MGM's adaptation of Rita Johnson Young's romantic operetta is given the "royal treatment" in Robert Z. Leonard's lengthy production of 132 minutes.
Cast in the lead roles are non other than Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, that "magical pair" of singing actors who perfectly compliment each other in both drama and song.
In a casting coup, John Barrymore plays the pivotal role of jealous suitor/husband Nicolai. Barrymore really gets into the skin of his character and offers a penetrating, indelible performance.
Adrian's costumes and Cedric Gibbons' art direction add rich luster to a production which had Irving Thalberg's personal executive producer backing.
Operatic excerpts of Delibes, Donizetti, Gounod, Meyerbeer and others are well sung. Yet it was Music Director Herbert Stothart's decision to adapt themes from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony as a basis for the climatic opera scene that was problematic. Couldn't he find any excerpt from a genuine opera without concocting "faux material" from an original orchestral score? (While it works dramatically, how much more effective might it have been using bona fide source material.)
A bonus is the employment of the Don Cossack Chorus (a popular ensemble from the 30s and 40s) in opera sequences. Eddy and MacDonald are in fine voice and they warble everything from Sigmund Romberg to Stephen Foster.
What do rock-generation viewers think of this today? It'd be interesting to get their reaction, so strikingly different does this music seem from the current mode.
As for seniors, well, there's little doubt they'll be in heaven with "Maytime" -- and might even use up some tissue during it's tearful finale.
Cast in the lead roles are non other than Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, that "magical pair" of singing actors who perfectly compliment each other in both drama and song.
In a casting coup, John Barrymore plays the pivotal role of jealous suitor/husband Nicolai. Barrymore really gets into the skin of his character and offers a penetrating, indelible performance.
Adrian's costumes and Cedric Gibbons' art direction add rich luster to a production which had Irving Thalberg's personal executive producer backing.
Operatic excerpts of Delibes, Donizetti, Gounod, Meyerbeer and others are well sung. Yet it was Music Director Herbert Stothart's decision to adapt themes from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony as a basis for the climatic opera scene that was problematic. Couldn't he find any excerpt from a genuine opera without concocting "faux material" from an original orchestral score? (While it works dramatically, how much more effective might it have been using bona fide source material.)
A bonus is the employment of the Don Cossack Chorus (a popular ensemble from the 30s and 40s) in opera sequences. Eddy and MacDonald are in fine voice and they warble everything from Sigmund Romberg to Stephen Foster.
What do rock-generation viewers think of this today? It'd be interesting to get their reaction, so strikingly different does this music seem from the current mode.
As for seniors, well, there's little doubt they'll be in heaven with "Maytime" -- and might even use up some tissue during it's tearful finale.