Dearest Enemy

Product Description The composer perhaps most influenced by Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern was Richard Rodgers (1902-1979), who acknowledged his affection for Kern's shows with Bolton and Wodehouse. His score for Dearest Enemy, his first Broadway success, is clearly influenced by Kern's graceful way with a good melody. Dearest Enemy, written with lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895 1943) and book writer Herbert Fields (1897-1958) opened on September 18, 1925. It displays the young composer's synthesis of Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg and other writers of the day. Rodgers' work with Lorenz Hart covered a wide range, from the sophisticated innocence of Babes in Arms (1937) to adaptations of Mark Twain, Shakespeare and the sleazy showbiz world of John O'Hara's Pal Joey (1940). Dearest Enemy is a romantic score by the composer who would write Carousel twenty years later and shows how the third generation of composers for Broadway helped to make the transition from operetta to musical theater. Review "This is another top-flight production by New World Records... Would that this endeavor was taken as a model for revivals... The voices are spot-on. There are no weak entries in the singer roster or anywhere else for that matter. Delightful." --Musicweb-International"Rodgers and Hart's DEAREST ENEMY opened in 1925, long before original Broadway cast albums became realities. Now, 88 eighty-eight years later, we finally have a recording of the entire score. Marvelous as it is (especially when Kim Criswell sings), don t miss the enthralling 11 pages of notes by Larry Moore, credited with 'reconstruction and additional orchestrations,' and historian Sean O'Donoghue. They let you know what a miracle this two-disc set is." --Peter Filichia"Orchestrator Larry Moore... is mighty good at unearthing, reassembling and providing the missing pieces of vintage musical comedies... This new recording, I imagine, couldn't be bettered." --Playbill