Kismet (1953 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

Richard Kiley, Joan Diener, Robert Wright, Doretta Morrow, George Forrest, Alfred Drake, Kismet (Related Recordings) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 30, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00004THLY
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,389 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #19 in Music > World Music > Middle East > General
  • #19 in Music > World Music > Middle East > General AAS
  • #30 in Music > Broadway & Vocalists > Musicals > Classic Musicals

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mono sound but still the BEST performance/recording., August 30, 1998

By 

A. Andersen (Bellows Falls, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

KISMET began life as a 1911 play, filmed as a silent that year and again as a talkie in Vitascope widescreen (65 mm.) in 1930. It got the MGM Technicolor treatment in 1942 and then was adapted into this sumptuous operetta in 1953, followed by a leaden and boring fourth film version -this time of the musical - in 1955. Here is the extraordinary original cast - Alfred Drake Doretta Morrow, Richard Kiley, Joan Diener and Henry Calvin. Sound is excellent, performances both dramatically and musically are superb and the orchestrations are lush, dramatic, sumptuous and breathtakingly beautiful. Too bad the book is humorous fluff - but the score is one of the glories of the musical theatre. This was the first LP designed solely for that format (times weren't trimmed to fit on one side of a 78 or 45 rpm alternate disk) and the first to be recorded in microgroove, allowing for far more recorded sound per LP side than before. Exceptional clarity, the excitement of a live Broadway performance and deserved winner of six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score and Best Actor. It ran for 583 performances on Broadway and was revived in 1978 in an African version, TIMBUKTU. Exceptional conducting. Here are the 18 original musical numbers. Dance music is not included but in any case this is a gem in the recorded annals of musical history. Very worth owning. (Note: This was Kiley's first show and Diener's next to last. Years later he was to star as Don Quixote in MAN OF LA MANCHA with Diener costarring in her last role as Aldonza). Note the "theatrical" approach of Alfred Drake from the rear of the recording studio in RYMES HAVE I - another "touch" of Goddard Lieberson, recording producer for Columbia.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyous vitality!, November 10, 2001

By 

DJ McGovern "Derek McGovern" (Busan, South Korea) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kismet (1953 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

I have loved this recording since I was nine years old, and will never tire of it. The combination of Borodin's wonderful melodies and the wittiest lyrics that ever graced a musical are simply irresistible. This is one of those recordings to play on a gloomy day - its joyous optimism will cure any depression.

I've always regretted that Alfred Drake did not star in the film version of this musical. Good though Howard Keel was in the 1955 movie, no one has ever sung the lead role with such commanding vocal presence and attention to the lyrics as Alfred Drake. His Shakespearean background no doubt contributed to his superb enunciation, and he brings such wit and mischief to his portrayal that the listener is utterly seduced by his charm. What a shame he only made one major film appearance!

Henry Calvin and Joan Diener as the wicked Wazir and his wife are equally impressive, and Diener displays exactly the right combination of beauty and steel in her rousing Not Since Ninevah. Calvin enjoys himself immensely in the wickedly clever Was I Wazir?

Among the other players, Doretta Morrow and Richard Kiley provide solid support as the young lovers. Kiley struggles with his upper register, but produces a sweet falsetto in Night of My Nights.

But what makes this recording a masterpiece is the contribution of its star Alfred Drake - surely the ultimate Broadway performer. Forget the 1991 remake with the dull Samuel Ramey, this is the definitive performance.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BYGONE AGE OF MAGICAL MUSIC, September 1, 1999

By 

"vanyar" (SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA USA) - See all my reviews

Every song in this disc has exciting and glorious music ( and why not?; They're' by Borodin). The lyrics, too, remarkably adapted not only to fit the music as though they belonged, but also showing wit, melodic sensitivity and, what's more,intelligence. They also assume that the listener has some intelligence. The voices?; Beautiful and appropriate to the part. (Did you know that Joan Diener graduated from Shaker Heights High in Ohio and that her first (?) role was in HMS Pinafore at the Clevelad Playhouse?) Well, she only gets better! I never tire of listening to the score.