The Light in the Piazza

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Composer Adam Guettel and actress Victoria Clark both won Tony Awards for this elegant, affecting Broadway hit, which also starred Kelli O’Hara and Matthew Morrison. The New York Times called the original cast album “sublime ... the most intensely romantic score of any Broadway musical since West Side Story.”

Description

“Guettel’s music and lyrics take nothing from the razzle-dazzle bargain basement of feeling; they represent, instead, a genuine expense of spirit…Guettel’s kind of talent cannot be denied. He shouldn’t change for Broadway; Broadway, if it is to survive as a creative theatrical force, should change for him.” —The New Yorker

Nonesuch Records releases the original cast album of Adam Guettel’s new musical, The Light in the Piazza. Craig Lucas wrote the show’s book and Bartlett Sherr directed the Broadway production, which opened at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater in April of 2005, following productions at Seattle’s Intiman and Chicago’s Goodman Theatres. TheWall Street Journal calls The Light in the Piazza “the best new musical to open in New York since Passion,” and calls Guettel “the most gifted and promising theater composer of his generation.” The show was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning for Best Original Score and Best Actress in a Musical, and eleven Drama Desk Awards, including Best Musical. The Light in the Piazza won two Outer Critics Circle Awards.

The Light in the Piazza, based on the novella of the same name by Elizabeth Spencer, is set in the summer of 1953 and tells the story of a mother and daughter traveling through Italy. While on vacation, the daughter has a romance with a handsome, high-spirited Florentine, despite the mother’s determined efforts to keep the two apart.

The cast of eighteen includes Michael Berresse, Sarah Uriarte Berry, Victoria Clark, Patti Cohenour, Mark Harelik, Matthew Morrison, Kelli O’Hara, and Joseph Siravo. The orchestration is by Ted Sperling and Adam Guettel, music direction by Ted Sperling, and musical staging by Jonathan Butterell.

Adam Guettel wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Floyd Collins (Nonesuch 1997), originally produced at Playwrights Horizons, and for Saturn Returns: A Concert, which was originally produced at the Public Theater and recorded by Nonesuch Records under the title Myths and Hymns. He wrote the music for the New York Theatre Workshop production of John Guare’s Lydie Breeze and collaborated with Guare on Love’s Fire for the Acting Company. Guettel scored the feature documentary, Arguing the World, and the CBS documentary Jack.  Four of his songs are featured on Audra McDonald’s recording Way Back To Paradise (Nonesuch 1998).

Light in the Piazza marks playwright Craig Lucas’ return to Lincoln Center Theater, where his play, God’s Heart, received its world premiere in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Lucas’ other plays include Reckless (revived earlier this season by the Manhattan Theatre Club), The Dying Gaul, Blue Window. His screenplays include adaptations The Secret Lives of Dentists, Longtime Companion and adaptations of his plays: Prelude to A Kiss, Reckless, Blue Window and, most recently, The Dying Gaul, which also marked his directorial debut and opened last month at the Sundance Film Festival.

Bartlett Sher, the artistic director of Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, won the Callaway Award for his direction of the Theatre For A New Audience (TFANA) production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which was the first American Shakespeare production to be seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company. His other New York productions include Moliere’s Don Juan, Harley Granville Barker’s Waste and Pericles for TFANA, Teresa Rybeck’s The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons, and Mourning Becomes Electra for the New York City Opera.

 

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced By Steven Epstein
Recorded April 25–26, at Right Track Recording, New York, NY
Assistant Engineers: Jason Stasium, Timmy Olmstead, Justin Shturtz, Chris Jennings
Editing Engineers: Richard King, Mike Peters; Mix Assistant: JB Park
Mastered by Todd Whitelock and Steven Epstein at Sony BMG Studios, New York, NY
Music Coordinator: Seymour Red Press
Music Copyist: Emily Grishman Music Preparation/Emily Grishman, Katharine Edmonds

All music and lyrics by Adam Guettel
Orchestrations by Ted Sperling and Adam Guettel
With additional orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin   

Design by Evan Gaffney Design
Photography by Joan Marcus
Cover: Victoria Clark, Kelli O’Hara, “Statues and Stories”

