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IVOR NOVELLO ON RECORD
 
Reviewing
ARC DE TRIOMPHE
CARELESS RAPTURE
CREST OF THE WAVE
THE DANCING YEARS
GAY'S THE WORD
GLAMOROUS NIGHT
KING'S RHAPSODY
PERCHANCE TO DREAM
SHINE THROUGH MY DREAMS
MARILYN HILL SMITH SINGS IVOR NOVELLO
 
ARC DE TRIOMPHE
Book by Ivor Novello. Lyrics by Christopher Hassall. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Mary Ellis, Peter Graves, Elisabeth Welch. Musical director: Tom Lewis
Songs: Waking or sleeping; Dark music; Man of my heart; Easy to live with
A lesser Novello work, this tale of a young opera singer, Marie Foret, living in Paris between the wars and falling for an impoverished soldier, managed 222 performances when it opened at the Phoenix Theatre in November 1943. It had to do without its composer as leading man (Novello was in The Dancing Years), offering Peter Graves as a substitute. It didn't matter, for it was in truth a vehicle for Mary Ellis, who got to sing an 'opera' sequence, 'Joan of Arc', at the end of the evening. Sadly, this was not recorded, and only four of the numbers made it on to shellac. The two solos for Ellis drip with strings and harp and woodwind accompaniment, but are terribly willowy. Elisabeth Welch, wheeled in by Novello to play another peripheral role, just as she had in his Glamorous Night, gets 'Dark Music', a deeply melancholic song that, in Hassall's lyric, certainly demonstrates 'a tune that breathes of the night'. The melody, too, has that mystical quality that imbues the best of Novello. Here is a song that will survive the years. 'Easy To Live With' is a pleasant enough duet for Ellis and the blank Graves, a discreet excursion into genteel musical comedy, even if it is marred by Ellis's vocal gymnastics. Its melody is delicious, simply thrown off in exactly the right attitude. Sadly, Olive Gilbert's performance as the plucky Agnes Sorel was not recorded. For several weeks the indefatigable Miss Gilbert played in both Arc de Triomphe and The Dancing Years, darting from the Adelphi to the Phoenix at every performance, until the night when her taxi did not turn up. She walked, in full stage rig and a tin hat, to fulfil her professional commitment.
CARELESS RAPTURE
Book by Ivor Novello. Lyrics by Christopher Hassall. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Dorothy Dickson, Ivor Novello, Olive Gilbert, Sybil Crawley, Eric Starling. Musical director: Charles Prentice
Songs: Music in May; Why is there ever goodbye?; Studio scene (A bit of opera); Love made the song; The miracle of Nichaow; The bridge of lovers
Noel Coward once met Ivor Novello talking with his manager in the Ivy. Novello told Coward they were discussing his new musical play. Coward asked what it was to be called. 'Careless Rapture,' said Novello. Coward paused. 'Careless, I very much doubt,' he said. 'Rapture? That is for us to decide.' Well, rapture often comes disguised. Dorothy Dickson was well known for singing sharp, Olive Gilbert had one of the plummiest and least agile of contraltos, and, in this show, Ivor Novello pranced around the stage in thigh-length boots and pretty little else, and then attempted to sing opera - well, a pastiche of opera. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to regard the idiocies of Careless Rapture with anything but affection. Novello's silly plot gave him once again the leading male role (the only male role in the show worth playing) and got him to the Orient where he endured an earthquake (in the best manner of 'the Lane' scenic effects). The stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane was again filled with a stunning spectacle (including an 'all-white' scene on the Bridge of Lovers) when this concoction opened in September 1936 for 295 performances. Speedily written, the score is not one of his very finest but it will do very nicely. Dickson's one solo 'Music in May' is a pleasing quick waltz with an unexpected soar up to a top note (a trick used more notably in 'Someday my heart will awake' in King's Rhapsody). It's a difficult number to bring off, and Dickson sings it off-key but appealingly, a knack that in our modern times seems to have been lost. 'Love made the song' is rather a stern thing, four-square in the manner of 'Fold your wings' and 'My heart belongs to you', but it is indestructibly constructed as, evidently, are its singers here. Their expressions of ardour border on the frightening - one would not wish to be the object of such resolute affection. Miss Gilbert relishes her chest notes in 'Why is there ever goodbye?' but the real fun of this little collection is the 'Studio scene' in which Novello invades the singing lesson of Penelope Lee (Dickson), tutored by Mme Simonetti (Gilbert). It's a nice invention, neatly played, and gives a fine feeling for how it must have been on stage. Novello's very mock attempt at grand opera is funny, too, but he obviously wasn't happy with it, for it was dropped from the production. His incidental music (of which this collection offers a fair deal) suggests the splendour of the occasion. Enormous fun, and never subtle. The earthquake followed the line by one of the principals 'My maid tells me it's earthquake weather!'
 
