A NEW, FACTORY SEALED CD COPY OF THE CITY CENTER ENCORES PRODUCTION OF

THE NEW MOON

music by Sigmund Romberg ; book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, & Laurence Schwab

a 2006 City Center Encores production starring rodney Gilfrey & Christians Doll

Songs Include: Opening, Marianne, The Girl on the Prow, Gorgeous Alexander, Interrupted Trio, Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise, Stouthearted Men, One Kiss, The Trial, Finaletto, Wanting You, Finale, Act One, Overture, Intermezzo, Funny Little Sailor Men, Lover, Come Back to Me, Reprise: Stouthearted Men, Try Her Out at Dances, Reprise: Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise/Never for You, Reprise: Lover, Come Back to Me, Finale Ultimo.

If you want an introduction to Broadway-style operetta, this recording of the 2003 Encores! production of The New Moon is an excellent place to start; if you're already a fan, the CD is an essential purchase. Set in late-18th-century New Orleans, the action-packed plot features revolutionaries and their adversaries, star-crossed lovers and of course disputes based on false assumptions. But the show, originally a hit in 1928, is all about the loveliest tunes from Sigmund Romberg, king of Viennese-syle operetta. As the romantic leads (i.e., the Jeanette McDonald/Nelson Eddy roles), versatile soprano Christiane Noll and classically trained baritone Rodney Gilfry are perfectly paired. (Noll's "Lover, Come Back to Me" is particularly vibrant.) Also of note are spectacular contributions from the booming chorus. This album is the first complete recording of The New Moon; barring a surprise operetta revival, it could also be the last for a long, long time. Good thing it's so scrumptious. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

NEW MOON (1928) is Romberg's most opulent score, surpassing both DESERT SONG and STUDENT PRINCE in an unending flow of hyperromantic melodies, all now permanent standards and usually delivered with operatic grandiosity by a Traubel or MacDonald. Here, heard contextually in the silliness, with patter songs, of a madcap comic operetta libretto, they are revelatory, for the deadpan mock sobriety is leavened by good, clean opera buffa theatricality. This is the lightest of "light" music, not to be taken--or sung--overseriously, and it is purely wonderful. The score follows by one year SHOW BOAT--which aspired to address, musically, weighty national issues--and shares its librettist/lyricist Hammerstein fils. Daringly for 1928, he inserts good Anglo-Saxon words "hell," "breast" and even "sex" into the lyrics. Even at his most piously pedantic with Richard Rodgers, Hammerstein was a master wordsmith, and Romberg's Leharesque melodic arcs cannot be resisted.

Like SHOW BOAT, NEW MOON crams all of the big hit tunes into Act I, where alone we hear "Marianne," "Softly, as in a morning sunrise," "Stouthearted men," "One kiss" and "Wanting you." These are selectively reprised in Act II, where "Lover come back to me" stops the show anew. Rodney Gilfry is the hapless tenor hero Robert, Christiane Noll the soprano heroine in the trousers (or hotpants) role of Marianne. Ghostlight Records have reproduced the original racy sheetmusic artwork for the booklet cover, and the period orchestrations are lively without being fussy or ornate. This is a superb concert performance, studio-recorded, of a spectacularly rich score, not to be missed.