Jane Eyre original cast recording

I don't quite know how to describe the school of composition that this score seems to fall into. While there are songs, there aren't melodies. It's more like--what's the more fleshed out version of recitative secco from opera? There are very short leit-motives over repeating accompanimental patterns, like a ritornella. Sometimes the leit-motives combine to give the hint of a structure, but really most of Jane Eyre feels like unsatisfying movie underscoring.

A couple of times I did think there was the hint of something better to come, only to be disappointed. The first duet between Jane and Rochester has potential, but when the same style and structure are presented in their second duet a couple of numbers later, it's mockingly bad. The fact that the "figure" of Mrs. Rochester appears, ghostlike, to make this duet a trio must have lead to laughter from the audience.

The pastiche operetta number for Blanche Ingram "The Finer Things" has some potential, too, but only in the wordless cadenzas, not when the lyrics are present. And speaking of lyrics, well I would need an abacus to count the cloying similes and metaphors.

I'm amazed to learn that this show actually ran for more than 200 performances. It lasted as long as that? Composer Paul Gordon has yet to have a follow-up on Broadway. Book adapter and co-lyricist John Caird also directed this show, but fortunately for him, he had struck gold earlier in his career by adapting and directing the mega-hit Les Miserables.

Jane Eyre

Music by Paul Gordon
Book by John Caird
Lyrics by Paul Gordon and John Caird
Original cast album recording in 2000
Cast: Marla Schaffel, James Barbour, Elizabeth DeGrazia