CREST OF THE WAVE
Book by Ivor Novello. Lyrics by Christopher Hassall. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Dorothy Dickson, Olive Gilbert, Walter Crisham, Edgar Elmes. Musical director: Charles Prentice
Songs: Why isn't it you?; Haven of your heart; If you only knew; Rose of England
There is no denying it: even for Ivor Novello, the story of Crest Of The Wave is the most stupendous nonsense, about an impoverished nobleman, The Duke of Cheviot, who is shot by a lover and pursued by the villainous Otto Fresch (Novello again). Perhaps to help justify its appearance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, it featured a spectacular train crash, although Novello had a penchant for writing 'disaster musicals' - Glamorous Night has a shipwreck, and Careless Rapture an earthquake. The Times thought Crest of he Wave 'a simple and boyish evening'. It lasted for 203 performances. 'One staggers out,' said the Observer, 'sated and a trifle stunned, observing, with a bloated species of relief, as one does at the end of a long Christmas dinner with the family, that this occasion is over for another year.' Its most remembered song, the almost dementedly patriotic 'Rose of England' was certainly a bouquet for Coronation Year, 1937, when the show opened in September. It is suitably bellowed by Edgar Elmes and the male chorus. Any recording of Dorothy Dickson is welcome, especially here when she partners Walter Crisham in 'Why isn't it you?', a duet with an unexpected lightness of touch. Marvellously put over by these veterans of musical comedy. This leaves Olive Gilbert room to proclaim the joys of the 'Haven of your heart', from the 'Versailles in tinsel' sequence of the show. Miss Gilbert's manly contralto brings a Wagnerian majesty to obviously unworthy material, and she is probably singing out of the corner of her mouth, a ploy that - she always claimed - increased the roundness of her tone. Anyone interested in Novello should get to know this delightful quartet of songs.
 
THE DANCING YEARS
Book by Ivor Novello. Lyrics by Christopher Hassall. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Mary Ellis, Olive Gilbert, Ivor Novello, Dunstan Hart, Roma Beaumont. Musical director: Charles Prentice
Songs: Waltz of my heart; The wings of sleep; My life belongs to you; I can give you the starlight; My dearest dear; Primrose; Leap year waltz; Three ballet tunes
British Revival (1968) cast: June Bronhill, David Knight, Enrico Giacomini, Cathy Jose, Moyna Cope. Musical director: Robert Probst
Songs: Uniform; Waltz of my heart; Wings of sleep; My life belongs to you; I can give you the starlight; Chorale and Tyrolese dance; My dearest dear; Lorelei; Primrose; Leap year waltz; Rainbow in the fountain
London waiting for the outbreak of war took Ivor Novello's operetta to its heart when it brightened the impending gloom at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from March 1939. When the war interrupted the run, the show went on a protracted tour of England, returning in triumph to the Adelphi Theatre in March 1942 when it ran for 969 performances. This is Novello's 'serious' musical, its story more or less tripped of the Ruritarian fripperies that break in through much of his work. Here, Novello plays the Jewish composer Rudi Kleber who falls in love with the opera singer Maria Ziegler (Mary Ellis). The shadow of another romance and the Nazi oppression falls across their romance, but Maria gets him released from the Gestapo's clutches. Decorating the touching plot is a score of great charm, containing six of Novello's finest songs. Most of the plums go to Ellis who brings to her songs that refined prima-donna bearing - she is almost disdainful - that graced her every appearance. Novello partly intended The Dancing Years as a vehicle for the young Roma Beaumont. Although her role did not involve many of the songs, she has the most playful of them, 'Primrose'. Elsewhere, there is the exquisite duet for Ellis and Olive Gilbert 'The wings of sleep' so successful on stage that, as immortalised on a live recording in the theatre, the applause for it seemed unending. Novello's ballet music is more evidence of his talent as a composer, a talent that thrived on his innate understanding of what would work on stage. Noel Coward may have scoffed at Novello's work, but did he ever come up with a score that offers so many remembered delights as this? It's not my favourite Novello show, but that doesn't stop me appreciating its quality.
 
