Memory – Cats Musical – Lucy Thomas, 15


SOMEWHERE – WEST SIDE STORY

July 4, 2021 | 7 Comments »

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7 Comments / 7 Comments

  1. @Peloni..

    I knew you’d understand my apathy towards Lucy Thomas, whilst not underappreciating the quality fo her voice.

    I may have related here one time, that, amongst other sports, as a youth I was very keen on Table-Tennis,

    With my two close friends Theo and Eliyahu , I would sneak into the Maccabi 1st team room above and behind the adjacent shool, where they had the only good table, a “Jacques” which had been donated many years before my my late uncle and godfather, also a player.

    Anyway, one of the two, who lived right across from the shool, was the son of the Chazan. AS an aside, I can say that the chazan had a magnificent voice, and was once the #1 soloist in the choir of the Great Cantor Gershon Sirota in the Great Synagoie in Warsaw. Beside him as the 2nd soloist, was Moshe Koussevitzky.

    (Although it was not my shool, I was there one night with my late uncle who lived next door to the chazan, for Kol Nidre, when the chazan’s father collapsed, and was carried out dead. The chazan began Kol Nidre…. and it was the best that anyone had ever heard from him…a unique event -in my opinion)…. …

    To get back to my megillah, Theo had an “in” with the live-in caretaker Mr. Breen, and we would play there for many hours, often u/ntil 2-3 a.m. Practice is the only way to become good at anything.. This Mr. Breen was a record collector in a HUGE way, all operatic soloists both male and female. and after early practice, if he was feeling like showing off, he’s invite us into his sanctum…. where he had carefully sharpened fibre needles, and play some of his treasures.From Chaliapin to Bjorling, to Jan Peerce and many, many more. Rickard Tucker not much, but he was then only making his name. Mr. Breen wore cotton gloves to handle them..And they were treasures…. believe me. He had EVERYONE of any note, and often everything they’d recorded . Literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of recordings. We often, by invitation, broke off our TT practice to spend the whole evening listening to one after another, for hours. It was wonderful.

    Enough of all that blarney,..!!.

  2. @Edgar

    You are likely correct regarding her staged performance as this is the practiced performance of the modern age – structured and such, I believe. But I have to confess that she sells it well. I am struck by her performance, as I see it, but in attempting to express what I find impressive, beyond an enchanting connection that I feel when listening to her, leaves me fairly unable to exactly related in words. I did not intend to list her among the greatest performers as there are no doubt finer performances than hers, but I do find her very impressive.

    I like your list of magnificent artists, as I am familiar with most of them, but I would add Richard Tucker to the list, a true favorite of mine – though, again I am perplexed as to be able to express why. I had a vinly collection of Tuckers recordings that was among my treasures I collected as a youth, but they were destroyed in a bit of a flood some years ago.

  3. @ Peloni; Hello….!!

    Magnificent…John McCormack, Yossele Rosenblatt, and Caruso were Magnificent, as were Yma Sumac, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, Nellie Melba and “The Swedish Nightingale:” Jenny Lind. And especially Allesandro Moreschi. Each in his/her own separate way.

    I’ve already given my opinion on Lucy Thomas when “La Vie En Rose” was a topic.
    (by the way, in 10 years showng, Edith Piaf’s rendering got 29 million views on Youtube)

    She has a very fine voice, excellent range, good breath control and all that. But….she completely lacks any spontaneity. I guarantee that i fyou see her in a hundred “performances” (that’s exactly what they are) she will have the little half smile on at exactly the same place in thr song, the little toss of the hair, exactly as rehearsed and re rehearsed, the wave of a hand,…… ad infinitum almost.

    Not the kind of singer I admire. And certainly would never get “inspiration” from her…I wonder how you get that…?? You don’t explain what you are inspired to do, 0or think. or feel…???

  4. Young Lucy Thomas can never fail to impress as she always offers a certain level of inspiration which really stirs the spirit. She is magnificent!