Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Nelson, Emily Skinner, Brent Carver, Chad Kimball - My Life with Albertine (2003 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

David Hurst's CD Review

My Life With Albertine
on PS Classics
Musical Direction by Charles Prince
Review by David Hurst
Last March, Playwrights Horizons took a bold chance with a small chamber musical called My Life With Albertine with book and lyrics by Richard Nelson and a score by Ricky Ian Gordon. Based on the Albertine sections of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, it was clearly going to be a hard sell and, indeed, it struggled to find an audience receiving mixed to negative reviews even though it boasted a stellar cast that included Brent Carver, Kelli O'Hara, Chad Kimball, Donna Lynne Champlin and Emily Skinner. Wisely, PS Classics preserved Gordon's lush and haunting score with the resulting recording revealing gorgeous melodies and astonishing singing. Granted, it's not a conventional musical and it takes a little work to fully invest yourself in Gordon's music but it's worth the effort and smaller, regional companies will undoubtedly stage their own productions thanks to PS Classics exceptional disc.
November 7, 2008

Gordon Spencer's Pittsburgh Magazine Review

Ricky Ian Gordon

My Life with Albertine

ps classics



Gordon writes beautiful music.

About a year ago the composer/lyricist's life intersected again with CMU's College of Fine Arts . The 1980 grad was there because his life had such significance that he received an alumnus award. Other theatre alums came too, Ted Danson and Rob Marshall. But you probably know Gordon's name less.

He's got major credits, especially for vocal music, operas, operettas and song collections involving such artists as Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw and Audra McDonald. And he often gravitates to setting poetry.

Back in 2002 he wrote a musical featuring poetry by Langston Hughes, Only Heaven (likewise on ps classics.) It played way off-Broadway, Dayton , Ohio . Last year this show opened in New York 's actual off-Broadway but ran for less than a month. Thank goodness both scores can be heard by all of us. Each is worth the visit.

Again, as with Hughes, an eloquent word-artist is evoked, Marcel Proust. My Life with Albertine evokes his Albertine Disparue from 1925. Within the setting of Paris 1919, the score has the delicacy and grace you'd expect for the source, the period, the place. Impressions of Debussy, Satie and Poulenc waft through the gentle air. Fragrances of waltzes, polkas, schottisches come and go. So too do suggestions of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. Bien sur.

The 12 member cast includes Brent Carver, best known as multi-award winner for his role in Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman. Actually the cast outnumbers the instrumental ensemble's seven pieces. But the collective sound has the perfect, impeccable, discreet resonance that belongs with such a work.

Perhaps it was too fragile for sensation-seeking New York audiences. At home, if you listen by candlelight savoring wine and perhaps a madeleine, you'll savor many degrees of taste.

Gordon Spencer

Pittsburgh Magazine
November 3, 2008

Beautiful and Challenging

This wasn't a commercial sucess, in fact few people have heard of it. While it's not for everyone Ricky Ian Gordon's musical based on sections of Proust's "Rememberence of Things Past" is a hidden gem especially for fans of Sondheim's "Sundays In the Park With George". Like "Sundays", "Albertine" is about the relationship between the artist and the muse. In this case an older Proust recalling his early love affair with the enigmatic Albertine. Marcel's relationship with Albertine is revealed as a play within a play as his older self looks on.

Most of the musical numbers have a sense of sadness and longing to them as a reflection of fact that Marcel and Albertine never make a connection in life: it is in art, and in Proust's rememberece that the connection exists. But songs such as "The Different Albertines", "Lullaby", or "Talk About the Weather" have a deep sadness and a grasping quality while the more upbeat numbers like "Balbac By the Sea" and "The Ferret Song" have an almost mocking quality.

Kelli O'Hara is wonderful as Albertine, a character whom we only see through the eyes of Marcel. As a result there is something ephemeral about her- we never see the real Albertine only the different ideas that Marcel has about who she is. O'Hara's clear soprano reveals the girlish Albertine, the sensous libertine, and the confused woman. Many people will know O'Hara as Clara in the OBC of "The Light in the Piazza". We hear shades of Clara's innocence and childishness in the early Albertine, but then the prism shifts and we see a different Albertine and a different aspect of O'Hara's performance.

If your tastes run strictly towards big splashy commercial musicals (which I enjoy as well)this is not for you. But if you're one of those people who constantly complains that there is nothing new in theater, this is for you. March 1, 2006

Brilliant!

I am a big fan of the so-called "saviours of musical theatre" or Post-Sondheimian or modern musical or whatever you call them composers like Michael John LaChiusa, Jason Robert Brown, Jeanine Tesori, Andrew Lippa and my all-time favourite, Adam Guettel, whom I worship. But on my constant search for these composers, I found Ricky Ian Gordon here on amazon.com and I listened to the 30-minute song previews of Bright Eyed Joy and just from hearing those little sections, I knew I had to get one of his CDs. I couldn't get my hands on Bright Eyed Joy but I grabbed My Life With Albertine instead and I'm sooooooo glad I did. However, I must say for anyone considering this purchase that this score is not for everyone. At first, I was a bit unsure but after a few more times listening to it over and over, I was able to appreciate and adore it. But in no way do I think this musical is for anyone who loves the common showtune crap that has plagued Broadway for decades (ex. Andrew Lloyd Webber...yuck!). But for others, Gordon is an amazing, unique and intricate composer that creates melodies that stick in my head all day long. Also, I really enjoy the amazing performances on this CD like Kelli O'Hara, Brent Carver, Chad Kimball, Donna Lynne Champlin (I love her lullaby) and my favourite, Emily Skinner's I Want You is in a word, awesome. Gordon offers some interesting songs such as Balbec-by-the-Sea which almost seems like a mockery of cheesy showtunes with the except of the dream-like segment, "Purple light beneath a curtain". As well as the charming Ferret Song, the beautiful But What I Say and Carver's wonderful Song of Solitude. While, I Need Me a Girl and The Street remind me of Oliver's Oom-Pah Pah and Who Will Buy?. And who could forget the powerful exchange within The Letters. I will cherish this score and I really really really hope Gordon writes another musical for our listening pleasure! February 20, 2006

Solidarity with Eric Glover!

I rarely make decisions about whether or not to see a show or a movie, read a book or listen to a CD based on critical response, but sadly, I made one fatal error-I skipped "My Life with Albertine", Ricky Ian Gordon and Richard Nelson's beautiful adaptation of the Albertine sections of Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" at Playwright's Horizon, simply because it got mostly negative reviews. To this day, almost two years later, I kick myself every time I listen to the cast album.

Brent Carver is chilling as Proust, and Chad Kimball is very good as Young Marcel. Kelli O'Hara is a real find as Albertine. Her "If It Is True" is one of the best musical theatre compositions this side of Sondheim. Uberdiva Emily Skinner stuns as Mlle. Lea, a sassy lesbian chanteuse. Ever since we saw "Side Show" in 1997, I've had a major crush on her, and my wife has hated her guts (just kidding!). The rest of the cast is also splendid.

As the title of my review suggests, I agree 100% with Eric Glover, soon to be musical theatre critic extraordinaire. Anybody who can't see the beauty in this marvelous show is not only deaf, but blind. January 15, 2005

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