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

79829

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
53
ns_album_id
582
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
Adam Guettel
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Cast
Victoria Clark, vocals (2, 8, 9, 13-15, 18)
Kelli O’Hara, vocals (2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16)
Matthew Morrison, vocals (4, 6, 9-11, 13, 17)
Mark Harelik, vocals (4, 6, 11, 13, 15)
Patti Cohenour, vocals (11, 13)
Michael Berresse, vocals (11, 13)
Sarah Uriarte Berry, vocals (7, 11, 13)
Joseph Siravo, vocals (13)
Company vocals (13): Glenn Seven Allen, David Bonanno, David Burnham, Beau Gravitte, Laura Griffith, Prudence Wright Holmes, Jennifer Hughes, Relicity LaFortune, Catherine LaValle, Michel Moinot, Joseph Siravo

Orchestra
Ted Sperling, conductor
Dan Riddle, associate conductor, piano, celesta,
Violins: Christian Hebel, concertmaster; Sylvia D’Avanzo, Matthew Lehmann, Lisa Matricardi, James Tsao, Katherine Livolsi-Stern, Cenovia Cummins, Victor Schultz, Ann Lehmann, Joyce Hamman, Belinda Whitney, Mikeo Yajima, Shinwon Kim
Cellos: Peter Sachon, Ariane Lallemand, Robert Burkhart, Eugene Moye, Mairi Dorman
Victoria Drake, harp
Brian Cassier, Peter Donovan, basses
Richard Heckman, clarinet, English horn, oboe,
Gili Sharett, bassoon, contrabassoon
Willard Miller, Mark Sherman, percussion
Andrew Schwartz, guitar, mandolin
Adam Guettel, guitar (5, 17)

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597982923BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597982961
  • 79829

News & Reviews

  • The original cast album of Adam Guettel’s Broadway musical Days of Wine and Roses, with a book by Craig Lucas, starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, will be released on CD on May 17, following its recent digital release.  “Repeated listenings compound the amazement,” the New York Times says of Guettel’s work, which “has always offered that kind of challenge—initially leaving a feeling of: Beautiful, but wait, I need to hear it again—and those up for it have a way of coming away shining like Moses down from the Mount. The new score has the same effect.”

  • Days of Wine and Roses, which opened on Broadway last night to rave reviews, was featured on NPR's Morning Edition today. NPR contributor Jeff Lunden talks with composer Adam Guettel, script writer Craig Lucas, stars Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James, and director Matthew Greif about the creation of the musical. You can the piece here. All of the artists were also in a New York Times feature over the weekend. "I come off the stage feeling emotional, but elated and proud and breathless—literally breathless—from the freedom to be given a challenge like this and to be trusted with it … I’ve never been so passionate about anything in my life," O'Hara tells the Times. "Astonishing … superb," exclaims the New York Times Critic's Pick review. "Guettel’s anxious, spiky, sumptuous score … grabs hold of us and doesn’t let go."

Buy Now

  • About This Album

    “Guettel’s music and lyrics take nothing from the razzle-dazzle bargain basement of feeling; they represent, instead, a genuine expense of spirit…Guettel’s kind of talent cannot be denied. He shouldn’t change for Broadway; Broadway, if it is to survive as a creative theatrical force, should change for him.” —The New Yorker

    Nonesuch Records releases the original cast album of Adam Guettel’s new musical, The Light in the Piazza. Craig Lucas wrote the show’s book and Bartlett Sherr directed the Broadway production, which opened at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater in April of 2005, following productions at Seattle’s Intiman and Chicago’s Goodman Theatres. TheWall Street Journal calls The Light in the Piazza “the best new musical to open in New York since Passion,” and calls Guettel “the most gifted and promising theater composer of his generation.” The show was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning for Best Original Score and Best Actress in a Musical, and eleven Drama Desk Awards, including Best Musical. The Light in the Piazza won two Outer Critics Circle Awards.

    The Light in the Piazza, based on the novella of the same name by Elizabeth Spencer, is set in the summer of 1953 and tells the story of a mother and daughter traveling through Italy. While on vacation, the daughter has a romance with a handsome, high-spirited Florentine, despite the mother’s determined efforts to keep the two apart.

