Doublereed Archive - Posting 000074.txt from 2008/08

From: "Shannon Hill" <mshill1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [DR-L] Ugly musicians?
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:45:31 -0400

Marni Nixon (perfectly attractive, btw) has had a fabulous career in her own
right specifically as a dubbing artist (My Fair Lady, West Side Story, King
and I, and many others). Much of her career-establishing work was done in a
time when dubbing artists were not acknowledged in movie credits. Nowadays,
dubbing is a whole (very lucrative) second career for many actors who
contribute their "starring" fame to animated characters.

The dubbing thing doesn't bother me a bit for films and ceremonies.
On-screen charisma is an ephemeral, difficult-to-quantify thing, and
film-making is its own art. Just because you sing well doesn't mean you
come across well on the silver screen (or narrate/orate well, either). The
purpose of the performances at the Olympics opening ceremonies was
many-fold, probably the least of which was high art. The audience was
charmed by the Olympic "singer," and that's what mattered.

Blessedly, I don't think it holds folks back that much to be ugly in a
90-piece symphony, but I do think attractiveness has bearing on audience
perception of the quality of a soloist, and their resulting fame. Go
figure.

OK, trivia: When did Marlon Brando sing in a movie? Thousand points (which
don't mean anything, to paraphrase Drew Carey) if you know that was him
singing in Guys and Dolls' "Woman in Love." Yup, that's really Brando!
Curiously, it was his only singing role...
- Shannon Hill

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin H. Moore [mailto:oboetools@-----.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 11:41 AM
To: doublereed@-----.org
Subject: Re: [DR-L] Ugly musicians?

::: reaches for dictionary of musical theater, dons "gay" apparel, and does
his best to control
the use of extra "S"s ::::::

Marni Nixon is the soprano who sang the role of "Maria" in the motion
picture WEST SIDE STORY.

On the revised Deutsche Gramaphone recording with Kiri Te Kanawa & Jose
Carreras, the dialogue was spoken by Nina Bernstein & Alexander Bernstein.
Astounding that, somehow, somebody seemed to think that singers can sing but
not talk? Tough to understand the logic.

I'm guessing these two are related to the maestro?

Kevin

----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip McKenzie" <philclimb1@-----.com>
To: <doublereed@-----.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 08:37 Hrs
Subject: Fw: [DR-L] Ugly musicians?

west side story the movie. natalie wood played maria. who was the lip
sync-er?

west side story the recording w/berstein, carerras, te kanewa. there the lip
sync-ers did the dialogue. anyone recall their names?

and this one shocked me....turns out buzz lightyear was lip sync'd by tim
allen.

phil

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