Customer Reviews

Man of La Mancha

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I saw this recording on the market, I was extremely excited. This was mainly because I owned producer Thomas Z. Shepard's KISMET album, which was made around the same time, on the same lable, and mainly with the same principal performers. That album is a priceless jewel. However, I should have stopped to think that this cast is mainly made up of opera singers with little or no acting experience, as I had noted that I would have to put up with the undeniable presence of the always irritating Mandy Patinkin. But there was also the divine Julia Migenes, and I knew I would love her. But, upon purchasing, I was greatly let down. And the first clue I got was seeing the playing time of the disc.

I assumed that this recording would be musically complete, taking full advantage of the CD format. However, I was wrong. Out of a compact disc that should be able to hold up to 80 minutes worth of music, roughly 50 minutes are taken advantage of only. Among the deletions: the male chorus's mocking reprises of "Dulcinea" after Quixote's exit; the tag "We're Only Thinking of Him," sung with Antonia's fiancee, the Doctor; the important, dramatic reprises of "The Impossible Dream" and "I, Don Quixote;" and the instrumental music for "The Abduction," "The Combat," and the entire "Knight of the Mirrors" scene are all missing. There is also a curious amount of dialogue for an album that cast so many non-acting opera singers and that has such a surprising lack of important musical number.

The performances . . .

Mandy Patinkin is SO ANNOYING! It's like his intention is to be irritating. What is the point of this? He totally misses Sancho Panza's touching, human side. Sancho is a human character, devoted to the confused, befuddled Quijanna, because (as he himself says) he "really likes him." Patinkin completely misses the mark with his obnoxious "characterizations" of Sancho. And he gets so wrapped-up in his own "interpretation" of the role, that he won't let enough of the material speak for itself, and the humor in the role (particularly in "A Little Gossip") suffers because of this. Since there was so much "carry-over" casting from Sony's KISMET album, why not give Sancho to Dom DeLuise (KISMET's Wazir). Of course, it might have been to high for him, but he would have been funny and touching, and ANYTHING would have been better than that dreadful Patinkin. I was little confused by the casting of Domingo as Quixote, because he is a tenor, and it is a baritone role after all. But he is a very dark tenor, and began his career as a baritone I believe. He sings the role beautifully and expressively--however, I still *long* for Richard Kiley in the role. A man who was a great actor and had a wonderful theatre voice, and who was a powerful presence in the role (while still capturing Quixote's weakness and "gentle insanities"). And Domingo is SO over-dramatic in his much of his performance! His few dialogue bits with Patinkin make one want to run and hide, and always leave me rolling my eyes. The best part of this album is Julia Migenes as Aldonza/Dulcinea. Perfect is the only word to describe her. She sings "What Does He Want of Me?" touchingly and simply. Her "It's All the Same" is performed with such tired frustration that is perfect for it, it's as if she's saying "this is who I am, and it's like this every day--nothing new." If it was not for her presence in her dialogue tracks with Domingo and Patinkin, those tracks would be skipped. And her rendition of the dramatic song "Aldonza" is beyond describing. It is disturbingly brilliant. That track alone makes this poorly-executed fiasco worth purchasing. If one feels they have to purchase this, buy it for her alone. Hadely and Ramey give wonderful vocal performances (as always), but they are unfortunately heard too briefly on the album. Hadely's "To Each His Dulcinea" is beautiful, and this characterization of the Padre is surprisingly touching. Ramey leads "Knight of the Woeful Countenance" with power and force, "oomph!" as it were. And Domingo's sons sing "Little Bird, Little Bird" quite nicely.

Gemignani leads the American Theatre Orchestra powerfully through the score, and the Concert Chorale of New York always sing with gusto.

When all is said and done, one would think that this recording was only made because there were a lot of contracts sitting around in the Sony offices gathering dust, and they asked Shepard to take advantage of it quickly. The two performances that I had made assumptions of before I bought this album turned out to be true (Migenes and Patinkin), but the rest of the album was not what I imagined at all.

AVOID!!! (But try at least to hear Migenes's rendition of "Aldonza.")

Okay, this is probably more than biased, but I was given this album quite a few years ago, without even knowing what Man of La Mancha was. It inspired me to listen to the other cast recordings, and I still come back to this one the most!

