Passion

by Various Artists

Based on the 1981 Italian film Passione d'amore, Stephen Sondheim's multiple Tony Award-winning musical/chamber opera Passion follows a self-centered soldier, Giorgio (Michael Ball), whose idyllic happiness with a married woman, Clara (Helen Hobson), is interrupted by his transfer to another post. There, he meets Signora Fosca (Maria Friedman, best known these days for the video production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), a homely and ill woman who soon falls in love with Giorgio and pursues him relentlessly. Giorgio believes he would never leave the beautiful Clara, but he underestimates the power of Fosca's passion. "Loving you is not a choice, it's who I am," she tells him, in Sondheim's rich tapestry of a score that is less individual numbers than a constant flow of gorgeous melodies, dialogue, letters between the characters, and a group of soldiers that serves as a Greek chorus.

After a 1996 London revival, the same cast recorded the score live in concert at the BBC Hippodrome in 1997. Ball is perfectly cast as Giorgio, and Friedman and Hobson excel, even if they can't quite match Tony-winner Donna Murphy and Marin Mazzie of the original Broadway cast. It's almost a moot point, though, because the original Broadway cast recording is currently out of print (although a video version is available). So if you want Passion, this is your only option, and it's a good one. --David Horiuchi