Thomas Allen and Felicity Lott - If I Loved You (Part 2/2)

Sir Thomas Allen and Dame Felicity Lott sing the duet 'If I Loved You' from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, 'Carousel'.

Dame Felicity Lott, soprano
Sir Thomas Allen, baritone
Malcolm Martineau, piano

Wigmore Hall, London

18th July 2001

Category:

Music

Tags:

• thomas
• allen
• felicity
• lott
• malcolm
• martineau
• rodgers
• and
• hammerstein
• carousel
• if
• loved
• you

[a96agli]

I think this was probably wildly original when Rodgers and Hammerstein first composed Carousel; after that, everybody just copied them...

While I'm not crazy about Flott's accent here, as a whole this is great performance. And Thomas Allen singing If I loved you always makes my toes curl, kitchy or not ;D

[schweitzer006325]

Yes, unfortunately Flott's accent isn't too great here. I have another video of Valerie Masterson doing this duet with TA, who, accent-wise, is better and a little less forced.

'If I Loved You' is one of my favourite songs and though I've heard quite a few musical singers having a go at this, no one seems to quite match the sincerity of feeling that Allen does when he sings this. It's good too that he doesn't go overboard with the emotion...he strikes just the right balance.

[drtmuir]

@a96agli To you, of course. You even have to ask? ;)

[drtmuir]

PS Look at the page turner looking at Tom! LOL Another one bites the dust.

[drtmuir]

1. I love Flott, so don't take this the wrong way, but what accent is that she is attempting? I know American regional accents can be tricky-- I'd almost rather she didn't even try it, It's supposed to be a New England accent, BTW, and to be fair, even a lot of Americans don't get it right.

2. Despite all that-- OMG, they are too adorable (squealsquealsqueal)

[harryfaber]

Thoroughly enjoyable.

[katieboyd1]

such incredibly beautiful voices and lovely acting

[LilliVanessi]

*lol* Now I have tried my best to find Allen's wife in this clip, but I cannot see her. WHERE IS SHE??

[a96agli]

You can see the wife in this clip - she is the one I referred in my comment; an extremely beautiful woman. I have seen Allen live three times in past year or so, and she has been in the audience every time; once she sat right behind me, and other time came backstage to meet the people with him.

The 93 book is really nice, and I recently read the reprint, which extends to 1995, to Don Alfonso and Beckmesser, which were the big roles he took on right after the first print came out.

[schweitzer006325]

Lol, that is an amusing and interesting thought. I highly doubt whether anyone would not want to be sung to by him. I did read in his journal published in '93 that his wife often is in the audience for a premiere (and esp. when it's being filmed since he gets nervous in front of the camera - it certainly doesn't show though!) so he might be singing to her for all we know! Of course, I don't know whether she still does that. I just stick to my idea that he sings to the audience!

[a96agli]

I sometimes wonder who is he (or any singer for that matter) singing to? To himself? To Flott? To the audience? To that extremely beautiful woman in the audience you can see just at the end of this clip? To me? Wouldn't it be fun to have an opportunity to ask all these questions one time?