In 1951's Grounds for Marriage, Grayson plays an opera singer, which she reputedly wanted to be in real life. Most all the music on this album is from operas, namely Le Coq d'Or, Carmen and La Bohème. This is all fairly well performed, except for the nasal tenor in "O Soave Fanciulla". But you can hear the arias better performed on many other records, so the package works best as a souvenir of the film.
I haven't seen Grounds for Marriage, but the plot synopsis makes it sound like a contrived farce (so I probably would enjoy it). Van Johnson plays Grayson's ex-husband.
The only non-operatic piece on the program is a Toy Concertino, written by David Raksin for the film. Bronislau Kaper wrote the other soundtrack music, but none of it appears on the LP. The sound is good.
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| 1952 ad (click to enlarge) |
13 comments:
Thanks for this! (Technically, it's my soprano wife who thanks you, but we're both longtime lovers of these particular pipes...)
(PS - the movie was on TCM a while back; inoffensive little romcom of its day - not Citizen Kane, but ideal rainy afternoon viewing. Plus, Kathryn Grayson.)
Uh-oh... :(
Thanks a lot! Not the biggest Grayson fan (I'm more of a Garland guy), but always love MGM soundtracks. I just discovered that the MGM pre-recording of one cut song, Rodgers and Hart's "Wait till You See Him", has been released on a Grayson CD called 'My Heart Sings'.
Baldman - I like Grayson as well.
Ernie - I came across the 10" LP.
MusicalGuy - Thanks, I'll have to check into that.
Buster - you are awesome as always. Not familiar with this MGM musical until now. Thank you!
Hi Mindy - You are more than welcome!
I'm hearing rumors that Blogspot is shutting down several public blogs. If that happens to this blog and you continue to share your music on a private blog, then please include me on your list.
I check your blog on a very regular basis. Keep the great music coming!
Tnanks!
Great music. Thanks.
If you're making a list of followers - if you decide to go private - please add me to the list. Like Mark, I've noticed several (many?) music blogs just disappearing from Blogspot.
Best regards
Thank you Buster.
Rich
Any chance of a re-up, please?
Remastered version (Apple lossless):
https://mega.nz/#!zQVkAbpK!ptKsF0jSEbWT_10PD2gTXCCRJXrjVhr9RZ3RYEjpBZs
Thank you for the re-up. Much appreciated.
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