Camelot the Musical
Feb. 12th, 2010 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakEmailing with kathyh as well recently watched and contemplated tv has made me think of the Lerner & Loewe opus, about which Noel Coward once memorably and meanly said that it was twice as long as Parsifal but only half the fun. Which is a bit unfair. While it is very long, it is also great fun, and quite charming. Just in case you, dear reader, aren't familiar with it, I hunted down the best songs on YouTube.
The title song, from the filmed version, in which Richard Harris is Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave Guinevere. In this version of the tale, it's an arranged marriage but while running away from it she encounters him without knowing who he is, and this is how he charms her into staying:
Not a song sequence, but an important one, in which Arthur figures out the premise of his rulership:
This idea appeals to young Lancelot du Lac, whom you shall see in two versions. First, here's Franco Nero as Lancelot from the film version, vocalist whom I don't know supplying the actual singing voice:
C'est Moi is one of the funniest songs around, so, have it again, this time from a stage production in which Nathan Gunn is Lancelot:
When Lancelot arrives in Camelot, Guinevere finds him insufferable at first, thinks he needs to be taken down a peg, and gets several of the knights to do just this the following way, first in the movie version with Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and in the stage version with Marin Mazzie:
Of course, the inevitable happens. Lancelot wins against the knights (and in the process shows more appealing qualities than mere battle prowess), then finds out he's not immune to human nature after all as he falls in love with Guinevere. And vice versa. Meanwhile, Mordred shows up. Camelot does have him as Arthur's illegitimate son, but tactfully omits mentioning the whole incest aspect of this. No movie excerpt this time, but Bobby Steggert from the stage production, singing The Seven Deadly Virtues:
And this would be our last moment of comedy, because now things get dark. Mordred arranges for Guinevere and Lancelot to be discovered, mostly to bring Arthur in the dilemma of either breaking with the "EVERYONE has to be subject to the law, no matter how high the rank" principle or to condemn his wife to death. That's Gabriel Byrne as Arthur, stage production again:
And here's how it ends, with hope for the future amidst the tragedy, first from the film version, with Richard Harris:
And now again with Gabriel Byrne as Arthur:
Julie Andrews, who originated the role of Guinevere, did a recording of this second take on the song Camelot, which you can listen to here.
kathyh as well recently watched and contemplated tv has made me think of the Lerner & Loewe opus, about which Noel Coward once memorably and meanly said that it was twice as long as Parsifal but only half the fun. Which is a bit unfair. While it is very long, it is also great fun, and quite charming. Just in case you, dear reader, aren't familiar with it, I hunted down the best songs on YouTube. The title song, from the filmed version, in which Richard Harris is Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave Guinevere. In this version of the tale, it's an arranged marriage but while running away from it she encounters him without knowing who he is, and this is how he charms her into staying:
Not a song sequence, but an important one, in which Arthur figures out the premise of his rulership:
This idea appeals to young Lancelot du Lac, whom you shall see in two versions. First, here's Franco Nero as Lancelot from the film version, vocalist whom I don't know supplying the actual singing voice:
C'est Moi is one of the funniest songs around, so, have it again, this time from a stage production in which Nathan Gunn is Lancelot:
When Lancelot arrives in Camelot, Guinevere finds him insufferable at first, thinks he needs to be taken down a peg, and gets several of the knights to do just this the following way, first in the movie version with Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and in the stage version with Marin Mazzie:
Of course, the inevitable happens. Lancelot wins against the knights (and in the process shows more appealing qualities than mere battle prowess), then finds out he's not immune to human nature after all as he falls in love with Guinevere. And vice versa. Meanwhile, Mordred shows up. Camelot does have him as Arthur's illegitimate son, but tactfully omits mentioning the whole incest aspect of this. No movie excerpt this time, but Bobby Steggert from the stage production, singing The Seven Deadly Virtues:
And this would be our last moment of comedy, because now things get dark. Mordred arranges for Guinevere and Lancelot to be discovered, mostly to bring Arthur in the dilemma of either breaking with the "EVERYONE has to be subject to the law, no matter how high the rank" principle or to condemn his wife to death. That's Gabriel Byrne as Arthur, stage production again:
And here's how it ends, with hope for the future amidst the tragedy, first from the film version, with Richard Harris:
And now again with Gabriel Byrne as Arthur:
Julie Andrews, who originated the role of Guinevere, did a recording of this second take on the song Camelot, which you can listen to here.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-12 05:19 pm (UTC)Can't say Coward was all wrong...I (re)watched it earlier this year and while the first act is soooo much fun (Richard Harris in blue eyeshadow! Vanessa Redgrave in a number of outlandish outfits! Catchy tunes)it seems to pass in no time at all, the second act, with all it's doom and gloom, is SLOW. Still, great fun in places.
This is rather amusing, too: a Merlin-vid set to "The Lusty Month of May"
no subject
Date: 2010-02-12 05:42 pm (UTC)However, I offer this discovery for amusement:
Arggh! Link! PS
Date: 2010-02-12 05:46 pm (UTC)(Check out whom Pompeius Magnus is matched with...)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-12 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-13 12:13 pm (UTC)