Lizzie Borden

On this CD:

1. Lizzie Borden, opera
Composed by Jack Beeson
Performed by Ellen Faull, Richard Krause, Herbert Beatty, Anne Elgar, Richard Fredricks
Conducted by Anton Coppola

Tracks:

Opening
Lucky Pierre - Robert Clary, , , Bill Mullikin,
Boston Beguine - Alice Ghostley
Love Is a Simple Thing - June Carroll, Robert Clary, Eartha Kitt,
Nanty Puts Her Hair Up - Virginia Bosler, Allen Conroy, , Alice Ghostley, Joe Lautner, Bill Mullikin
Guess Who I Saw Today - June Carroll
Bal Petit Bal - Robert Clary, Eartha Kitt
"Three for the Road" Medley: Raining Memories/Waltzing in ... - Robert Clary, Alice Ghostley, , Joe Lautner,
Penny Candy - June Carroll
Don't Fall Asleep
I'm in Love With Miss Logan - Robert Clary, Joe Lautner,
Monotonous - Eartha Kitt
Lizzie Borden - Pat Hammerlee, Joe Lautner, Paul Lynde, Bill Mullikin

Customer Reviews:

New Faces of 1952 .......2007-05-13

This is the original broadway cast album. It contains songs which went on to become hits for their performers, such as Lizzie Borden, Lucky Pierre, Love is a simple thing, Guess who I saw today, Bal petit bal and Monotomous. Now re-released on Jasmine label, it was originally released by RCA Victor so the quality is excellent, but from the mono era.

Wonderful memories!.......2007-03-24

Loved having this on the CD form. I wore out the 33 1/3 record. Thank you for carrying this CD!

Where is Time For Tea?.......2005-12-04

I bought a recording of this show in the middle '70s when RCA was re-isuing a lot of their rare soundtracks. The record made a big deal about isuing a lost track called "Time For Tea" from this show sung by June Carroll and Alice Ghostley. This track is not included on this CD. Luckily I still had the record, and was able to make a version of the CD and add the second last track just before Lizzy Borden. Buyer beware however, this CD is not complete!

If You Tapped Your Fingers to the Music in Waiting for Goffman . . ........2005-08-16

Hey, don't waste your money unless you dig the score of really crummy musicals. Some people do. If you are not among that select group then don't believe the good reviews by other buyers (bless their hearts) like I did. Note that Amazon doesn't offer excepts from this aged dog. Good strategy. I bought this cd for the Lizzie Borden song on it but the arrangers even ruined that with a silly bridge section about Lizzie ruining the singers' weekly hoedown. Terrible. Maybe I can unload this cd in a used music store and get a few dollars back. I hope so.

What about the movie?.......2005-07-01

Great, great show! But are any of you people aware that "New Faces of 1952" came out as a movie. The entire stage show was shot mainly from the front as if from a really expensive orchestra seat. Includes Paul Lynde and Ronny Graham in a howling send-up of "Death of a Salesman." Paul Lynde in tattered jungle gear at an afternoon ladies lecture describing his latest safari to darkest Africa. And Eartha doing "Monotonous!" The whole show was filmed.

NOW where is a VHS or DVD of that film? The world is waiting!

Average customer rating:

A Misunderstood Opera
The real truth?
Powerful piece...
This is what is wrong with opera

Lizzie Borden

Manufacturer: Composers Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005TX9
Release Date: 1995-06-20

Tracks:

Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Prelude
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Act I Scene 1Children : 'Toiling Early In The Morning'
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Andrew : 'It Is Almost Finished' And Lizzie
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Andrew's Aria
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Act I Scene 2: Margaret's Garden Aria
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Margret: 'The House Watches'
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Prelude to Act II - Abbie's Bird Song
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Unpleasantries And Introductions
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Two Quintets
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: More Unpleasantness
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Lizzie: 'What am I Forbidden Now?'
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Lizzie's Mad Scene

Tracks:

Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Act III, Scene 1
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Jason's Song, Duet, Trio
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Lizzie's Dressing Scene
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Abbie: 'Bravo!', The Bitch Scene
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Scene 2, Lizzie: 'Kill Time,' Scene, And Murder
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Andrew And Lizzie: Seduction Scene
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Second-Murder Interlude
Lizzie Borden: A Family Portrait In Three Acts: Scene 3, Epilogue

Customer Reviews:

A Misunderstood Opera.......2005-10-10

Upon first listen, the audience frequently comes away from Lizzie Borden with the impression that it is a second rate modernist, atonal, dodecaphonic whatever nonesense garbage. However, upon a closer listening, Lizzie Borden is actually quite a lyrical opera. For example, Abbie's bird song has a sort of late-romantic beauty to it, as does Margaret's Garden aria. Yes, there is a building sense of psychotic hypnotism in the music as the opera progresses, finally culminating in the jagged pestering of the step mother who rains down hell on Lizzie's dreams of male companionship, then leading to the step mother's murder. Beeson's crafting of this scene is incredible; music in this opera is beautiful, yes, but he can really pull through in loosening the audience member from his seat, unable to sit comfortably.

