REVIEWS, COMMENTS and PHOTOS from the 'KRISTINA ' Concert at THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL .April 14th 2010

Youtube Video of the Curtain Call on this link...


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From Showbizworks.com




22/04/2010 - RUSSELL WATSON BIG HIT AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL
Showbizworks represent Russell Watson for corporate events and on Wednesday 14th April he performed to a sell-out audience at the Royal Albert Hall.
 Russell Watson is recognised world wide as the UK's biggest selling classical artist of the 21st century and he
played the lead role of Karl Oskar in the hit opera "Kristina" by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba fame, and received much critical acclaim for his performance.
 The final number "Here I Am Again" received a full standing ovation from the Royal Albert Hall audience including Benny and Bjorn. The whole night was a triumph.

Kristina first premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York in September 2009 where Russell won rave reviews in The New York Times amongst other world press.


"Russell Watson is virile, sexy and in amazing voice" – Daily Express

The showstopper I'll Be Waiting There, expertly performed by Russell Watson and Helen Sjöholm – The Guardian

Russell certainly delivers his fair share of powerful moments - Music OMH

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From the London Evening Standard
April 15th


This is a collection of some of the nice comments about Russell from critics and others who went to see Kristina...

              Critics.........

A very serious complex first half gave me a headache concentrating on the lyrics which to untrained operatic ears proved to be a bit of a turn off. However Russell Watson outstanding, leading lady again fabulous.
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The INDEPENDANT
A better conductor than Paul Gemignani might have conveyed a better sense of development and wholeness but the voices soared when and where the material demanded it (which was often and earnestly): Russell Watson in more registers than any one voice should possess
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DAILY EXPRESS
Helen Sjoholm as Kristina is little short of amazing, coming over somewhere between Agnetha from Abba and Julie Andrews, albeit a bit beaten down by circumstances,
while Russell Watson is virile, sexy and in amazing voice.

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THE GUARDIAN
You hear how Ulvaeus and Andersson apply their distinct melodic sensibility to a vaguely operatic score – with variable success, as it turns out, although you can't knock the big showstopper I'll Be Waiting There, expertly performed by Russell Watson and Helen Sjöholm, who, like the rest of the cast, cope pretty manfully with a libretto you wouldn't inflict on your worst enemy
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WORDPRESS.com
Helen Sjöholm as Kristina sounds very much like Agnetha Fältskog, which I suppose is why she’s also the singer in Benny’s band. It’s not quite a musical theatre voice,and in duet with Russell Watson as her husband Karl Oskar it struggles to compete,
 but overall hers was a charming performance, suffused with a warmth that radiated asfar as our seats, right across the other side of the Hall.

I didn’t know, or had forgotten, that Russell Watson was in it, and as he started to sing for the first time
I thought gosh, I wonder who this is, he’s really good!

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                                                               Kristina fans..........

Finally Russel has really grown into the role. He finally had his own show stopping performance. His tears really got to me and I couldn't stop myself crying again. The poor lady next to me was in floods of tears, virtually sobbing. Her husband wasn't any better!

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Russell Watson was a surprise, too - a strong, clear and emotive performance as Karl Oskar. He was totally appropriate for the role.
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Helen, Russell, Kevin and Louise were on amazing form. All that and I got to sit in front of Benny and his family. Magical!
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Russell Watson sounds much better live and was the biggest surprise for me. His power and scale are not truly realised on CD. He seems to be enjoying the role more.
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Reading some of the comments about Russell, in my opinion he was excellent, I thought his voice was great and he gave a powerful and moving performance. Is fantastic in the role.

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A nice review here of the concert and Russell....

Helen Sjöholm as Kristina sounds very much like Agnetha Fältskog, which I suppose is why she’s also the singer in Benny’s band. It’s not quite a musical theatre voice,

and in duet with Russell Watson as her husband Karl Oskar it struggles to compete, but overall hers was a charming performance, suffused with a warmth that radiated as

far as our seats, right across the other side of the Hall.

