The Merry Widow/The Desert Song [1944 Studio Casts] (1995)

by 1944/1945 Studio Casts

Box Office Recordings/Encore Productions does operetta fans a favor -- even if one that may be legally dicey -- by reissuing these two long out-of-print operetta recordings on a single disc. In 1943, Kitty Carlisle appeared in a production of the 38-year-old operetta The Merry Widow in Boston and her notices were good enough to persuade Decca Records president Jack Kapp to undertake a 1944 studio-cast recording using Wilbur Evans, also of the Boston production, and Lisette Verea of a recent New York staging. The result was ... Read More

Box Office Recordings/Encore Productions does operetta fans a favor -- even if one that may be legally dicey -- by reissuing these two long out-of-print operetta recordings on a single disc. In 1943, Kitty Carlisle appeared in a production of the 38-year-old operetta The Merry Widow in Boston and her notices were good enough to persuade Decca Records president Jack Kapp to undertake a 1944 studio-cast recording using Wilbur Evans, also of the Boston production, and Lisette Verea of a recent New York staging. The result was the most extensive recording of the score yet attempted. Kapp then brought Carlisle and Evans back into the studio to cut a version of the 1926 operetta The Desert Song. It was another excellent rendition. Both albums, originally issued as sets of 78s, were reissued on LPs in the 1950s, but otherwise languished in the Decca (later MCA) vaults. The present disc is not licensed legitimately from the copyright holders, and it clearly has been mastered from old records, since the sound is not great. But Carlisle's voice cuts through easily; singing operetta was really the strongest of her many modest skills. And while the scores are incomplete, especially from a later perspective, they remain a brave early attempt to put the music on record. The disc is augmented with three tracks drawn from Carlisle's Decca singles, notably a spirited version of "Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum" from Carmen Jones. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi Read Less