Manon, let go!
One of the cher public sent in this tidbit from the recently-published edition of The Letters of Noël Coward
Went to hear Albanese as Manon Lescaut and it was a grave grave mistake on account of she didn’t ought to have attempted it for several reasons. Time’s Wingèd Chariot being the principal one. She sang most softly and looked like a neckless shrewmouse. Jussi Boerling did a Mary Martin and belted the living fuck out of her. He contrived this very subtly by the simple device of gripping her firmly by her shrinking shoulders, turning her bum to the audience and bellowing into her kisser.
Curiously, La Cieca has heard of a sequel to this incident. When reminded of this contretemps some decades later, Licia quipped, “Ah, Bjoerling era una salame!”
“didn’t ought” ??????
“on account of she didn’t ought to have” – an affectation, sort of verbal slumming, considered droll back in the day. Check out the correspondence of the Mitford sisters, rife with baby talk, affectation of speech of the lowah clahsses, etc.
Ah, rather like my late aunt who thought saying things like “I doed it” was clever.
Noel certainly does get his point across. Loved it.
Did Coward really write that badly? And Mary Martin was known for many things but “belting” certainly wasn’t one of them. One wonders about the state of Mr. Coward’s hearing at that point.
And that funny line was better heard when Billy Wilder wrote it for “Ball of Fire.”
One of the peerless letter-writers of the age is being censured above for a colloquialism used in a letter to an intimate friend? (Such turns of phrase were often used by him in parody of someone both he and his correspondent knew.)
As for Coward’s musicianship, see
http://rogerevans.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/if-musical-erudition-were-all/
“And Mary Martin was known for many things but “belting†certainly wasn’t one of them. One wonders about the state of Mr. Coward’s hearing at that point.”
Then one wonders nonesense. The quote our Doyenne gave was written on April 15, 1956. Noël Coward and Mary Martin had, on October 22, 1955, made television history with a 90-minute live broadcast of a two-person show, complete with new songs by Coward, on the CBS television network. That formidable recent production, plus considerable (largely unhappy) stage and personal experience with Martin, had fully informed Coward of the upstaging tricks and other devices of Mary Martin.
nonesense = nonsense
Listening to the 1955 broadcast tape with both Albanese and Bjoerling seems to contradict Coward’s assertion. Both seem extremely apt and well matched for their roles, are obviously performing with and not against each other, and are totally in their roles. Albanese was one of the great Manon Lescaut’s, in my opinion. Not so much vocally, it was a bit dry and weaker on the bottom than the top, but in style, commitmnet and imagination. And Bjoerling seems to catch fire opposite her. Both int he studio and on this live broadcast.
I’ve discussed tenors with Mme. Licia. Of those with whom she performed, she told me, Björling was her favorite.
She had some interesting things to say about the others, as well as some comments on one currently-very-popular tenor whose singing she imitated to make her point!!
If I’m not mistaken, Mme. Licia’s tenor-partners go back as far as Gigli.