{"id":5415,"date":"2006-10-02T13:20:03","date_gmt":"2006-10-02T17:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5415"},"modified":"2010-07-15T16:59:01","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T20:59:01","slug":"the-overture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5415","title":{"rendered":"The Overture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wonderful piece in the NY Times<\/i> about the death of the overture.<\/a> I have noticed that musicals don’t really have your typical overtures<\/i> anymore – but the essay totally reminded me of listening to musicals as a kid – and overtures I remember. (Here – watch how I excerpt the article properly):<\/p>\n

That era is long gone, but there was always more to the overture than the pleasure of the music itself. Practically, it provided a buffer for latecomers; dramatically, it helped to effect a mood transition from the outer world of commerce and cabs to the imaginary world about to be created onstage. It might hint at crisp sophistication (those four bright exclamation points at the start of ?My Fair Lady?) or exotic doings (the pentatonic Orientalia of ?The King and I?) or the possibility of louche women (the wild trumpet orgy of ?Gypsy?). It could establish instantaneously the tone of the material, whether emotional (?South Pacific?), comical (?Bye Bye Birdie?) or satirical (?Candide?). In the case of the overture to ?Candide,? that brilliant jack-in-the-box of musical surprises, it might do so better than the show itself. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It took me just a second to locate, in my memory, the sound of “those four bright exclamation points at the start of My Fairy Lady” – but there they were! The overture – emblazoned in my mind. Amazing.<\/p>\n

I will NEVER forget listening to Annie<\/i> for the first time (got the record for my 11th birthday) – and putting it on the turntable in the dining room – and hearing, for the very first time – that lone trumpet, playing the opening strains to “Tomorrow” – the start of the overture in Annie<\/i>. I didn’t know anything about Annie<\/i>, knew none of the songs yet … but I was hooked from the first second I heard that melancholy lonely sound. Yet hopeful. Strangely hopeful. And seriously: when I listen to that soundtrack now, I STILL get a flash of … soul-shivers, excitement, transcendence … when I hear that trumpet. Wow. God bless the overture.<\/p>\n

Go read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderful piece in the NY Times about the death of the overture. I have noticed that musicals don’t really have your typical overtures anymore – but the essay totally reminded me of listening to musicals as a kid – and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21369,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions\/21369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}