Peter Coggins wrote:

> This is definitely false advertising, which seems to be rife in that
> era (just look in the treasury!) and I imagine would not happen today
> (??)  Well, perhaps not so blatantly anyway.

Did you catch the "Spice Girls" traveling show?  It's all pre-recorded
including the band.  They mime the words.

The Radio City Music Hall shows use pre-recorded vocal tracks.  The
orchestra is live, but the lead chairs wear earphones so they can hear
the click track.

Then there's "Millie/Vanillie" (I'm *sure* I messed up the spelling
on that one, but I never paid much attention to the group).  They were
pure mime -- the vocals were done by others.

Leonard Bernstein used orchestrators on his last opera "A Quiet Place"
(I copied the parts).  The story goes (from a colleague copyist) that
during the "Mass" rehearsals he was seen to turn to one of the
arrangers and shout, "This needs to be more dramatic here."

From another copyist who was there: During the rehearsals for a Richard
Rodgers show, Robert Russell Bennett had slaved all night producing a
new dance number. During the first reading, Rodgers was bitching and
moaning about it -- "It's awful, too 'this', too 'that'." -- Then
Bennett looked at him and said: "Well, it's your music, Dick."

Then there is the wonderful story about "A famous pianist" (I never
learned who it was) who produced a new record, almost 2-bars at a time.
When it was all pieced together and he and the engineer were hearing
it, he exclaimed "Gosh, doesn't that sound great!", to which the
engineer replied "Yes, don't you wish you could play like that."

It's nothing new.

George Bogatko
gbogatko@intac.com
http://www.intac.com/~gbogatko