    The cast of eighteen includes Michael Berresse, Sarah Uriarte Berry, Victoria Clark, Patti Cohenour, Mark Harelik, Matthew Morrison, Kelli O’Hara, and Joseph Siravo. The orchestration is by Ted Sperling and Adam Guettel, music direction by Ted Sperling, and musical staging by Jonathan Butterell.

    Adam Guettel wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Floyd Collins (Nonesuch 1997), originally produced at Playwrights Horizons, and for Saturn Returns: A Concert, which was originally produced at the Public Theater and recorded by Nonesuch Records under the title Myths and Hymns. He wrote the music for the New York Theatre Workshop production of John Guare’s Lydie Breeze and collaborated with Guare on Love’s Fire for the Acting Company. Guettel scored the feature documentary, Arguing the World, and the CBS documentary Jack.  Four of his songs are featured on Audra McDonald’s recording Way Back To Paradise (Nonesuch 1998).

    Light in the Piazza marks playwright Craig Lucas’ return to Lincoln Center Theater, where his play, God’s Heart, received its world premiere in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Lucas’ other plays include Reckless (revived earlier this season by the Manhattan Theatre Club), The Dying Gaul, Blue Window. His screenplays include adaptations The Secret Lives of Dentists, Longtime Companion and adaptations of his plays: Prelude to A Kiss, Reckless, Blue Window and, most recently, The Dying Gaul, which also marked his directorial debut and opened last month at the Sundance Film Festival.

    Bartlett Sher, the artistic director of Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, won the Callaway Award for his direction of the Theatre For A New Audience (TFANA) production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which was the first American Shakespeare production to be seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company. His other New York productions include Moliere’s Don Juan, Harley Granville Barker’s Waste and Pericles for TFANA, Teresa Rybeck’s The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons, and Mourning Becomes Electra for the New York City Opera.

     

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Cast
    Victoria Clark, vocals (2, 8, 9, 13-15, 18)
    Kelli O’Hara, vocals (2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16)
    Matthew Morrison, vocals (4, 6, 9-11, 13, 17)
    Mark Harelik, vocals (4, 6, 11, 13, 15)
    Patti Cohenour, vocals (11, 13)
    Michael Berresse, vocals (11, 13)
    Sarah Uriarte Berry, vocals (7, 11, 13)
    Joseph Siravo, vocals (13)
    Company vocals (13): Glenn Seven Allen, David Bonanno, David Burnham, Beau Gravitte, Laura Griffith, Prudence Wright Holmes, Jennifer Hughes, Relicity LaFortune, Catherine LaValle, Michel Moinot, Joseph Siravo

    Orchestra
    Ted Sperling, conductor
    Dan Riddle, associate conductor, piano, celesta,
    Violins: Christian Hebel, concertmaster; Sylvia D’Avanzo, Matthew Lehmann, Lisa Matricardi, James Tsao, Katherine Livolsi-Stern, Cenovia Cummins, Victor Schultz, Ann Lehmann, Joyce Hamman, Belinda Whitney, Mikeo Yajima, Shinwon Kim
    Cellos: Peter Sachon, Ariane Lallemand, Robert Burkhart, Eugene Moye, Mairi Dorman
    Victoria Drake, harp
    Brian Cassier, Peter Donovan, basses
    Richard Heckman, clarinet, English horn, oboe,
    Gili Sharett, bassoon, contrabassoon
    Willard Miller, Mark Sherman, percussion
    Andrew Schwartz, guitar, mandolin
    Adam Guettel, guitar (5, 17)

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced By Steven Epstein
    Recorded April 25–26, at Right Track Recording, New York, NY
    Assistant Engineers: Jason Stasium, Timmy Olmstead, Justin Shturtz, Chris Jennings
    Editing Engineers: Richard King, Mike Peters; Mix Assistant: JB Park
    Mastered by Todd Whitelock and Steven Epstein at Sony BMG Studios, New York, NY
    Music Coordinator: Seymour Red Press
    Music Copyist: Emily Grishman Music Preparation/Emily Grishman, Katharine Edmonds

    All music and lyrics by Adam Guettel
    Orchestrations by Ted Sperling and Adam Guettel
    With additional orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin   

    Design by Evan Gaffney Design
    Photography by Joan Marcus
    Cover: Victoria Clark, Kelli O’Hara, “Statues and Stories”

    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz