A Singer’s Life - Films and Music 2
A Singer’s Life – Films and Music
PART 2
We plunge back now into this look at how my favourite films all have music as a recurring thread. It might also be a good moment to remind our readers that my book of memoirs and reminiscences of my 40 year career, ‘A Singer’s Life – The Journals of a Modern Troubadour’, is currently available on Amazon, and, I hope, soon in independent bookshops. It has been a labour of love, and I heartily recommend it!
Moving on from The Lord of the Rings, I offer my first actual musical film, ‘The Sound of Music’, from 1965. I was 9 years old when it came out, with no idea that I wanted to be a singer, but it has stayed in my memory as a hugely influential moment in my life. I had never been abroad, had no experience of singing other than at a very low level in my school choir, but somehow the vast mountains and gorgeous scenery stayed with me for ever, as did Julie Andrews magnificent performance. Bizarrely, I found myself in Salzburg nine years later, as the St Andrews Renaissance Group went on tour in the Easter holidays, and ended up staying in that beautiful baroque city for a few days. We stayed in a youth hostel which closed its doors at 10pm (it was a long time ago!), but our clever staff members managed to persuade the management that the choir had to sing a special service of Compline at 11pm, so we couldn’t get back to the hostel until midnight. The fact that we were actually living it up in Salzburg’s wine bars was entirely irrelevant, although our tremendous sober-acting on our return would have earned a review from the Salzburg Festival. Little did I know that less than 20 years later, I would myself be singing at the Salzburg Festival (perhaps the most prestigious European music festival) singing Polyphemus in Handel’s ‘Acis and Galatea’ alongside Barbara Bonney with the English Concert and Trevor Pinnock, and returning a few years later to sing bass solos in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Salzburger Bach-Chor and Howard Arman!
‘The Sound of Music’ is my favourite Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, first seen on Broadway in 1959, and its romantic story, catchy tunes and slightly edgy Nazi subplot have made it an enduring hit. When I first went to Salzburg, I was astonished to find nothing about the film. There were no Sound of Music tours, or shops selling Sound of Music merchandise, and no one in Austria had seen it or even heard about it. The post-war view that the Austrians had been rather happy to welcome the Anschluss and Hitler (who was born in Austria) meant that a film about that period, even one extolling the virtues of a freedom-loving anti-Nazi, was not hugely popular, and it existed largely under the radar. Eventually, with the passing of time, the Austrians realised that it was a fantastic advert for their wonderful country and Salzburg, and so now there are those Sound of Music tours!
The whole story bears a resemblance to the reaction in both England and Scotland to the enormous success of the books by Diana Gabaldon about time travel and the 1745 Rebellion, which were made into a TV series, ‘Outlander’. It appeared on TV around the time of the Independence Referendum in 2014, and the story goes that the UK government wanted the show to have as low a profile as possible. It’s still largely unknown in Britain, even in Scotland, although wildly popular abroad, especially in America, and many of the venues filmed have seen incredible visitor figures over the last ten years. The stars are fêted everywhere they go, outside Britain!
I have one random anecdote about Austria that I must share – it’s not even in the book! When I first went to Austria on holiday with my parents, to the Tirol, we did a fair bit of walking on the alpine meadows (imagine Julie Andrews singing the Hills are Alive), and whenever we met a friendly Austrian, they greeted us with a German phrase. This happened multiple times every day, and my mother was astonished to think everyone was saying, “You’re a Scot”, and would reply with a smiling, “Yes” to each greeting. It was only much, much later that I realised the Austrians were using the formal greeting, “Grüß Gott” (May God greet you), and indeed had no special knowledge about our nationality simply by looking at us! My dear old Mum was very amused when I told her years later!
My penultimate choice is ‘High Society’ from 1956. Now this is not a great film in the way that the others on my list are regularly right at the top of Best Ever Film lists, but I love it, mainly for the music. It’s a musical remake of the very successful 1940 film, ‘The Philadelphia Story’, about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the arrival of an ex-husband and a tabloid journalist. The original film featured Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart (huge stars) and was seen as a great film. ‘High Society’ replaced the trio with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra, with a special appearance by Louis Armstrong as himself! The story is much the same except that the ex-husband, Crosby, is portrayed as a rich ex-jazz singer, who is setting up the Newport Jazz Festival, an actual event that coincided with the film’s creation, and which explained why Armstrong could play himself. All the posh folks were very white, but the banter with Armstrong and his band was good to see in a film from 1956!
Cole Porter wrote the score, including two entirely new songs, and this is the reason I love the film. The presence of Sinatra and Crosby together furnished a lot of gossip at the time - tales of one-upmanship and daggers drawn contrasting with the more probable pleasure of two giants working together, but their duet, ‘Did you ever’ is absolutely brilliant, and they really look as if they are having fun. It was also the last film that Grace Kelly appeared in before becoming Princess Grace of Monaco (when I sang in ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Monte Carlo Opera, there were still memories of the Princess floating about), and her love duet, of sorts, with Bing Crosby, ‘True Love’ is sublime.
I’m going to end with perhaps the greatest of all dance films (I know - there are lots to choose from!), ‘An American in Paris’, from 1951, directed by Vincente Minnelli, inspired by George Gershwin’s 1928 symphonic poem of the same name. The choreography was by Gene Kelly, who stars as the American, Jerry Mulligan, with Leslie Caron as Lise Bouvier, making her film debut as the heroine. The story of love triangles and misunderstandings is lightweight, but the atmosphere, the feel of post-war Paris, the obvious rapport of the two leads combined with the excellent supporting cast, the script by Alan J Lerner, and above all, the fabulous music of Gershwin make ‘An American in Paris’ a work of genius.
The wordless dream sequence danced to the whole of Gershwin’s tone poem, with sets based on great French artists, and with hordes of dancers interacting with Kelly and Caron, is a tour de force unlike anything else in the history of movies. I love it!
Gene Kelly was a genius – dancer, actor, singer, choreographer – and the film garnered 6 Academy Awards. This film and ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ cemented Kelly’s reputation as one of the true greats of musical films and is a good way to bring this short survey to an end.
Readers will have their own favourites, and feel free to suggest them. I hope I may have come up with a few films you haven’t seen, but should!