I didn’t know, or had forgotten, that Russell Watson was in it, and as he started to sing for the first time I thought gosh, I wonder who this is, he’s really good! – so I had
a look at the programme and realised that this was not news.

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17th April
Review from This Is London


Review from The Times.



Review from the Independant...


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16th April.
A few of my screencaps.
Sandra.

 
             

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 Review from the EXPRESS.




Friday April 16,2010

The occasion is indeed an auspicious one, a historic one even: Kristina, an opera by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba based on the Emigrants novels by Wilhelm Moberg, performed in English in the UK for the first time ever, even though it’s been around in a much longer version since 1995.

Even so, is that any reason for the seemingly respectable audience filling the Royal Albert Hall to jump on their seats quite literally at the first sight of Benny taking his place in the audience?

It’s not as if the opera – though it comes over more Andrew Lloyd Webber than your actual opera – is that flashy an affair.

Telling the simple story of Kristina, a peasant woman, her husband and children and half the village making the perilous journey from famine-stricken Sweden to a new life in rural America in the 19th century, Mamma Mia! it most certainly is not, especially in this pared down concert version.

Instead it’s a lush symphonic affair with bits of folk songs woven in and only the vaguest flavour of Abba if you listen very carefully indeed. Helen Sjoholm as Kristina is little short of amazing, coming over somewhere between Agnetha from Abba and Julie Andrews, albeit a bit beaten down by circumstances,

while Russell Watson is virile, sexy and in amazing voice.

The second half, with our Swedes living out their Little House On The Prairie fantasies in deepest Minnesota and going through miscarriages, deaths from fever and the old village prostitute marrying an American preacher, is stopped by two particularly stirring numbers.

First, Gold Can Turn To Sand, where Kristina’s brother-in-law loses faith in the New World and promptly dies and then You Have To Be There, where Kristina seems to lose her faith in the God who has taken so much from her. It’s to Sjoholm’s credit that the sound of sobs almost drowned out her heartbreaking performance.

Once over, after a duet between the dying Kristina and her husband wrings every last tear, the audience gave up anything they’d been holding back and would still be there howling on their feet if the Royal Albert Hall hadn’t swept them out.

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From the GUARDIAN


You hear how Ulvaeus and Andersson apply their distinct melodic sensibility to a vaguely operatic score – with variable success, as it turns out, although you can't knock the big showstopper I'll Be Waiting There, expertly performed by Russell Watson and Helen Sjöholm, who, like the rest of the cast, cope pretty manfully with a libretto you wouldn't inflict on your worst enemy

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From Salfordonline.com.
Salford tenor stars in ABBA musical

by Mark Bright

Tens of thousands of people have already seen Russell Watson sing, but the Salford-born star is about to embark on a more challenging journey.

Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina from Duvemåla) a story of love, loss and family, and Watson's Puccini-style vocals mean this won't just be another Mamma Mia.

At Carnegie Hall in New York on 23 and 24 September 2009 Russell starred as one of the principal singers in the tale, which tells the story of a married couple, Kristina and Karl Oskar, who undertake a harrowing three-month voyage to the New World along with their children and other residents of their village.

He'll reprise the role of Karl-Oskar for the English world premiere of the musical, written by ABBA songwriters by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

He and his female lead Helen Sjöholm were praised by New York Times music critic Stephen Holden as having "first-rate poperetta voices, with Mr. Watson's Puccini-ready tenor the more operatic. Each brings down the house at least once."

Kristina från Duvemåla opens at the Royal Albert Hall tonight, 14 April 2010.
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15th April
Links for pictures from the Dress rehearsal.

http://www.life.com/search/?q0=Russell+Watson

http://topics.npr.org/photo/0cG84l05Au6PC

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SALFORD TENOR stars in ABBA musical

by Mark Bright

Tens of thousands of people have already seen Russell Watson sing, but the Salford-born star is about to embark on a more challenging journey.

Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina from Duvemåla) a story of love, loss and family, and Watson's Puccini-style vocals mean this won't just be another Mamma Mia.

At Carnegie Hall in New York on 23 and 24 September 2009 Russell starred as one of the principal singers in the tale, which tells the story of a married couple, Kristina and Karl Oskar, who undertake a harrowing three-month voyage to the New World along with their children and other residents of their village.

He'll reprise the role of Karl-Oskar for the English world premiere of the musical, written by ABBA songwriters by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

He and his female lead Helen Sjöholm were praised by New York Times music critic Stephen Holden as having "first-rate poperetta voices, with Mr. Watson's Puccini-ready tenor the more operatic. Each brings down the house at least once."

Kristina från Duvemåla opens at the Royal Albert Hall tonight, 14 April 2010.
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• Audio CD (5 April 2010)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Double CD

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FromThe LONDON THEATRE GUIDE.

RUSSELL WATSON is to appear in a one-off concert version of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus’s popular Swedish musical Kristina at the Royal Albert Hall 14th April
Kristina, by the former ABBA stars and writers of Chess, tells the story of one woman and her family’s struggle in Sweden and their subsequent emigration to America in search of a better life. 

The Swedish-language musical premiered in Sweden in 1995, with Swedish musical theatre star Helen Sjoholm in the title role. Sjoholm returns to the role for this UK premiere of Kristina with English lyrics
 by Les Misérables lyricist Herbert Kretzmer.

Watson, who plays Karl, is a hugely successful recording artist whose nine albums have earned him four Classical Brit Awards.

Watson and Sjoholm are joined by Broadway regulars Louise Pitre and Kevin Odekirk in this concert performance, which first played at New York’s Carnegie Hall last year. They are accompanied by a 50-piece
 symphony orchestra.

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KRISTINA  ..Carnegie Hall 2009



              

All the videos for Kristina that were removed from Utube can now be accessed on this link.


DEAD OF DARKNESS ...RUSSELL


WILD GRASS...RUSSELL

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26th March.
The track listing for the forthcoming KRISTINA CD. from Playbill.com

Live Carnegie Hall Recording of Kristina
The complete track listing for "Kristina at Carnegie Hall" follows:

Overture - American Theatre Orchestra, Paul Gemignani
Path Of Leaves And Needles - Helen Sjöholm
Where You Go I Go With You - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson, Claire Tendl, Ensemble
Stone Kingdom - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson
Down To The Sea - Kevin Odekirk
A Bad Harvest - Russell Watson, Helen Sjöholm, Madeleine Rose Yen, Ensemble
No! - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson, Kevin Odekirk
He's Our Pilot - David Hess, Ensemble
Never - Louise Pitre
Golden Wheatfields - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson, Claire Tendl
All Who Are Grieving - Ensemble
We Open Up The Gateways - Robert Ousley, Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson, Kevin Odekirk, Louise Pitre, David Hess, Ensemble
Peasants At Sea - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson, Ensemble
Lice - Helen Sjöholm, Louise Pitre, Joy Hermalyn, David Hess, Ensemble
In The Dead Of Darkness - Russell Watson
A Sunday In Battery Park - David Hess, Joy Hermalyn, Kevin Odekirk, Ensemble
Home - Helen Sjöholm, Claire Tendl, Madeleine Rose Yen, Josh Caggiano, Ensemble
American Man - Joy Hermalyn, Helen Sjöholm, Jessica Vosk, Louise Pitre, Walter Charles
Dreams Of Gold - Kevin Odekirk, Greg Stone, Russell Watson
Summer Rose - Helen Sjöholm, Ensemble
Emperors And Kings - Louise Pitre, Joy Hermalyn, David Hess, Russell Watson, Helen Sjöholm, Ensemble
Twilight Images Calling - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson
Queen Of The Prairie - Russell Watson, Claire Tendl, Madeleine Rose Yen, Josh Caggiano, Helen Sjöholm, David Hess, Joy Hermalyn, Raymond Jaramillo McLeod
Wild Grass - Raymond Jaramillo McLeod, Russell Watson, Ensemble
Gold Can Turn To Sand - Helen Sjöholm, Kevin Odekirk, Claire Tendl
Wildcat Money - Russell Watson, Ensemble
To The Sea - Kevin Odekirk
Miracle Of God - Louise Pitre, Helen Sjöholm
Down To The Waterside - Ensemble
Miscarriage - Russell Watson, Louise Pitre
You Have To Be There - Helen Sjöholm
Here I Am Again - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson
With Child Again - Helen Sjöholm, Ensemble
Rising From Myth And Legend - Ensemble
I'll Be Waiting There - Helen Sjöholm, Russell Watson