I like the quality of Domingo's voice, so the accents hardly bother me. His vocals are just too easy for me to fall into. And as for Mandy Patinkin, I couldn't disagree more with general opinion. Maybe since he's the first Sancho I heard, it really grew on me, but I liked his rendition before and after viewing/listening to other versions, and I've always liked his voice. It has a very different quality to it, and if that changes the role for this recording, so be it. I really liiiiike it!

As for Aldonza, Julia Migenes' strong vocals in moments of extreme anger and despair to her reluctantly sweet coming around to Don Quixote's charms really struck me. All in all, I was charmed by this recording early on and still am! The main vocalists are extrememely talented and outshine any of the weaknesses in the recording itself. There's plenty of charming wit, humor, and drama, and I found none of it to be bogged down by any of the performances.

Overall a very good album with many satisfying performances that simply falls short of the mark due to the miscast title role. Domingo is of course an artist of inarguable quality, but his dramatic tenor is simply out of place in the very baritone role of Cervantes/Quixote. An opera singer known for his skilled acting (especially in the heavy Verdi roles), he seems distinctly uncomfortable with this material, especially in the lengthy dialogue sections of this recording. His heavy Spanish accent is out of place (yes, even when playing a Spanish character!) when only one other character attempts it, and while he sings with his natural burnished bronze tone, the higher pitch of his voice and the higher key he takes it in robs the music of much of its dramatic power. An opera singer known for his skilled acting (especially in the heavy Verdi roles), he seems distinctly uncomfortable with this material, especially in the lenghty dialogue sections of this recording. You never feel that he shapes a believable character here, making one long for the dichotomy of fragile nobility and ringing majesty that the lighter voiced but better cast Richard Kiley brought to the original production.

The supporting roles are indeed well-taken, especially by Julia Migenes who gives a performance very much in the Joan Diener-style while supplying far more voice and giving a peformance of greater nuance and shading than her predecessor. Other stand-outs are Samuel Ramey's stentorian Innkeeper, Jerry Hadley's bright-voiced and masculine Padre, and Mandy Patinkin's amusingly underplayed Sancho. Paul Gemignani conducts a sprightly uptempo American Theater Orchestra, and the production values are generally high (although several reprises, as well as the dramatically vital "Knight of the Mirrors" sequence, are left out, surprising considering how much of the dialogue was left in!). With a more appropriate Qixote and some shrewder editing of the script and score, this could have been a definitive recording. Then again, without Domingo's star presence, the recording may never have existed in the first place.

I refused to buy this album after reading the cast list of who was singing who,and sampling audio clips from EVERY track at another on-line store.Of all the recent new versions of classic musicals with opera stars,this has to be one of the worst. I have nothing against the singers themselves-all,except Mandy Patinkin,have beautiful voices. But whoever assigned each singer his respective role has to be the world's most incompetent casting director; this album could have easily been improved by switching nearly all the roles around,and anyone who has seen a good production of this show or heard the classic 1965 original cast album could tell you that. How's this for sheer stupidity? Samuel Ramey, a bass singer,who has distinguished himself on the stage as Don Quixote in Jules Massenet's French opera,instead is cast as the innkeeper and gets to sing only one song.Ramey isn't the greatest actor,but his rich,deep bass easily suggests a majestically noble old man.In the original "Man of La Mancha",noted tenor Robert Rounseville,with his rich voice,played the Padre,but here the tenor with the rich voice,Placido Domingo,sings Don Quixote,and,unfortunately,acts him as well.Can you imagine HIM as a grandly noble yet emaciated old man? I can't.(Domingo may be a great operatic actor,but you need the acting ability of an Olivier to play Don Quixote,and that he hasn't got---his "moment of death" in the final scene is utterly ruined by his lack of ability.On top of that, his sung English is pathetically unintelligible,and his dialogue passages are totally wasted.But he still would have made a quite acceptable Padre.) Instead,Jerry Hadley plays the Padre,when he could have been easily cast just to sing "Little Bird,Little Bird",as former Met tenor Harry Theyard did in the original show. Mandy Patinkin is a strange choice as Sancho--perhaps someone like Jason Alexander would have been better. The orchestra sounds frankly lousy--I don't know what Neil Warner,conductor of the original 1965 album,did to get that ravishing,dynamic sound out of the brass section,but here the brass sounds really sickly and even faintly out of tune.Against all of this incompetence,however,Julia Migenes is a magnificent Aldonza/Dulcinea,every bit as good as her Carmen,and maybe even just as good as Joan Diener in the original cast album. In fact,.after hearing her on this album,and both seeing and hearing her in the 1984 film of "Carmen",one wonders how great an Aldonza/Dulcinea she might have made in the film of "Man of La Mancha". Sad to say,this is the only "La Mancha" album currently available which features the score absolutely complete,unless the 2-LP London album,which features virtually the complete show-dialogue and all- with both excellent acting and singing,eventually makes it to CD.

