Sweeney Todd clips

[selenak]

Now, I like Tim Burton, I like Johnny Depp, and I adore Stephen Sondheim. But like many a Sondheim fan, I'm not sure the combination of the three would be a good thing, aka Burton casting Johnny Depp in the title role of Sweeney Todd. Mostly because Johnny Depp is an actor, not a singer, and Sweeney really needs to be played by someone who can handle an operatic score (he's not Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, whose aria was composed with Rex Harrison's inability to sing in mind because after his performance as Higgins in Pygmalion, they wanted to cast him). However, the Film Society of Lincoln Center was presented with some of the arias on the 14th, and the soundclips are available. While Depp is no Caruso, I feel a lot better now:

My Friends (Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter; the later, btw, sounds great as Mrs. Lovett)

Johanna (Johnny Depp, Laura Michelle Kelly and Jamie Campbell Bower)

Off in haste, cursing the train strike -

Comments

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Not to be a bubble-burster, but I continue to be incredibly unhappy with his voice. Sweeney Todd is a baritone part. Transposing it to a tenor...just wrong, wrong, wrong. Particularly a pop tenor. Sweeney Todd should not have a nasal pop twang!! And I'm actually not as angered by it as some people. The opera people in my grad school program (most of whom I know, and many of whom believe that Sweeney Todd is the greatest opera ever written) are completely enraged!