Lerner & Loewe's "Camelot"




King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  Ah, such a romantic tale of Medieval England; it’s right up there with Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men.  And the maid Marion, of course.  Folk lore that Arthur Pendragon successfully led Britain’s ousting of the Saxon invaders harkens back to the 6th century, (as does my language, do you harken?)  

Somewhere in the 12th century Sir Lancelot and the Holy Grail make their appearance, just to get that Crusade connection into Arthurian lore.  

Some many centuries later, author T.H. White, in the year of our Lord 1958 published “The Sword in the Stone,” a fanciful spin on the legend that caught America’s attention.  

 “Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of all England.”  Masterful indeed.  Just to repeat myself.  

The Wizard Merlin, is a magical and masterful character, among a cast of magical and masterful characters who rose forthwith.  

Walt Disney recognized the appeal of this story, and this is where I come in.  Somewhere America, mid-60s, “The Sword in the Stone” animated musical appeared on the big screen and was brilliant. 

(Whoever’s embellishments on) Wart’s early life with a wizard of such caliber as Merlin was (I say again) brilliant.  Hogwarts, from whence your inspiration sprung, say your thanks.  

Disney did the young years wonderfully.  Imagining being a hawk or a tadpole is inspiring.  It wasn’t until much later, the adult part of the story, that I recognized the tragedy of the tale.  A love triangle, is there anything sadder?  

T.H. White told it well; he took the legend and spun a compelling story of love, betrayal, and ultimate loss in a lovers triangle. 

This was the first musical Terry saw as a child.  He remembers his mother taking him, on a big outing, maybe a Seattle showing?, at an early grade-school age. I envision him a young boy completely rapt in sword play scenes and fidgeting throughout less action-packed ones.  This isn’t much of a leap to imagine as the man sitting beside me this evening models similar behavior. 

And I’m just enjoying a glimpse of beef cake.  Beef cake who can seriously sing.  Nice.  And wears a cod piece.  I am partial to cod pieces – I mention this to Terry – in a totally non-sexist manner.  I get the big eyebrow thing in response.  Okay, maybe it was sexist. He hasn’t noticed. 

Yeah, right.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tastes like Chicken

Image
  Jim visited brother Dan in Palau mid 70s and came back with some wild stories of these gloriously beautiful tropical islands.  The ones that stuck with me are pretty much food related, go figure.  There was an open-air movie theatre in Peleliu filled with wooden benches for seating.  Rats were bold enough to scavenge food whenever, so movie viewers kept their feet up on the forward bench.   Hamburgers were served with a cabbage leaf for greenery, there being no iceberg lettuce on the island.  He met our friend Virginia there, she was maybe 13.  That girl took down fruit bats with a sling shot, a treat for her grandmother. They are a large bat species with a two-foot wingspan. She’d spot a roosting fruit bat hanging upside down from a tree branch, pop a small rock into the slingshot, eyeball the angle and let loose.  She had incredible aim.  She’d  nonchalantly balance in a squat to  husk a coconut wit...
Read more

Ethel strikes back

Image
  Grandma was a teacher and she drove the 18 miles from Powers to Myrtle Point every school day.  It’s a pretty drive on a narrow road that hugs the hillside high above the snaking south fork of the Coquille River, past high pastures and a few scattered houses. One day there went Ethel on her morning commute when she noticed “Howard Post” boldly painted on a large rock embedded in the hillside.  She kept going and there was another one.  Then another one. For a stretch of several miles young master Howard took it into his adolescent brain to spray paint his name on many, many exposed boulders in the hillside.   My grandmother’s solution to this embarrassment was to buy her own can of spray paint and on the way home that day, wearing a dress, (she wore only dresses then,) she stopped the car and over-painted every “Howard Post” she could reach.   It took many years for that paint to fade.  
Read more

Pasta ala Norcina from America's Test Kitchen

Image
I’m a fan of America’s Test Kitchen on PBS.   Any recipe from their site that I’ve cooked has turned out beautifully.   The great thing is they do all the testing and tweaking so all I have to do is follow the recipe.   At least the first time. A recipe for sausage and pasta recently aired.   I limit pasta in my diet these days, but every once in a while I’ll indulge.   And this recipe looked so good I made a mental note to cook if for Terry, being certain he’d love it. Then a friend who’d suffered a serious illness was released from the hospital, and here was my opportunity to give this a try.    I doubled the recipe, filled a large casserole for my friend, then one for Terry, and had enough left just for me, me, me.   And it is superb! Four fork review from all who were treated to this dish. It's not real pretty but the rosemary spiced sausage makes me forget that. Serves 6 White mushrooms may be substituted f...
Read more