GAY'S THE WORD
Book and lyrics by Alan Melville. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Cicely Courtneidge, Lizbeth Webb, Thorley Walters. Musical director: Robert Probst
Songs: It's bound to be right on the night; Gaeity Glad; On such a night as this; Bees are buzzin'; Finder, please return; A matter of minutes; If only he'd looked my way; Vitality; Sweet Thames; Guards on parade; Ruritania
For his final score (he died during its run) Ivor Novello wrote the music only. A vehicle for the exhaustingly comic Cicely Courtneidge, Gay's The Word (a title that could not be so innocently used today) had Novello returning in style to the light musical comedies he contributed to before embraking on the series of grandiloquent musical extravaganzas that began with Glamorous Night. In this he was superbly supported by Alan Melville's neat lyrics (certainly the best he ever wrote for the musical theatre, far outstripping his contributions to Bet Your Life and Marigold). Melville's book had a theatrical background, with the owner of a drama school, Gay Daventry (Courtneidge) falling on hard times and pulling herself back into the spotlight with a new musical production. Opening at the Saville Theatre in February 1951 (Novello took a night off from his lead in King's Rhapsody to attend its first night) it ran happily on, under the strict eye of Miss Courtneidge, for 504 showings. It was skilfully written, giving the tireless leading lady not only a nice love song 'If only he'd looked my way', and a perky burlesque soubrette-piece in 'Bees are buzzin' but also a first-act closer that became Courtneidge's anthem 'Vitality'. Those hoping to hear the usual strains of a Novello show were not disappointed, for a second leading lady was found in the adorably voiced Lizbeth Webb. She was given songs as sweetly melancholic as any Novello ever wrote. Gordon Duttson, Novello's personal secretary, told me that Novello asked him to stay in the room on the occasion when Miss Courtneidge came to hear the songs for the first time. Novello had to break the news to her that there was to be a second female lead, and one with good songs; he didn't want to face Courtneidge with this news without somebody else's support. Novello's decision to cater for both tastes in this score was sound. The male side is represented by Thorley Walters in 'A matter of minutes', a captivating and totally happy quick waltz. When the male chorus send up the Novello tradition of cod operetta in 'Ruritania' (Novello is even mentioned, for heaven's sake) one's fondness for this happy show can only increase. The recordings exude all the atmosphere one could wish.
 
GLAMOROUS NIGHT
Book by Ivor Novello. Lyrics by Christopher Hassall. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Mary Ellis, Elisabeth Welch, Trefor Jones. Musical director: Charles Prentice
Songs: Fold your wings; Glamorous night; When the gipsy played; Shanty town; The girl I knew; Shine through my dreams
One of the most extraordinary things about Glamorous Night, the first of the string of spectacular musical extravagances that Ivor Novello wrote for London (this one at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in May 1935 for 243 performances), is that he immediately put in place every characteristic that would be found in those that followed. The absurdity of the Ruritanian plot didn't matter; it gave Novello a plum non-singing role at the top of his own creation, a show 'Devised, Written and Composed by Ivor Novello', even if Christopher Hassall was to be his collaborator for lyrics. In Glamorous Night, both showed their aptitude for the work in hand, Hassall's lush, sentimental and stirring words finding ample expression in the flow of melody that Novello provided. At once, Mary Ellis as a gypsy prima donna Militza established herself as a firm Novello favourite. Her recording of the title song is a classic of the gramophone. Her soprano is a voice of luxury, caressing everything she touches, and loitering around notes in a way that shows up Novello's music admirably. Hassall's skill as a lyricist, so often ignored, seems faultless. And there is the magnificent orchestral conclusion, in which one can imagine the excitement the song must have generated in the theatre. The duet 'Fold your wings' is one of the richest Novello and Hassall ever wrote, with Trefor Jones in resounding voice, as he is for the exquisite 'Shine through my dreams'. Elisabeth Welch, squeezed into the production as a stowaway on board a ship that would later sink (it was one of Novello's tricks to have a good disaster enacted on stage) has two numbers that suggest another side of the composer's talent. Both 'The girl I knew' and 'Shanty town' have a marvellous laziness and, it has to be said of the first, a lack of morality, that are refreshing. They are the precursor of such songs as Welch's 'Dark music' from Novello's Arc de Triomphe. But throughout Glamorous Night Novello was creating a sort of grand operetta out of elements that had never been fused in such a way before. His genius as an innovator is unappreciated. His achievements as a composer would be firmly in place if he had written little beyond Glamorous Night.
 
