Klarinet Archive - Posting 000157.txt from 1998/06

From: <CmdrHerel@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet in space
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:41:11 -0400

In a message dated 98-06-04 05:25:52 EDT, bhausman@-----.com writes:

<< At 09:02 PM 6/3/98 -0500, Neil Leupold wrote:
>I find it disturbing regarding whatever instrument is being
>mis-used. What about the movie "All the Mornings of the World"
>("Tu le Matin du Monde") where Gerard DePardeu (sp?) contrives
>to play the viola da gamba. In this day and age of authenticity
>and accuracy of information, it's hard to understand how every-
>body on the production crew of that movie failed to see how
>phony it looked to see the actor fingering the neck of the
>instrument completely randomly, and without any relation to
>the soundtrack. It was so distracting, I couldn't enjoy
>the movie. It was very disappointing.
>
We need more actors like Robert De Niro. For the movie "New York, New
York," in which he played a big band saxophone player, he took lessons from
Georgie Auld, who recorded the soundtrack. As a result, the fingering
looks quite authentic. In fact, in typical De Niro fashion, by the time
the movie was done, it is said that he could have played the parts himself!
>>

I played "A Little Night Music" some years ago and the lead character was
supposed to play cello. The actor studied cello from the time he got the part
until the show opened. He discovered as time went on that as the rosin wore
off of his bow, the cello made less and less sound... So that by the time the
show opened, he was scraping away and not a note came from the cello...

So we played the show for two weeks and he scraped away on stage as our
cellist in the pit played a very beautiful solo for him night after night.
(We arranged the pit so he and she were facing each other and could coordinate
movement. It was a deep pit, though, so the audience could not see the real
cellist.)

Well, about a week later, the cellist (the real one, not the actor) ran into a
friend of her's. Her friend (who must not have read the pit listing in the
show) said, "You know, I saw a play last weekend, and you would not believe
the kid playing cello in it! He was fantastic!"

She was dead serious! Talk about doing a good job! :)

Teri Herel.

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