Certainly very few people know nowadays that the Karel Vlach Orchestra Of Prague presented the absolutely first musical to be performed on the European continent, and that they were thus the promoters of the European debut of the entire genre. The musical was Finian's Rainbow, and it was premiered in Prague on 6 March, 1948, practically one year after it appeared on Broadway, and long before the arrival of My Fair Lady and West Side Story, which is usually taken to mark the emergence of the musical in Europe. Naturally, the musical had its predecessors in Europe, not the least in the revues and musical comedies presented by Prague's Liberated Theatre in the inter-war years ; the selection of tunes by Jaroslav Jezek in the overture to the Golem show (1931) is a discreet reminder of this important chapter of the history of the world musical, with the title providing the genuine Prague trademark.
To introduce this review of famous tunes whose origin was the musical, the Karel Vlach Orchestra will inform us, on behalf of Sally the cabaret singer, that. . . life is a cabaret, old chum! Come to the CABARET; as everybody knows, this is the title song of the famous 1966 musical. It is followed by two items from the musical comedy ONE HUNDRED DUCATS FOR JUAN (1953), one of the plays which claim the proud title of having been the first Czech musical. One undisputed fact about it is that it was Karel Vlach who made the musical a success on the stage and on the air, and that thanks to him A Song For Christine emerged as the supreme hit of the mid-fifties; it was recorded by no less than seven non-Czechoslovak gramophone firms. By then, of course. MY FAIR LADY was already in the making (1956). HOP-PICKERS (1964), another "genuinely first" Czech musical, this time as a film, is represented on this record by reminiscences of its song and production numbers. ANNIE, GET YOUR GUN (1946) is the single musical in this selection which Karel Vlach has not presented as yet on the stage. Since Ethel Merman, the first performer of the title role, used to be said to possess a trumpet voice, it seems rather irreverent to supplant her with Vladimir Tymich's tenor sax, but . . . FINIAN'S RAINBOW (1947) has been at home in Europe for more than thirty years, including its biblical The Begat and the closing tune If This Isn't Love. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man is a tribute to the memorable SHOW BOAT (1927), allegedly the first musical ever (if there was, indeed, an ancestor of what the musical is like today), as well as to its intoxi-catingly lovely principal tune, with a key role in the plot, and one, incidentally, to combine in the most convincing manner perhaps since Dvorak's Largo (in the New World Symphony) Czech musicality (which Jerome Kern had inherited from his Czech mother) with Afro-American inspiration . . . The two musical films IF A THOUSAND CLARINETS (1965) and ROMANCE FOR A CROWN (1975) may be ten years apart, but they have an idea in common: to design leading roles for the most popular Czechoslovak singers and orchestras of their time. On the other hand, GO-LEM (1931) constitutes a flashback not only to the mannerism-style Prague of Rudolf II with its Golem Frankensteins, astrologers and alchemists, but also to the inter-war years of the 20th century when Prague's Liberated Theatre stage was already brewing a brew much similar to the style presented several years later by the musical, a genre which Europe failed to take note of until her eyes were opened by WEST SIDE STORY (1957). Like many other musical numbers, Maria (in addition to being a pure distillation of amorous feelings) amounts almost to a eulogy to the sound of human speech. There is no one better qualified than Felix Slovacek, with his philosophizing soprano sax, to tell us what it is all about. The final OKLAHOMA (1943) is another of the "guaranteed first" musicals, without which our album could not be complete.
Ivo Osolsobe
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