If it were possible to wear out a CD by constant playing, I would be in danger of doing just that. Placido Domingo does such a masterful job as Quixote, and Julia Migenes as Aldonza/Dulcinea is simply, breath-takingly, heart-breakingly beautiful. Mandy Patinkin as Sancho Panza is sweet and charming. All around most enjoyable. This has become one of my favorite CD's of all time in the week that I have had it.

"Man of La Mancha" is my favorite musical. It has a wonderful message and gives people a lot to think and talk about. The music is also very, very good and can withstand a variety of styles and interpretations. This operatic version features the outstanding Placido Domingo who, I feel, brings an authenticity to the role, perhaps because of his own Spanish nationality and background. This version is quite different from the musical, but still very nice. The fiery Julia Migenes is also a very appropriatly sexy, vet vulnerable Aldonza/Dulcinea.

Comparisons: Original Broadway Version; Movie version, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Don Quixote; Jim Nabors as Don Qixote; Jacques Brel as Don Quixote (French version)

Julia Migenes is full of passion and credible as Aldonza. Mandy Patinkin is very entertaining and enjoyable as Sancho. Samuel Ramey is in good form. Placido Domingo is good but I have heard him do better. Perhaps that is because I have never heard him sing in English before. All in all, I love this CD and listen to it often.

this cd gave me a great deal of joy...the cd is excellent! this is not only the sound-track of one of the greatest musicals of all times but it is with one of the greatest tenors of all times! now i'm waithg for the dvd of the 1972 film to come out. thank you, amazon.com.

Somehow I lost this cd, and I had enjoyed it for years. I thought it was so good, I purchased the replacement. A good buy!

I've read a lot of negative reviews of this soundtrack and i'm not sure why.
Let me give you a little perspective of why I think you should give this soundtrack a chance.

I originally saw the 1992 Musical with Raul Julia and Shena Easton (however Shena was sick that night and they had the understudy fill in, i'm sorry i don't remember her name). I was 17 y.o. at the time and it was the last thing i wanted to do on a Tuesday night, but my mom told me I would enjoy it and it did not disappoint. Man of La Mancha is my mother's favorite musical of her life and she say the original back in 1965. She was in tears at the end of the performance. To this day, I have yet to see a musical that is this good, but Le Miz is definitely a close second.

That being said, I picked this soundtrack up for the primary reason that it contained more tracks from the musical than any other soundtrack, and the 1992 soundtrack is unavailable. I also picked this up because for some crazy reason (i didn't do my homework) I thought this was the original cast recording (stupid me).

That also being said, I never noticed the difference between this version and what I remembered back in '92. This soundtrack has a personality much like I remembered of the musical. A lot of people complain that Placido's vocals are overdone and don't correlate to the persona of the character, and the Part of Sancho (Mandy) is too nasally. i disagree. For one, the music is played at a slightly faster tempo than the original recording was and (IMO) actually improves the music. The faster tempo gives the title track much more grandeur, much more triumphant and has a ferociousness that I feel the character embodies.

If i may make a very weak comparison, I feel Placido's portrayal of the character is similar to the Buzz Lightyear character or Dick from 3rd Rock from the Sun. That sort of delusional triumphant wonderfully hopeful confidence that makes him such a lovable amusing and inspiring person.

I believe Julia's performance of Dolcinea was criticized as being to rough, but I love it. She should be rough around the edges, in contrast, many times you see these strong women characters with "pretty" voices that come off too much like a spoiled little girl rather than a strong, confident woman.

Also I've heard criticized was that the accents are distracting. To the contrary, the two lead actors are Spanish, and this is a story based in Spain, it makes much more sense than the original. Raul Julia had the same kind of accent in his role too and it just made the character much more believable. I listened to excerpts of the original recording and all the actors have American accents, to me, that's less authentic.

So in summary, the Music is expertly mastered, it has a much more triumphant tenor about it and the characters may be a bit more exaggerated, but the emotion is much more like what i remember. It may not be the original, but I think this one deserves a second look. Hope you enjoyed this read.