KING'S RHAPSODY
Book by Ivor Novello. Lyrics by Christopher Hassall. Music by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Ivor Novello, Vanessa Lee, Olive Gilbert, Denis Martin, Phyllis Dare, Larry Mandon. Musical director: Harry Acres
Songs: Someday my heart will awake; Take your girl; Fly home, little heart; The mayor of Perpignan; The gates of Paradise; Mountain dove; If this were love; The violin began to play; Muranian rhapsody; Coronation scene and Finale
The very last, and the most sumptuous, of Ivor Novello's Ruritanian musical extravaganzas, King's Rhapsody stands as one of his finest works; one cannot wonder at its colossal success on its opening at the Palace Theatre in September 1949, and it stayed (even after Novello's death in 1951, when Novello's role was taken over by Jack Buchanan) for a deserved 881 performances. Harold Hobson wrote that 'The music is quite enchanting …How superbly he manages to bring off the different aspects of the theatre into a single harmonious whole. South Pacific requires Rodgers, Michener, Logan and Hammerstein to do what Novello achieves single-handed in King's Rhapsody; and then, in my opinion, they do not do it so well.' Novello always intended it to be his swan-song, and created for himself the role of Nikki, a middle-aged heir to a remote European throne who is obliged to fall in love with a 'snow princess' Cristiane (Vanessa Lee). In Lee he created a star, who stopped the show cold within its first few minutes in 'Someday my heart will awake': it is one of Novello's most entrancing melodies, with its sudden unexpected swoops (and Miss Lee was an expert at swooping, preferring it to hitting a note head-on) and, so often neglected, one of Christopher Hassall's most memorable lyrics. Hassall was a poet of the musical theatre to equal Hammerstein, but he is forgotten today. Fortunately, the selection of music committed to a set of 78s (sometimes in nicely arranged medleys) is testament to the genius of Novello's writing at the end of a long career. All Lee's numbers are good, not least 'The violin began to play'. When she joins Oliver Gilbert and Denis Martin for the trio 'The gates of Paradise' the magnificence of that piece lives again, for this is noble music written from the soul. Gilbert has a playful time with 'Take your girl', a number that seems pretty silly today, but must have provided a nicely inconsequential, jolly break to the lush romance that permeated the evening, even if Gilbert by this stage was displaying a worn contralto (Novello, faithful to his old colleagues, would not have dreamed of not including a part for her). Phyllis Dare, that scion of Edwardian beauty, delightfully gives a snatch of the witty 'The mayor of Pergignan' (it had been tried unsuccessfully in Novello's Arc de Triomphe), adding to the air of splendour and real theatricality that suffuses these discs. Perhaps most fascinating of all is the protracted ballet, the 'Muranian rhapsody' in which Novello narrates, to startling effect, the languorous or frenzied going-on of a gipsy encampment. Listen to the closing passage of his speech, and you will be in no doubt as to the thrilling power he could evoke for his admirers. It is wonderful stuff, still shimmering after so many years. When, after Miss Gilbert has throatily intoned the National Anthem, Vanessa Lee breathes the final ghostly strains of 'Someday My Heart Will Awake', one is left speechless.
 
PERCHANCE TO DREAM
Book music and lyrics by Ivor Novello
Original London cast: Muriel Barron, Roma Beaumont, Olive Gilbert, Ivor Novello. Musical director: Harry Acres
Songs: We'll gather lilacs; A woman's heart; Curtsy to the king; Love is my reason; Highwayman love; This is my wedding day
The only one of the Novello shows to be recorded by Decca and - for some reason - it matters. There's something about the Decca sound that doesn't suit this score, even if only a fraction of it was used, but the score itself isn't Novello writing at his best. It's all very boxed in, and the music doesn't survive it. As the war ended, audiences flocked to the London Hippodrome to see it, keeping it there for 1,022 performances. It was the usual hotch-potch of Novello nonsense, this time a saga of a family through three centuries living at the stately home of Huntersmoon. Novello wrote his own lyrics (Christopher Hassall was in the services). Muriel Barron is not Mary Ellis, but apart from singing 'Love is my reason' pleasantly, Novello doesn't offer her much of quality. There is the duet with Olive Gilbert, 'We'll gather lilacs', one of the most popular he ever wrote - and one that, in its treacly way, caught the proper sentiment of a Britain at the end of a tiring and costly conflict. Miss Gilbert has the other outstanding song, 'Highwayman love', with its almost bizarre lyric. She does it lustily, but I doubt if she saw the funny side of it. It's outrageous but triumphant. Roma Beaumont is mildness itself in 'The night when I curtsied to the King', unmistakably Novellian in its simplistic innocence.
 
