in the mou-Mitts -e j ,-Bv BENNETT LAW : Star is Born was the culmi- Anation of Judy Garland’s screen career. In a filmog- .2 raphy studded with a host of indeli- - ble screen moments — singing “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of 02 (a song she propelled to the top spot on the NPR list of the ’ l00greatest musical achievements of the 20th century), the stunning “Get-Happy” number that Louis B. Mayer ordered tacked onto the end of the middling Summer Stock, and her definitive rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” from Meet Me in St. Louis, to name , afew— one towers above all the rest. Garland’s rendition of “The Man that Got Away” is a breathtaking display of muscular talent, power, and authority. Garland is simply stunning. Her , mesmerizing performance is sup- ported by director George Cukor’s decision not to cut away from her . during the entire number. The per- formance is recorded in one take: there is not a single film edit the » entire way through. The sheer bravado of Garland’s performance — . and Cukor’s confidence in her abili- W10 grip an audience —’ is thrilling every time you watch it. The question in consider- ing the new 2004 release of a restored version of the A Star is Born soundtrack on CD is, does the thrill survive the transfer? The answer, unfortunately, is iio. However bad the recording is — and because many of the original recordings have been lost, portions of this soundtrack are not in stereo, ‘ 1‘ and even copies of worn acetate v~ recordings are included ~ the reason for this likely lies as much with _ Garland as with the inferior record- ing. . f _ ‘Judy Garland was in the truly unique position for an artist of her stature of never having released gffieats Coherent studio album. 5’ major jazz and pop singers of L the 20th century — Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and . Ba - ‘bra Streisand — released scores . °f magnificent albums. But with a ‘land, remove her concert record- ings (at Carnegie Hall, the Palace, and the Palladium) from your CD collection and what you’re left with is — well, do you have any.other Garland albums? There is a flatness to Garland’s recordings apart from those brilliant concerts. Some spark in Garland didn’t happen without that audience. And that flatness mars the new material included on this soundtrack. A Star is Born famously suffered a controversial 30-minute gutting after its premiere in 1954. In 1983, historian/archivist Ron Haver ransacked the Warner vaults and restored the picture as best he could to its original edit, sometimes run- ning dialogue and scoring over stills projected on the screen, as the origi- nal footage has been lost forever. The newly re-released soundtrack includes much from these 30 min- utes, including two complete musi- cal numbers sung by Garland (“Here’s What I’m Here For” and “Lose that Long Face”) and a host of orchestral portions of the_ score that were excised from the film in theatrical release. Theseadditions, however, are uninteresting — the new songs are just not good songs, and they are not captivatingly per- formed. The only other Garland performance new to this CD is from a wom acetate recording held by Michael Feinstein of “The Trinidad Coconut Oil Shampoo Commercial.” The CD liner notes refer to “the poor sound quality” of this entry, and that’s being gener- ous. All that said, this is now the definitive version of this sound- track, and for some Garland fans that will be enough. But for those of The Star That Got Away us who are more discriminating in our appreciation of Judy Garland, the better route may be to purchase the DVD of the expanded film (which thankfully has been selected for protection and preservation by the Library of Congress and The National Film Registry). To really enjoy what made this film and Garland so wonderful, drop it in the DVD player and skip ahead to “The Man that Got Away.” Fifty years after its release, it still thrills. West Side Story Is HOT! Also newly released is a re-mas- tered version of the soundtrack to West Side Story. Tom and I com- pared the 1992 CD re-issue track- by-track against this re-mastered 2004 version, and I have to tell you — run to the store to buy it. Push old ladies out of your way if you have to! I would not have believed this, but the 2004 recording is light years better than the version you have in your CD collection. All of the sound is brighter, clearer, warmer, and deep- er. The strings that open the “Dance at the Gym” are so clear and strong, now, that you hear lines that are vir- tually unheard on the earlier record- ing. Balance is restored when more than one voice is singing, in songs like “America” and the “Quartet,” so it sounds like the singers are all in the same room, rather than on different soundstages. The improvements — heard throughout the soundtrack — are most striking in the more deli- cate numbers, like “Tonight,” “Somewhere,” and “Maria.” The clarity of the sound makes these highly emotional sequences more immediate and so much more com- pelling than any previous recording. This transformation is sensational, making what was already a favorite soundtrack recording of one of the greatest shows in the American musical canon far better. V Bennett Law enjoys his Broadway _ soundtrack CD collection at home in Bethel. 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