Florodora (1899 Original London Cast) [Cast Recording]

Leslie Stuart (Composer, Performer), Ernest Boyd-Jones (Artist), Paul Rubens (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Leslie Stuart
• Composer: Leslie Stuart
• Audio CD (January 21, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Pearl
• ASIN: B000000WYT
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,944 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Opening Chorus

2. He Loves, He Loves Me Not

3. Galloping

4. Phrenology

5. In The Shade Of The Palm

6. Tact

7. Tell Me Pretty Maiden

8. Willie Was A Gay Boy

9. I've An Inkling

10. Queen Of The Philippine Islands

11. I Want To Be A Military Man

12. Burlesque On 'Pretty Maiden'

13. Whistling

14. I Want To Be A Military Man

15. Queen Of The Philippine Islands

16. Tell Me Pretty Maiden

17. Jack And Jill

18. Little Dolly Daydream - Leslie Stuart

19. The Cake Walk - Leslie Stuart

20. The Coon Drum Major - Leslie Stuart

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A truly historic album, with historic problems, May 30, 2009

By 

Gene DeSantis (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Florodora (1899 Original London Cast) (Audio CD)

This CD constitutes not merely the first musical cast recordings, but most likely the first attempt of any kind at an album, though the selections were issued as singles. All but forgotten now, "Florodora" was a smash at the turn of the last century on both sides of the Atlantic, famous for its catchy double-"Sextet" ("Tell Me, Pretty Maiden") which spawned the Florodora Girls, the most celebrated chorus line before Ziegfeld's. The show's history is a bit of a mess; the score seems to have had frequent interpolations, with many songs going by different titles at different times. The Gramophone Company did a yeoman's task assembling the originating cast through a set of a dozen numbers, with one or another of the songwriting crew on a piano. But the technology was unspeakably primitive -- seven-inch acoustical discs with a very constricted cutting "pitch" -- and we hear the results too well with a persistent muffled tone rendering many of the lyrics virtually unintelligible. The sound technology improvements since this 1989 issue would not likely have cured much. Yet something of the show's charm and spirit still carries through, especially on the tracks with Louis Bradfield, who sounds like a precursor to the great George S. Irving; Ada Reeve's sweetly ironic "I've an Inkling" gives at least a hint this score belies its age. To fill out the time (the selections average two minutes, not counting the generous five-second pauses) we get other later recordings, including an anonymous Columbia "Sextet" and a puzzling Great War allegory sung by May Leslie Stuart, the benighted composer's daughter -- something about a German Jack and Jill falling down several hills; and five other earlier Gramophone discs with Leslie Stuart himself at the piano, charming trifles that bear allegiance to the burgeoning ragtime culture in name only. Perhaps "Florodora" is way too antediluvian for revival but someone could get up the talent to at least record it; for now this seems the last, unsatisfactory word.