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PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! Playwright Brian Friel, recognizing that each man carries within him both his severest critic and most appreciative fan, converts his insight into a striking dramatic device. Two Dublin actors—Patrick Bedford and Donal Donnelly—capture our fancy and sympathy as the public and private selves of a young man forsaking his Irish village for an American metropolis.
SWEET CHARITY is kept aloft by Dancer Gwen Verdon, a one-woman whirlwind propelled by Director Bob Fosse's breezy choreography. Unfortunately, Neil Simon's book about a goodhearted doxy duped by love is woefully becalmed.
CACTUS FLOWER. Like most Gallic romantic comedies, this farce is based on three things: lies, lies, lies. A Don Juanish dentist (Barry Nelson) tells them with aplomb. His gullible mistress (Brenda Vaccaro) accepts them with compassion. And his waspish nurse (Lauren Bacall) uncovers them with delight.
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. The gifted APA repertory company puts a new wrapping on a 30-year-old comedy by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The Sycamore family may not seem hilariously outlandish today, but it is still fondly engaging—a tender nosegay tossed to an earlier age of innocence.
RECORDS
Choral & Song
VERDI: REQUIEM (RCA Victor). The virtues of this new recording are the soloists. Carlo Bergonzi is good enough to make the listener forget Jussi Bjoerling's masterly reading of the Ingemisco. Birgit Nilsson is all fire; Lili Chookasian and Ezio Flagello both have big, warm voices. The difficulties stem from Erich Leins-dorf's conducting of the Boston Symphony. The pace is much too slow. The long, dramatic Otello-like lines enshroud the listener rather than move him. Tullio Serafin's interpretation of the Requiem (Angel) is still the best.
FAURÉ: LA CHANSON D'ÈVE, AND FAURÉ'DEBUSSY: SIX VERLAINE POEMS SUNG BY PHYLLIS CURTIN (Cambridge). In the Song of Eve, Charles van Lerberghe's poetry runs with Eve through paradise on the world's first morning—fresh, vibrant, exulting. Fauré's setting is considerably tamer, though it echoes the poet's purity, as does Soprano Curtin. The flip side of this unusual record consists of settings by Fauré and Debussy of the same six Verlaine lyrics. It is a tribute to the richness of French songs that both composers do justice to Verlaine's Rousseau-like musings on love: Fauré with his faithfulness, Debussy with his flair.
CALDARA: IL GIUOCO DEL QUADRIGLIO (Nonesuch). Quadriglio, perhaps the best-known work of the Venetian composer Antonio Caldara (1670-1736), is a showpiece cantata for four sopranos. It was commissioned by Archduchess Maria Theresa (later Empress of Austria) and performed at court by her and her sisters. The ladies must have minded their singing master to negotiate the runs and trills that ornament this gay, witty music about four bored young damsels desultorily playing cards and wishing that both their hands and their suitors were more exciting. The soloists and orchestra of the Societàa Cameristica di Lugano have just the right light touch for this delightful record.