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Rating:  -
With a remarkable French flavor MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE has taken a major stride in the history of musical theatre! No other composer can take unexpressable/unexplainable human nuances and have them expressed through the music like Ricky Ian Gordon. The music strikes a particular mood within the listener so much that you feel what the character is feeling. There is a breath of Poulenc in this musical. There is a hint of the "benal" feeling in this music. With these feelings we experience the narrators memories and how he feels about this particular point in his life. Unspoken most of time, we all have this type of association with certain memories. Together Richard Nelson and Ricky Ian Gordon have brought out a true human experience. This is something that is very tangible from the cd. One particular thing I like about this is the range of emotions that this piece covers. It's a wonderful example of the pain often associated in love, learning, and moving on. This musical goes beyond Sunday in the Park With George(probably the greatest musical of all time)because it deals MORE directly with the issues, rather than dance around them. IF IT IS TRUE is a reminder of the scene in SUNDAY when Dot returns and sings MOVE ON--leaving a lesson. It can only be the work of a genius to put an unbelievably beautiful song (IF IT IS TRUE) at the very end of this musical, which is where it should be. It WOULDN'T work anywhere else-it would in fact create a disaster with the beautiful "line" that is there now. There could be no perfect place for this, and like Sunday in the Park With George ALBERTINE gives us a bittersweet closing showing the result of a journey.
The songs are beautiful, the orchestrations are brilliant, the lyrics are genuine, and the story is brilliantly haunting. This musical proves my thoughts that Ricky Ian Gordon is a composer for the people. He is someone who cannot be compared to other composers-he stands alone. His brilliance and uniqueness should prove to the people that THIS IS WHERE THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE SHOULD BE GOING!!!!
Bravo!
Rating: -
"My Life with Albertine" is about a man who tries in old age to make sense of a tragic first love affair. As he takes us through the story, we see Albertine and Marcel (the Narrator as a young man) mature to the point that their love becomes stronger than their need to retain control within the relationship. The musical deals with the difficulty of creating a real bond with another person when you can never really know who they are or what they are thinking. How do you bridge that gap? Composer Ricky Ian Gordon bridges it with melodies whose broad arching lines express the passionate longing we are all born with: to connect with, to love another human being. The long vocal line is one of the important unifying elements in this gorgeous score.
Because Marcel sees Albertine only through the lens of his own need and desire, he is unable to grasp the whole person behind her apparently inconsistent behavior ("The Different Albertines"). That there is a unified person behind the changing appearances is indicated by the descending minor third Gordon uses whenever her name is sung. Albertine may be a mystery to Marcel, but the songs Gordon gives her to sing help us recognize her `transformations' as natural stages in her development from child to mature woman. The first of these is represented by the "Ferret Song." On the surface this is a simple and charming children's chant, but the slightly dissonant accompaniment suggests that Albertine is self-consciously prolonging her last days of childhood innocence. In "My Soul Weeps," Albertine tries to share with Marcel the adolescent melancholy that distresses her (again the long arching vocal line), but all Marcel can do is try to kiss her, to her great disgust. Some months later, having apparently been initiated into [intercourse] in the interim, Albertine sleeps with Marcel. Having had what he wanted, he discards her. Disappointed in Marcel, Albertine tries forging connections with women, transforming "My Soul Weeps" into a desperate tango.
When Albertine and Marcel once again try to live together they find it difficult to reveal their true feelings to each other ("What [I] think is, don't hurt me, don't leave me, don't lie to me, but what I say is, kiss me"). The audience can recognize Albertine's growing cynicism when she sings the raucous "I Need Me a Girl" (the men and women she describes all "need" a girl but treat that girl as a thing), but Marcel reacts by locking her up in his Paris apartment. Soon the lovers are unable to say anything at all (reprise of "But What I Say"), leaving Marcel to be consumed by his own jealous imaginings. At last, unable to tolerate Marcel's suspicion and possessiveness, Albertine runs away from him. In her farewell letter, she tells him that she leaves him her "best part, my heart," but he is unable to recognize the truth of that. In his sexual jealousy, Marcel initiates an escalating battle of words ("The Letters") that ends only when they both realize that being apart is more painful than the sacrifices they must make to stay together. Marcel at last gives up his claim of ownership ("I beg you to come home. I make no conditions"), while Albertine gives up her autonomy ("whatever you decide, I shall abide by your decision"). But before Albertine can return to him, she is killed in a fall from her horse.
