News that Broadway’s Tony Awards will head uptown on Sunday to the sumptuous United Palace (a few blocks from where I live) made me remember Stephen Sondheim’s swell song mentioning Washington Heights…

…which then prompted Chris’s Cache to dig out two opera-house versions of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd featuring Bryn Terfel / Judith Christin and Thomas Allen / Felicity Palmer.

Sweeney is currently on Broadway in a revival nominated for eight Tonys starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. Since tickets to that show at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater are wickedly expensive, I’ve been regularly entering the Broadway Direct lottery which offers $30 tickets to every performance.

Ten days ago, I won (!) which landed me in the front row four feet behind the conductor.

I’ve been an Ashford fan, but I really knew nothing about Groban other than his casting caused a big uproar when it was announced last year. It was my fifth live Sweeney and the pair worked together beautifully, and I enjoyed it immensely. I did wonder what all the shrieking Groban fans behind me were making of the bloody romp; it struck me more than ever what a magnificent opera it is. The two productions on today’s Chris’s Cache demonstrate that important opera companies have agreed.

A previous Sweeney encounter of mine featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Christine Baranski appeared on a Trove Thursday installment three years ago.

Sondheim: Sweeney Todd

Mrs. Lovett: Judith Christin
Johanna: Celena Shafer
Beggar Woman: Sheri Greenawald
Sweeney Todd: Bryn Terfel
Anthony Hope: Nathan Gunn
Tobias Ragg: David Cangelosi
Judge Turpin: Timothy Nolen
Beadle Bamford: Matthew Lord
Pirelli: Bonaventura Bottone
Jonas Fogg: Roger Honeywell

Conductor: Paul Gemignani

Lyric Opera of Chicago
27 November 2002
In-house recording

Sondheim: Sweeney Todd

Mrs. Lovett: Felicity Palmer
Johanna: Rebecca Evans
Beggar Woman: Rosalind Plowright
Sweeney Todd: Thomas Allen
Anthony Hope: William Dazeley
Tobias Ragg: Doug Jones
Judge Turpin: Jonathan Veira
Beadle Bamford: Robert Tear
Pirelli: Bonaventura Bottone
Jonas Fogg: Matthew Rose

Conductor: Paul Gemignani

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
17 December 2003
Broadcast

Each Sweeney Todd can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

Expected Wagneriennes

Unexpected Wagneriennes

Mozart for another time

Some disenchanted evening

You must believe in spring

Christopher Corwin

Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in , The New York Times, Musical America, The Observer, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he came to opera via the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he began listening to at age 11. His particular enthusiasm is 17th and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre box presenting live recordings.

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