Notice that he only joins in when she dictates "that doesn't mean I love you". Throughout this musical there are so many clever moments and constructions, both musically and in the text. It is heartbreaking.
This is one of those songs that once you hear you cannot forget. It'll play in the back of your mind. Then, you'll find yourself on TH-cam playing it over and over again. It's one of those interpretations so powerful it'll leave you in awe. Stephen Sondheim and Donna Murphy created a masterpiece that, in my opinion, is unmatched expression of love. The depth and meaning of each and every word at that point in the musical is just mind boggling. I'm privileged to be alive to see and hear this wonderful interpretation. Thank you Donna Murphy for sharing your gift.
Gawd! How can you not love Passion when you have such beautiful voices interpreting his work! Donna Murphy is still my definitive Fosca after all these years.
Masterful songwriting and acting. This is one of Sondheim's finest songs and Donna Murphy...this has to be among the greatest Broadway performances. She is bringing so much rapture to that number, but you still believe she's an ailing woman.
IMO, one of Sondheim's very best songs (and that's saying a lot). I'm kind of surprised it's not better known and performed more often (though I'd probably change the last line to "and should you leave tomorrow, your love will stay with me", if I were performing it independently from the show).
I agree - I knew the music slightly and then saw the London production in 1996. It was the most astonishingly moving thing I had seen. It felt like an emotional earthquake and I cried from the beginning. I could hardly get up from my seat at the end. It still affects me profoundly.
By the way, assuming this is the way this number is staged, it's incredibly difficult to project your voice and extend those notes with consistent pitch and power from a semi-prone position like this. This sure is not the body position voice teachers reccomend, when trying to belt out a song on a live stage. There is no way this would have worked without modern amplification methods. That Murphy can do this at all , is pretty amazing.
she is dictating a letter to herself, the letter she wishes giorgio could write to her. (he does not love her and she is obsessed with him) she dictates it to giorgio.
I just heard about this musical and looked it up on Wikipedia, the story seems very moving. Basically she is sick and dying and obsessed with him and he keeps rejecting her and then later on he realizes he loves her.
It's Fatal Attraction set to music. She just wears him down and he capitulates after he loses the love of his life. I admire this show but there's a reason many don't like it. The premise is hard to digest.
@@richardmayora1289 it's a brilliant show. To clarify, he doesn't lose Clara he lets her go. it's an important difference and essential to the plot. I feel like it's easier to suspend your disbelief if you look at it this way: I've always imagined it, especially after watching this recording a lot, that he doesn't really love Fosca as much as he loves Clara when he decides to let her go and stop seeing her, but he breaks off Clara because he desperately wants to experience the deep, powerful and clearly beyond passionate love that she is almost attacking him with, rather than the "arrangement" of love he feels he's in with Clara. To him it's not real anymore, and Fosca really did get into his head without him probably being as aware of how it was affecting his romantic feelings. Clara saying he's changed is certainly true. We see this show through Giorgio's eyes remember, not Clara's or Fosca's. Then in that moment when he tells her no one has ever loved him as much as she does, and how brave and powerful the love was (because he'll never get the chance to tell her again) he may not have even intended to sleep with her, but that's when he truly realizes that his feelings for her are genuine out of his subconsious bursts all these feelings and he knows he's deeply in love with her, and when he says he loves her for the first time it's really him realizing it and embracing it... incredibly moving and makes the final scene absolutely heart wrenching to experience.
Notice that he only joins in when she dictates "that doesn't mean I love you". Throughout this musical there are so many clever moments and constructions, both musically and in the text. It is heartbreaking.
This is one of those songs that once you hear you cannot forget. It'll play in the back of your mind. Then, you'll find yourself on TH-cam playing it over and over again. It's one of those interpretations so powerful it'll leave you in awe. Stephen Sondheim and Donna Murphy created a masterpiece that, in my opinion, is unmatched expression of love. The depth and meaning of each and every word at that point in the musical is just mind boggling. I'm privileged to be alive to see and hear this wonderful interpretation. Thank you Donna Murphy for sharing your gift.
She is an actress worthy of being in the Olympus of the best actors who ever lived.
Gawd! How can you not love Passion when you have such beautiful voices interpreting his work! Donna Murphy is still my definitive Fosca after all these years.
1:15 that low note destroyed me... what a perfection
This is one of the most perfect and moving experiences I have ever had in a musical production... Donna Murphy is masterful!
donna murphy is electrifying. unbelievable.
Masterful songwriting and acting. This is one of Sondheim's finest songs and Donna Murphy...this has to be among the greatest Broadway performances. She is bringing so much rapture to that number, but you still believe she's an ailing woman.
Oy! Her voice reaches into my chest and rips out my heart! The only other person that has ever done that is Adele. Haunting.
Nothing is left unsaid in the sentiment of this song...
IMO, one of Sondheim's very best songs (and that's saying a lot). I'm kind of surprised it's not better known and performed more often (though I'd probably change the last line to "and should you leave tomorrow, your love will stay with me", if I were performing it independently from the show).
I agree - I knew the music slightly and then saw the London production in 1996. It was the most astonishingly moving thing I had seen. It felt like an emotional earthquake and I cried from the beginning. I could hardly get up from my seat at the end. It still affects me profoundly.
By the way, assuming this is the way this number is staged, it's incredibly difficult to project your voice and extend those notes with consistent pitch and power from a semi-prone position like this. This sure is not the body position voice teachers reccomend, when trying to belt out a song on a live stage. There is no way this would have worked without modern amplification methods. That Murphy can do this at all , is pretty amazing.
she is dictating a letter to herself, the letter she wishes giorgio could write to her. (he does not love her and she is obsessed with him) she dictates it to giorgio.
i have never heard this song before what is it about?
angelofmusic1294 well..... listen to the lyrics and think about it.
I just heard about this musical and looked it up on Wikipedia, the story seems very moving. Basically she is sick and dying and obsessed with him and he keeps rejecting her and then later on he realizes he loves her.
It's Fatal Attraction set to music. She just wears him down and he capitulates after he loses the love of his life. I admire this show but there's a reason many don't like it. The premise is hard to digest.
@@richardmayora1289 it's a brilliant show. To clarify, he doesn't lose Clara he lets her go. it's an important difference and essential to the plot. I feel like it's easier to suspend your disbelief if you look at it this way: I've always imagined it, especially after watching this recording a lot, that he doesn't really love Fosca as much as he loves Clara when he decides to let her go and stop seeing her, but he breaks off Clara because he desperately wants to experience the deep, powerful and clearly beyond passionate love that she is almost attacking him with, rather than the "arrangement" of love he feels he's in with Clara. To him it's not real anymore, and Fosca really did get into his head without him probably being as aware of how it was affecting his romantic feelings. Clara saying he's changed is certainly true. We see this show through Giorgio's eyes remember, not Clara's or Fosca's. Then in that moment when he tells her no one has ever loved him as much as she does, and how brave and powerful the love was (because he'll never get the chance to tell her again) he may not have even intended to sleep with her, but that's when he truly realizes that his feelings for her are genuine out of his subconsious bursts all these feelings and he knows he's deeply in love with her, and when he says he loves her for the first time it's really him realizing it and embracing it... incredibly moving and makes the final scene absolutely heart wrenching to experience.
@@richardmayora1289 Your interpretation of the show, like that of so many others, is completely off-base.