"Albertine's Last Letter" reaches Marcel just after the news of her death. This song is sung by Albertine when the musical opens and again toward the end by the Narrator and it is typical of both the skill and the depth of feeling that Ricky Ian Gordon brings to this work. The characteristic arching vocal line for the opening words "Is it too late for me to return to you?" extends for a full measure longer than one expects it to, suggesting Albertine's willingness to go the extra mile to bridge the gap between herself and Marcel. Throughout the song, the orchestration expresses her changing emotions so clearly that they seem to be living in the listener's own heart. We hear both her hope and longing and also her nervous fear as she steels herself for possible rejection right through to the wonderful diminished triad that ends the voice line, creating a painful sense of uncertainty even while the harmonies underneath are trying to resolve it.
The songs mentioned above are primarily those that mark Albertine's development. Others represent the various settings: the seaside resort where the lovers first meet ("Balbec by the Sea," which sounds as if it was inspired by Poulenc at his most frivolous), drawing room society in Paris ("Talk about the Weather")ΒΈ and the bordello demi-monde of Albertine's lesbian friends ("I Want You"). But best of all is Gordon's contribution to the centuries-old tradition of songs based on street vendors' cries in which Marcel imagines Albertine's name being cried out, like the artichokes and periwinkles, as if she too were for sale on "The Street."
"My Life with Albertine" is not for people who prefer simple stories and melodies on the lines of Kum ba yah. But it repays repeated and thoughtful listening with some of the most subtle and satisfying delights that musical story-telling can deliver.
Rating:  -
Upon a third listening to the recently released cast recording of the deservedly short-lived Playwrights' Horizon musical MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE, I have yet to discover one iota of worth to this mindless score and convoluted "reminisence" musical. The excellent Emily Skinner, Brent Carver, and other are in posession of their usual fine voices, but are totally wasted in this garble of pseudo-French ribaldry and cloying sentiment. The plot itself, in which Mr. Carver recalls his affairs with the fickle Albertine, is muddled and contrived and poorly presented. But the score (or lack thereof) is the main culprit: not a touch of melody or charm to be found, as if it had been composed by a William Finn or a Stephen Sondheim while heavily sedated. Lyrically it fares no better: when songs attempt to be cute and naughty, they offend. When they attempt emotion, they rankle. All in all, one of the most un-listenable and disappointing cast recordings in many years.
Rating: -
This wonderful recording of Ricky Ian Gordon and Richard Nelson's latest work should be on every lover of musicals CD shelf. I saw this atmospheric work on stage and have been anticipating the release of this work and was not disappointed. In fact, PS Classics has released an incredible performance. Tommy Krasker and Tom Lazarus have created a sublime recording - the balance of singers, the clarity of the orchestra and the mood is captured to perfection. I am an unabashed Gordon fan - his way with melody is astonishing. Every lover of musical theatre should be rejoicing that Gordon has created such a gem of a score. This is the BEST theatre score since SUNDAY IN THE PARK. Just as Sondheim musically depicts Seurat's pointilism in his score, Gordon has found dozens of ways to capture the melancholy and emotional depth of Proust in his work. Seldom have I heard music so suited to the emotional situation of character expressed so beautifully in music, whether it be "diddle" of observing Albertine and her friends in the "Ferret Song", to the internal thoughts of the young Marcel and Albertine in "But What I Say", to the devastating emotions of "Is It Too Late", Gordon has lifted his already considerable skills to a higher level. Richard Nelson has found his own simple and evocative way to deal with with the poetry of Proust. The economy of lyrics, coupled with the many faceted orchestration by Bruce Coughlin -- just listen to the present, yet not overbearing accordion -- and the listener is transported to France. The performers are all excellent, espescially Brent Carver -- this extraordinary actor brings such pain, class and emotional availability to his performance that you understand all that Marcel has learned since his relationship with Albertine as a young man ended. As the "movies into musicals" continue to take over the world of musical theatre, I am so happy that Nelson and Gordon have provided the public the perfect antidote with a show that continues to use the musical form in new, exciting and beautiful ways.
Rating: -
I saw the show and I would have rather spent the time watching grass grow. The people in front of me and beside me slept during Act 1. I don't know of anyone who saw this show and liked it. The reviews were horrible and justifiably so. If this is the future of musicals, then we're in for alot of revivals. Don't waste your money. Trust me, this show is soooooooooo bad.
I had to put one star because I wasn't given the option of 0 stars.
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