Stephen Sondheim, Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie - Passion (1994 Original Broadway Cast)

Based on the Italian movie Passione d'amore, Stephen Sondheim's Passion is a story of obsessive love. Giorgio (Jere Shea), a soldier, and Clara (Marin Mazzie), a woman with a husband and child, are deeply in love, but their idyllic happiness is disrupted when Giorgio is transferred to another post. Here, he meets Signora Fosca (Donna Murphy), a homely and ill woman who is the cousin of the regiment's commanding officer. Fosca soon falls in love with Giorgio and pursues him relentlessly, saying "Loving you is not a choice / It's who I am." He is repulsed and resists her advances, but eventually, he succumbs to the power of her love.

Rather than a succession of individual songs strung together by dialogue, Sondheim's score is a constant flow of gorgeous music. (The original theater program listed no individual songs.) The plot is conveyed by song, some dialogue, letters between the characters, and a group of soldiers that serves as a Greek chorus. The result is more of a chamber opera than a conventional musical. Passion won Tonys for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book of 1994, and Murphy also won a Tony for her powerful performance as Fosca. Mazzie is in glorious voice as Clara, and Shea brings a pretty voice and a wooden personality to Giorgio. --David Horiuchi Amazon.com

The CD is damaged

I bought 3 cds from amazon and was happy that I received them days earlier and excited to listen to all of them, the first one I opened was Passion. To my great disappointment, when I played this recording, half of the tracks sounded like the cd was scratched. Tried it on to other players and it's the same, while the other two cds I bought with Passion seemed perfectly fine. May 17, 2008

didn't play

received the cd in a cracked case which is always irritating. But when the cd didn't play, it was time to start shopping locally again. February 21, 2007

Love Without Reason

This is my favorite Sondheim musical. For me that's a big statement, but this musical is beyond brilliant. Based on a 19th century Italian novel that was later made into a film, the dark nature of this story might alienate some listeners at first. We open on a scene where Giorgio, a handsome young soldier is bidding farewell to his beautiful mistress, Clara- he has been sent to a remote outpost. They are young and in love but Clara is married. Still they are hopeful for their future. When Giorgio arrives at his new location he finds a remote, provincial town where his Colonel lives with his cousin Fosca, a repulsive, terminally ill woman. Fosca falls hopelessly in love with Giorgio and the love triange makes up the crux of the plot.

Many listeners may have a hard time understanding why Giorgio's affections turn from the beautiful young (albeit married) Clara to the sickly Fosca, but the lyrics and the score weave such a spell that you are caught up in it. Love here is not necessarily a happy thing. Yes, the opening song, a duet sung by Giorgio and Clara, is an ode to the joy of being in love, but Giorgio's idea of love progresses to something darker and deeper as he comes to know Fosca more and more. As Clara attempts to schedule her affair with Giorgio around her husband, Giorgio arrives at a conclusion that his feelings were something else:

Love isn't something scheduled in advance
Not something guarenteed
You need
For for fear it may pass you by
You have to take a chance
You can't just try it out
What's love unless it's unconditional?
Love doesn't give a damn about tomorrow and neither do I!

He comes to know his feelings for Clara as "Love within reason/ that isn't love". At the same time Fosca is literally staking him, which at first he resents and later relents to an idea of:

Love without reason
Love without mercy
Love without pride or shame
Love unconcerned with being returned
No wisedom, no judgement, no caution no blame

It is Fosca that loves him with this completeness, and he can't help but return it.

Many of the songs are letters written from one character to another and that stucture takes some getting used to. In fact it's hard to isolate individual songs here. Each one flows into the next to create the effect of a unified whole. At the end all the characters sing bits of each song in the show as Giorgio reads Fosca's final letter to him they come together in a musical climax before fading out, leaving only Giorgio and Fosca softly singing "your love will live in me"

Marin Mazzie is a gorgeous Clara who's voice shimmers in a luminious way. As Giorgio Jere Shea sounds fine but falls rather short emotionally. He hits all the notes but with little feeling (Michael Ball of the London cast is far better, I think). However as the doomed, dark Fosca Donna Murphy gives one of the most stunning performances I've ever heard. Her understated performance is devistating. Her voice is perfectly suited to the scare and we have one of those all too rare perfect combinations of actor and material.


December 15, 2006

I have got two defective Passion CD!!

I ordered a Passion CD but when I tried to play on all my players (Computer, Bose) it would "screw-up" on the first 8 or 9 tracks. I returned and Amazon quickly replaced. But when I the second CD it also did the same thing. I returned the CD and Amazon would not send a replacement due the fact that all may be defective. They did refund my money. Hopefully the manufacturer will get this fixed. July 10, 2006

Goregous Operetta

If you're a fan of regular book musicals, this one is not for you!!! Passion is an operetta style love triangle that is complex, poignant, and beautiful. Stephen Sondheim's brillaint score ties the entrie musical together, which again helps him keep his genius status. The clever weaving of songs, scenes, and, most interestingly, letters, make for a great cast album.

As for performances, it's the females who own this show. Marin Mazzie is as glorious as ever as Clara (she's even better in Ragtime), and Tony-winner Donna Murphy brings all of the emotion forward in her portrayal of Fosca.

For those who are used to the usual Sondheim, this one may dissapoint. Others, however, will love this opera of love. March 26, 2006

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