Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. A Cinema In Buenos Aires, 26 July 1952
2. Requiem For Evita / Oh What A Circus
3. Medley: On This Night Of A Thousand Stars
4. Buenos Aires
5. Goodnight And Thank You
6. The Lady's Got Potential
7. Charity Concert / I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You
8. Another Suitcase In Another Hall
9. Dangerous Jade
10. A New Argentina

Disc 2:

1. On The Balcony Of The Casa Rosada / Don't Cry For Me Argentina
2. High Flying, Adored
3. Rainbow High
4. Rainbow Tour
5. The Actress Hasn't Learned The Lines (You'd Like To Hear)
6. And The Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)
7. Santa Evita
8. Waltz For Eva And Che
9. She Is A Diamond
10. Dice Are Rolling / Eva's Sonnet
11. Eva's Final Broadcast
12. Montage
13. Lament

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13157 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-20
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 103 minutes

Customer Reviews

EVITA: THE FIRST RECORDING
Over the years Andrew Lloyd Webber has made many musicals, some more successful and appealing to the public than the others. Most people will, however, agree that "Evita" remains one of his most satisfying works to this date. Numerous reasons confirm this statement. Just like in its predecessor "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Evita" is almost entirely sung-through; the lyrics are witty and appropriate; the subject matter is again a personality larger-than-life who rises from obscurity and dies at the peak of its fame, thus becoming a legend; the score is captivating and appealing to the listener, at home or in the theatre.

This 1976 concept cast recording was the result of a two-year work by Lloyd Webber and his lyricist Tim Rice. It all started when Rice heard a radio show about Eva Peron's life. Lloyd Webber hesitated, but after his big flop with "Jeeves", he took the bait and began working on "Evita". Good for him and for the musical theatre community, since, had it been different; we would have been deprived of a first-class musical delight. The story of Evita is widely known, but for those who are new to this let's repeat the essentials: We follow the life story of Eva Duarte Peron, wife of post-World war two president of Argentina, Juan Peron. However, the musical is very loosely based on the actual life of the real Evita. The story follows Evita from the day of her death in July 1952, and then we have flashbacks until that moment, covering her coming to Buenos Aires, alleged love affairs, meeting Peron, being the first lady and dying of cancer at 33.

This recording follows the suit of "JC Superstar", which was also released as an album, prior to being put on the stage. Compared to the other two cast recordings (i.e., London with Elaine Paige and Broadway with Patti LuPone) this one is different on several points. First, it has the best orchestra, because it features the full London Philharmonics enhanced by some rock musicians. Thus, this recording is the close as you will get to the epic sound of the 1996 movie soundtrack. The other two have a standard pit orchestra and this definitely takes away the some of the appeal. The score itself here has a far greater amount of the rock music, the majority of which was dropped when the show came to the stage.

Secondly, being the first, this version features lyrics that were later omitted when thw show was staged, at the insistence of the director Hal Prince, who wanted a quicker wrap-up. Here we have a whole new song, called "The lady's got potential", which tells a bit more about Juan Peron's climbing to the centre of the power, and features a rather unusual part about insecticide, concerning the other main character, Che, which was rather pointless and was all together left out later. This song was used in the movie version with the different lyrics. The greatest lyrical novelties come at the end of the show. The first is called "Eva's sonnet", in which Evita speaks of her efforts to become a vice-president of Argentina. It is referred to as a sonnet, since it is in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. The second important part is the last song, "Lament", whose entire two verses were later cut out. They are very beautifully written and help us to understand Eva's state of mind moments before she dies when she asks herself whether she would have lived a much happier life has she been an ordinary, obscure person. Some other lyrics were added only when the show reached West End in 1998, like the parts of "And the money kept rolling in" or "Dangerous Jade".

When "Evita" was written, the search began to assemble the cast who will record the album in the studio and they've done a good job. Julie Covington, at that time, a respectable British theatre actress was chosen to sing the role of Evita, Colm Wilkinson, who later struck gold with his portrayal of Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" is Che, a character that Tim Rice cleverly created as an antipode to Eva, who criticizes and comments her actions and Paul Jones was cast as Juan Peron. Julie Covington has a voice very similar in color to that of Madonna, but her range is much wider and she has no trouble in hitting the high notes. She is a very good singer; my only complaint would be that she brought almost no emotions to the role. She sings everything in the same very cold tone, so you don't have the feeling when listening to "Lament" that this is a person who is about to die in a minute or two. Patti LuPone, who was very fierce in the role on Broadway, as can be heard on the 1979 Broadway recording, remains my favorite Eva, since she knew when to show the much needed emotional side of the character. Colm Wilkinson is a rocking Che, just as I believe the character should be. I find that the singers with much deeper voices work better in this role, and Mandy Patinkin in the Broadway Recording is a bit too thin and sings too high for my taste. Paul Jones' Peron comes close to that of Bob Gunton, although maybe not as dark and sinister, but still very appropriate. Some minor character changes are encountered here; thus "And the money kept rolling in" is sung by the president of the Eva Peron foundation and not by Che, as in the later versions.

This double CD issue comes with a full libretto and a synopsis. It also features the photographs of the real Eva Peron, the authors and the cast. The sound quality is one of the main assets of this recording. It has been digitally remastered in such a good manner, that you can actually make out the instruments when listening to a certain melody.

For those of you who are getting acquainted with the story of Eva Peron for the first time I must point out: Bear in mind that this musical is only loosely based on the life of the real Evita. As much as Tim Rice's lyrics are craftily made, they lack a lot of historical accuracy. As a historian I became very interested in Eva Peron's life story so I did some research after seeing the movie. It turned out that the authors based their entire work on a single book called EVITA: THE WOMAN WITH A WHIP by Mary Main. It was based on rumors, lies and myths, written with the single purpose of slandering Eva Peron as much as possible. It contains no footnotes and no bibliography. The authors used it mainly because it was one of the few books available on the subject in the English language during the 70-is. So one should be very careful in making any conclusions based on the musical or the movie alone.

In the final judgment, this version of Evita is a must-have for all the fans of this story and the score. The missing lyrics give an impression of a much more completed work. And some parts, like the haunting guitar solo during the "Buenos Aires" number is one of those little things that make this recording worth your time and money.

beautiful
"evita" is one of my favourite andrew lloyd webber musicals, because of it's power and moving melodies/story. i think both ALW and tim rice did a very good job, and this recording shows it! the vocals are amazing and energetic, the orchastrations are exellent. better than maddona, that's for sure!