Will You Remember? A Celebration of MGM legends Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy
Will You Remember? A Celebration ofMGM legends Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy
Outstanding New Concert at NCH celebrating the Music of MGM legends Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and chronicling their 30 year off-screen love affair.
National Concert Hall, John Field Room
Prices: €16 (Concession: €14)
Booking on (01) 417 0000 / https://www.nch.ie/Online/Sandra-Oman-19Aug16
Sandra Oman, soprano
Simon Morgan, baritone
David Wray, piano
Sheldon Nulty Music presents “Will You Remember?” starring soprano Sandra Oman and baritone Simon Morgan in an unforgettable tribute in concert to Silver Screen Icons of the 1930s and 1940s, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. All of their famous songs, arias and duets – Will You Remember?; Rose Marie; Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life; Lover Come Back to Me; Wanting You; - will be interspersed with exclusive projected images and voiceover narrative chronicling their careers and turbulent private lives. The concert takes place in the John Field Room of the National Concert Hall, Dublin on Friday August 19th, 2016 at 1.05pm.
Thought by many to be on less than friendly terms off-screen, Jeanette and Nelson were, in fact, hopelessly in love over a period of more than 30 years. Their relationship, however, was thwarted at every turn by their boss at MGM, the powerful Louis B. Mayer, causing them both to enter unhappy marriages and ultimately led to their early deaths.
An incredibly talented group from different artistic walks have come together to collaborate on this piece of theatre. Decorated American author, Sharon Rich, wrote the biography of the MacDonald/Eddy tragic love story and has given her kind permission to use her biography as the basis for the Voice Over Narrative that punctuates the live vocal performances. The Voice Over will be read by Head of Opera, Oslo Opera Academy and the former Artistic Director of the Swedish Folkoperan in Stockholm, Mira Bartov (Sweden). The magnificent photographic stills that will be projected on to 3 large screens, to accompany this Voice Over, are kindly provided from the personal collections of MacDonald/Eddy experts and long-time collectors, Angela Ridolfo Messino and Katie Gardener (USA), some of which have never been previously published. The Musical Direction comes from Kent-born Pianist, Opera Repetiteur and Orchestral Arranger, David Wray (UK). Both soprano Sandra Oman (Irl) and baritone Simon Morgan (Irl) have established and respected careers in the classical/opera industry and are both Number One selling recording artists on iTunes.
In the history of the Silver Screen, MacDonald and Eddy would rank among the greatest screen partnerships of the Golden Age of Cinema. The most successful team in musical history, their 8 movie collaborations between 1935 and 1942 almost single-handedly lifted their studio, MGM, out of a financial crisis and brought it back to profitability, thanks to the millions of dollars their movies amassed. In 1935, Nelson Eddy surpassed even “The King” himself, Clark Gable, as the male star receiving the largest volume of fan mail, with Jeanette MacDonald holding the female record. Eddy held the record as the highest paid singer in the world, only to be eventually surpassed by a certain Frank Sinatra. And yet their private lives were in constant turmoil. Madly in love, they wanted to marry but MGM Mogul Louis B. Mayer stepped in, terrified that marriage/divorce would destroy his money-spinning screen duo. Jeanette was manoeuvered by Mayer, and her mother, into marriage to actor Gene Raymond, and Eddy, in a drunken stupor, eloped to Vegas with Ann Franklin. Both marriages were disastrous. Eddy declared “I will go to my grave loving her”. Both stars died relatively young, within 2 years of each other.
A concert for all lovers of operetta and the Silver Screen!