Customer Reviews

Goblin Market (1987 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

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Having been haunted by this recording for years, I was fortunate to see the 20th anniversary "reading" with the original cast at the Vineyard Theater this last week. This is short, disturbing, powerful and deeply moving, but I find it impossible to tell you how!! Does it concern sisters, memory, sex, addiction....? All or none? Ultimately, it's up to the individual listener/observer and perhaps will change with age. How intriguing! I don't know if it adds to the original poem, as this musical was my first exposure to it, but I find it exotically imprinted in my psyche now.

I was admittedly skeptical when I discovered this musical based upon one of my favorite poems. "Goblin Market" is a deeply moving fantasy that examines the awakening sexuality of two maidenly sisters, Laura and Lizzie. Christina Rossetti explores such universal themes as sisterly love, the end of innocence, temptation, and sacrifice. "Goblin Market's" beauty is that it can be translated in so many ways: either as a simple fairy tale, a Christian allegory of Christ's sacrificial love, or a Freudian psychological struggle between the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego.

The moment I began listening to this musical, I was entranced by the poignant melodies and superb acting. Two women perform the show. Their voices are sweet and blend perfectly together. You can easily tell the difference between the two sisters. My favorite songs are as follows:

1. "Do You Not Remember Jeannie?": Lizzie reminds her wayward sister of the fate of one of their friends who succumbed to the goblins' alluring offers of strange, forbidden fruits. The song is tango-like and very poignant.
2. "Some There Are Who Never Venture": This lovely duet illustrates the different viewpoints of the sisters. Laura asks Lizzie if she ever wonders what lies beyond convention: "I always taste apples but long to try a peach". Lizzie reminds Laura of the necessity for restraint.
3. "Like a Lily": This song is absolutely beautiful and moved me to tears. The lyrics are taken directly from Rossetti's poem. They paint a graphic word picture of resistance in the face of struggle: a poignant attempted rape scene that will leave you breathless.

Please give this unforgettable musical a chance, and I would also encourage you to read Christina Rossetti's beautiful poem. God bless you all.

The doofus who opined that there's not enough dramatic potential in Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" to base a musical upon is clearly a lousy reader of poetry; it's also clear he never saw it staged. I was lucky enough to see this two-woman musical nearly a quarter century ago, and I still remember how powerful it was, in contrast to the tininess and simplicity of the production. I can't read the poem now without hearing this haunting music (the way it's impossible to read W. S. Gilbert's comic verse without hearing it set to Sullivan's tunes, or the way, when you see "Pygmalion" today, you keep waiting for the characters to break into song).

This recording of "Goblin Market" is very spooky, occasionally funny, and ultimately quite moving as a testament to sisterly love and sheer heroism. As mentioned elsewhere on this page, the poem itself can be read in many different ways (it's a great subject for grad students with papers to turn out, because you can interpret it in light of religious themes, drug addiction, lesbianism, madness, critiques of capitalism, you name it), but this production chooses to play it straight, as a good rousing supernatural story or, if you like, a fairy tale. Also noteworthy are the two singers' dramatically distinctive voices, conveying the contrasting personalities of the sisters.

I do wish someone had filmed the damned show; I'd give a lot to see it again. Meanwhile, this CD will have to suffice.

I don't know why anyone would think that Rosetti's "The Goblin Market" has enough dramatic potential to be turned into a musical. The music is often pretty, but hardly compelling. It adds little to the original poem, whose complexities of meaning still spark debate among readers and scholars.