While the cast is excellent, the recording quality of this opera can stand an improvement.

Give this opera a try, and then several more tries. Let it grow on you, both the lyrical and nerve-wracking scenes.

The real truth?.......2004-01-29

Real opera ceased to exist after Butterfly premiered. This isn't an opera; it's, at best, an oratorio. And even Porgy and Bess (and JC Superstar, and Tommy) isn't really an opera; it's a musical. Just because you call it an opera doesn't make it one.

Powerful piece..........2000-09-03

I saw "Lizzie Borden" on Public Television and absolutely loved it! It is such a very wonderful and haunting modern work. This is the familiar story with less emphasis on the murders than on "the psychological climate that made them inevitable", according to critic Robert Sherman. The complete libretto is included with the CD and is very nice for reference.... [This is a good taste of modern opera grounded in an interesting American past!]

This is what is wrong with opera.......2000-04-17

Lizzie Borden is a prime example of why I am not a big fan of opera; i use it as an example only because it is in English, so the flaws are not glossed over by the language difference. Lizzie Borden is essentially a play to which the composer added atonal underscoring. The entire score is one long recitative, with nary a coherent tone row. If a five year old made random stabs at a piece of sheet music and then put each word of the play to the approximate notes, you'd get this as a final product. There is no musical development, no emotional undertow, not even a poetic book; nothing which is the stuff of great opera (e.g. the works of Verdi, Puccini, etc.) If the performers were singing a capella you would think they were making it up as they went along. It is a symbol of the prime flaw in opera - especially modern, American opera (anything by Virgil Thompson is basically the same way.) It is grating and taxing to the ear.

Lizzie Borden (1998 American Stage Company Cast)

Average customer rating:

Lizzie cuts the competition down to size
4 stars for the CD, 5 stars for the show!
Outstanding! A must have for all musical theatre buffs.
Goofy premise, brilliant execution...
Lizzie Borden - A Stunning new musical

Lizzie Borden (1998 American Stage Company Cast)
Christopher McGovern , and Amy Powers
Manufacturer: Original Cast Record
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000I42F
Release Date: 1999-04-06

Customer Reviews:

Lizzie cuts the competition down to size.......2004-01-10

I've been interested in Lizzie Borden on & off for years and when I saw a CD w/Lizzie on the cover AND Alison Fraser was the lead, I snapped it up immediately. Alison does not disappoint. She is fabulous as always, accentuating the nuances of the score with her usual flair. Christopher McGovern & Amy Powers have created beautiful music that harkens back to a time when Broadway musicals didn't consist of American Idol cast-offs screaming at you for two hours. Historical license is taken, naturally, but does not detract from a lovely (and fun) score. The House on the Hill is gorgeous and Another Dinner will stick in your head for days! Definitely worth buying.

4 stars for the CD, 5 stars for the show!.......2001-01-24

Having first heard of this play through small talk at a theatre site, I wondered if it would even be available, how truly "great" it would be, and why there were absolutely no names I recognized involved. With one spin of the CD, I was in Fall River, black and white, and steamed with Father. Double entendre, musical allusion, and good story telling abound in this dark horse. Although there is license taken at the end(with a musical reprise interpreting the title lady's guilt), the aura of the period shines in the snobbish ladies, descriptions of places and clothing, etc...

A must have for any true theatre buff, student, or patron.

One let down, however, is the complete absence of any libretto. This would be one smashing read!

Outstanding! A must have for all musical theatre buffs........2000-11-04

Christopher McGovern & Amy Powers have created a brilliant work of art - one that deserves to be seen and heard. In a musical about Lizzie Borden, I expected songs about murder, but I didn't expect the heart-wrenchingly beautiful, the humorous, or the many other varied types of songs. I've already purchased more CDs to give to friends. I'll cross my fingers that it comes to a theatre near me soon.

Goofy premise, brilliant execution..........2000-06-15

If you want satirical camp like the fun "Bat Boy the Musical" or "Reefer Madness the Musical," you'll be disappointed. This is a moving, serious treatment of the sordid Lizzie Borden story. It's dark, moody and stays with you for days. Allison Fraser's dead, emotionless reading of the dialogue (yes, it's on purpose) gives me the chills. A wonderful surprise. I recommend highly.

Lizzie Borden - A Stunning new musical.......2000-01-06

The musicalization of Lizzie Borden could have easily been something to fear but with this new musical recording, you'll want to hear it again and again. Christopher Mc Govern's music lures you, uplifts you, romances you and then horrifies you. The story of Lizzie unfolds song after song and the strong lyrics and story will hypnotize and amaze you. Alsion Fraser finds the passion in Lizzie and sores through the score makeing it impossible to imagine anyone else more perfect. All I can say is Invite Lizzie Borden into your home and you'll never want her to leave.