On Thursday, December 5, 2013, NBC broadcasted a live production of the musical "The Sound of Music" starring Carrie Underwood as Maria. I'd never seen a live production of "The Sound of Music" before. I had only seen the movie starring Julie Andrews. We have a DVD of the movie that has the option to play the words across the screen for singing karaoke. The live (on the east coast) broadcast started at 8:00 pm on December 5. I watched the first two hours. My wife stayed up until the end. A couple of days before the broadcast, the soundtrack was made available on Freegal allowing us to download it over a couple of weeks.
The soundtrack CD consists of 22 tracks, though some are reprises and others are instrumentals. The first, "Preludium," is the nuns singing in Latin something that would be appropriate in a church. It is an a cappella and consists of the Abbess, played by Audra McDonald singing and the other nuns responding, at least for the first minute. Then they all sing together starting somber and going into a more upbeat Alleluia. The next track is the very familiar "The Sound of Music" sung by Carrie Underwood as Maria. It has a quieter prelude that wasn't as familiar to me. Underwood sings well, able to get very loud for the final verse. The next song, "Maria," is sung by the nuns. It has the memorable chorus "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" Even the nuns who are complaining don't sound mean.
The next song, "My Favorite Things," is actually sung in the Abbess' office rather than with the children as in the movie. It is sung by Maria and the Abbess, an interesting twist. The song is now sometimes sung during Christmastime. Maria sings the next song, "Do-Re-Mi," with the children. The do sound like children though some of them are older than their characters' ages. I think the song in the movie is a longer version. The next song is sung by Ariane Rinehart and Michael Campayno as Liesl and Rolf. They combine their singing with dancing during the instrumental parts of the song. They do sound like teenagers despite being as old as college students.
Maria sings the next sing, "The Lonely Goatherd," in the bedroom to calm the children during the thunderstorm. In the movie, the song for this scene is "My Favorite Things." The next song, "How Can Love Survive?" was new to me. It does not appear in the movie making it a "deeper rock" song from the musical. It's a rather humorous song sung by Laura Benanti as Baroness Elsa Schrader and Christian Borle as Max Dettweiler. Borle used to be married to Sutton Foster a.k.a. "Bunhead." The two characters seem to have greater roles in the musical than in the movie. The next song is a reprise of "The Sound of Music" sung by the children and Stephen Moyer as Captain Von Trapp. The next two songs are instrumentals: "The Grand Waltz" and "Ländler." The waltz is to the tune of "My Favorite Things" while "Ländler" sounds a bit like "The Lonely Goatherd." The children sing the next song, "So Long, Farewell." The setting and tone change greatly for the next song, "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" sung by Audra McDonald as the Abbess. She can sing just as powerfully as Carrie Underwood. The next song, "No Way to Stop It," is also not in the movie, another "deeper rock" song. There's a third "deeper rock" song, "I Have Confidence," that is in the movie but not in the production. "No Way to Stop It" is sung by the Baroness, Dettweiler, and Captain Von Trapp. It kind of makes light of an otherwise serious situation. The next song, the romantic "Something Good," is in the movie but not in the original musical.
The next song is for Maria's wedding, "Processional & Maria (The Wedding)." It starts with the nuns singing in Latin but soon segues into the chorus of "Maria." The question "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" is oddly appropriate during the wedding. The next song is a reprise of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" sung by Maria and Liesl. It has a different prelude and different words. The next song by Maria and the children is a reprise of "Do-Re-Mi" with slightly different harmonies. It is sung at the concert in the musical along with the next song, "Edelweiss" sung by Captain Von Trapp and the children. Following is a reprise of "So Long, Farewell" sung by the entire Von Trapp family.
The last song during a scene of the musical is "Finale Ultimo: Climb Ev'ry Mountain" by the Abbess and nuns. The last track is "End Credits," an overture starting with "The Sound of Music" followed by "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things," and ending with "The Sound of Music."
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