SHINE THROUGH MY DREAMS: Ivor Novello Original recordings 1917-1950
Songs: Deep in my heart [Mary Ellis]; Fold your wings [Mary Ellis, Trefor Jones]; The radiance in your eyes [Reinald Werrenrath]; Every bit of loving in the world [Frances Alda]; The thought never entered my head [Winnie Melville, Derek Oldham]; Give me back my heart [Peggy Wood]; Scene from Act One of Murder in Mayfair [Ivor Novello, Edna Best]; When the gypsy played [Mary Ellis]; The girl I knew [Elisabeth Welch]; Shine through my dreams [Trefor Jones]; If you only knew [Dorothy Dickson]; My dearest dear [Mary Ellis, Ivor Novello]; The leap year waltz [orchestral]; Dark music [Elisabeth Welch]; We'll gather lilacs [Muriel Barron, Olive Gilbert]; I can give you the starlight [Gisele Preville]; Waltz of my heart [Gisele Preville]; Keep the home fires burning [Olive Gilbert]
There is absolutely no reason why anyone even faintly interested in show music should not be without this marvellous collection, available from Naxos at a ridiculously low price. Peter Dempsey has compiled a fascinating programme that demonstrates the breadth of Novello's achievement, including a rare dialogue scene from Novello's play Murder in Mayfair, one of the highlights of this issue. There is something so very atmospheric about it, with Novello playing with (as much as at) the piano, and dealing with his inconsequential script with the lightest and yet surest of touches. It's a model of charm (perfectly set off by Edna Best's technique) and soaked in that magic that only Novello could conjure up. The quality of the sound is somehow so direct, with those final chords of Novello's playing taking us almost into the room with him. But one could use that word - magic - about so much here. We can only hope that a new generation will open themselves to these mysteriously beautiful songs. Two of them - 'The girl I knew' and 'Dark music' - gave Elisabeth Welch two of the best songs she ever sang, with Christopher Hassall's luminous lyrics. That luminosity is evident elsewhere, not least in the title song from Glamorous Night (listed on this disc as 'Deep in my heart') - surely the desert island choice from all Novello, with Mary Ellis captured at her finest. Familiar ground is covered, but not always by the familiar. Mr Dempsey gives us Giselle Preville (the star of the film version of The Dancing Years - all film versions of Novello's musicals were lamentable) singing 'Waltz of my heart' and 'I can give you the starlight', although to my ears Mademoiselle Preville sounds uncannily like Vanessa Lee. It's good to be reminded of Novello's skil with incidental music, and the Leap Year Waltz represents his strongest. There is even a smattering of rare material, with early ballads such as 'The radiance of your eyes' (poor as it is), but among these we can discover again Peggy Wood deliciously imploring 'Give me back my heart'. This carefully compiled feast is rounded off with Olive Gilbert rendering 'Keep the home fires burning' (under the personal supervision of the composer. What advice did he give on the day, one wonders?). Rather sweetly, the recording was made at the very start of World War Two, and Miss Gilbert - booming away - no doubt went home hoping she had done her bit for Great Britain's morale.
 
MARILYN HILL SMITH SINGS IVOR NOVELLO with the Chandos Concert Orchestra conducted by Stuart Barry
Songs: Someday my heart will awake; Primrose; Love is my reason; Dark music; The little damozel; When the gypsy played; On such a night as this; Fly home, little heart; Keep the home fires burning; Music in May; A violin began to play; Spring of the year; My dearest day; Finder, please return; Look in my heart; When I curtsied to the king; We'll gather lilacs; Fairy laughter; Glamorous night; Why is there ever goodbye?
We have the admirable Marilyn Hill Smith to thank for this album devoted to Novello; it was she who persuaded the record company Chandos that they should let him do a disc of his songs. The result is almost completely happy, with much that is delightful. Smith is suitably incandescent in such soprano delights as 'Someday my heart will awake' (from King's Rhapsody), lightening her touch for the few parlour items, among them the melodically skipping 'The little damozel'. A pleasure, too, to have Gordon Langford at the piano. We are not told if he had a hand in the orchestrations used for the bigger numbers, and Chandos seems reticent about informing us. The deeper regions of Smith's voice are explored for the songs that were more usually associated with the stoic Olive Gilbert - among them 'Why is there ever goodbye?' (a rather depressing thing) and, inevitably 'We'll gather lilacs'. It is not often we hear another version of 'Dark Music', originally written for Elisabeth Welch, and Smith does it sympathetically here, even if she doesn't come near Welch's classic performance. One would have liked to hear our soloist unleashed on the insane excitement of 'Highwayman Love' (from Perchance to Dream), but otherwise there is no disappointment. How exciting, too, to have two of Lizbeth Webb's songs from Gay's the Word (they were not originally fully recorded, but set down in a medley of tunes). Even in the last stages of his career, Novello proved with these - 'Finder, please return' and 'On such a night as this' - that his gift for writing theatre music of enduring quality had not faded. Everywhere, there is a verve and willingness to make it work (listen to the orchestra and Smith getting it together for 'Primrose') that warms us to this very welcome disc.
 

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