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SWEET CHARITY is Fortune's fool and no one's darling. Her unsuccessful attempts to remedy the situation provide the rather sad story for a very slick musical. As the doxy who requites the unrequited, Gwen Verdon is a dancing dynamo.
CACTUS FLOWER. In a sex farce from France, a seasoned playboy dentist (Barry Nelson) loves nothing more than to cut the mustard. His seemingly bland nurse (Lauren Bacall) puts an end to all that with relish.
RECORDS
Choral & Song
MENDELSSOHN: ELIJAH (Angel). In a superb recording, Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts the Royal Society Orchestra in highlights only, but the cuts are not really missed: Sir Malcolm wisely opts for the graceful Mendelssohnian airs; Soprano Elizabeth Harwood gives a limpid account of "Hear ye. Israel"; John Shirley-Quick delivers "Is not his word like a fire" in an opulent basso style. The only low points, in fact, are the hammer-heavy choruses, which remind the listener that this florid form was not really suited to the urbane Mendelssohn, and that when he essayed heroism he often made only noise.
ELGAR: THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS (Angel). Sir Edward Elgar pondered Cardinal Newman's noble poem for fully a decade before finally setting it to music, and the result is an unusual confluence of religious and musical feeling. In his last agony an old man is guided past the demons of hell by a protecting angel, who then sadly reveals that he must "dip in the lake of Purgatory" before he can see God. Janet Baker gives a warm performance as the angel, and Richard Lewis' exceptional gifts for phrasing carry him through a very wordy role as the old man.
FALLA: LOVE, THE MAGICIAN AND THE THREE-CORNERED HAT (Deutsche Grammophon). Loren Maazel, conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, streaks through two famous ballet suites with much of Falla's own theatrical genius, and Grace Bumbry, as a girl chased by the ghost of her dead gypsy lover, gives an exuberant, shoes-off performance in her brief role. All hands seem to have caught the spell of old Andalusia.
SCHUMANN: DICHTERLIEBE AND LIEDERKREIS (Deutsche Grammophon). One of the very finest lieder recordings since the war. The artist's vocal beauty, technique, phrasing, intelligence and imagination combine to magnify Schumann's songs and Heine's words. The singer, of course, is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
GUSTAV HOLST: A CHORAL FANTASIA/ PSALM 86 AND GERALD FINZI: DIES NATALIS (Everest). An opportunity to compare two widely diverging paths in modern vocal music. Hoist is sophisticated and eclectic: his bold Fantasia has a concerto-like role for the organ along with choral and solo sections; in the Psalm, he spins a gossamer a cappella prayer. By contrast, Finzi's quiet music comments on the lyrics, in this case Metaphysical Poet Thomas Traherne's musings on the innocence and beauty of children. Tenor Wilfred Brown's impeccable diction helps to make this a delightfully accessible, intimate performance. The English Chamber Orchestra and soloists, conducted by Imogen Hoist (the composer's daughter), handle their vastly differing assignments well.