene Beechey (Eliza Doolittle)
Alun Armstrong (Doolittle)
James Fleet (Colonel Pickering)
Sian Phillips (Mrs Higgins)
Jenny Galloway (Mrs Pearce)
Julian Ovenden (Freddie)
John Wilson Orchestra
John Wilson (Conductor)
Shaun Kerrison (Stage director)
いいなあ、羨ましいぞ、ディーリアスの翌日が「
マイ・フェア・レディ」だなんて！ コンサート形式とはいえ、ちゃんと衣装も仕草も本式の上演らしい。どのみち音だけ聴くのだけど、聴衆の反応がヴィヴィッドなのが実に好もしい。なんともはや心躍る演奏だ。2003年夏ドルーリー・レイン王立劇場で見聞した舞台を懐かしみつつ聴こう。