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The  Lyrics for WILD GRASS can be seen at the bottom of this page.

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There were lots of nice comments about Russell and his voice from critics and fans these are some of them....

NEW YORK TIMES

The lead singers, Helen Sjoholm, who played the title character in the original Swedish production, and Russell Watson, portrayed the show’s central married couple, Kristina and Karl Oskar, who undertake the harrowing three-month voyage to the New World along with children and other residents of their village. Both have first-rate poperetta voices, with Mr. Watson’s Puccini-ready tenor the more operatic. Each brings down the house at least once.

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 VARIETY.COM .......
Peaks amidst the three hours were many, including Pitre's Never and Watson's "In the Dead of Darkness";

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THEATRE MANIA
Watson, the super-successful British tenor, has a superb instrument -- robust when needed and ethereally lovely in its top notes -- that makes his music soar.

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TIME.COM
If any naughty folks last night recorded the show, they should immediately post some of its instant classics: Robert's devastating solo Gold Can Turn to Sand, the rollicking girl-group number American Man, the anthemish Summer Rose and a whole sheaf of romantic duets, the most memorable of which is Kristina's and Karl-Oskar's I'll Be Waiting There

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TALKIN'BROADWAY.COM

Not that there’s much wrong with the cast. Sjöholm does committed work as the stouthearted Kristina, singing beautifully through a towering songstack of ballads, belt tunes, and anthems pockmarked with unparalleled emoting potential.

Watson’s voice is even stronger, a commanding dramatic tenor that lends firm and necessary authority to a somewhat reluctant romantic lead that becomes a major transformative force.

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Blog
 http://everythingmusicals.com/everything_i_know_i_learn/2009/09/review-kristina-concert-at-carnegie-hall.html

George said...

One other thing I also would like to mention is the breathtaking QUALITY of the performers at the concert.
All four principles were simply stunning, and those in lesser roles were a smash too.

I saw Louise Pitre and Helen Sjoholm before and was hardly surprised at their brilliance throughout (I did expect to be blown away by them and I was), but Odekirk and especially Watson made me cry at the sheer talent they possess. Especially when you realize that enormously gifted Odekirk is pretty much unknown. I hope he will benefit mightily from this exposure.

Watson's pure strong voice so effortlessly transitions between operatic and pop, I could only marvel.

I hope that with an instrument like this he will move beyond his "people's tenor" trademark.

And the orchestra was so tight as if they rehearsed not a few days but much longer, a testament to the professionalism.

I must admit that I did cry in the end, but it was music and performances and abundance of highly talented people on the stage that moved me so much, not the story.

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6:22 AM Sep 24th from Twitterrific

Kristina. The most amazing musical event I have ever seen! Helen Sjöholm was simply OUTSTANDING!

& Russell Watson blew us away! Loved it!

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1st October.

There are photos from the Kristina concert on this link, many of them are good ones of Russell .

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Pictures from BROADWAY.COM.

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PLAYBILL .COM have 27 pictures of the concert on this link

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Pictures on this link are from ABBA-INTERMEZZO

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26th Sept

The Guardian , The Telegraph, The Mirror , The Northern Echo and other UK papers are all running with this article from the Press Assoc,

only a slight mention of Russell

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18th October

A review of 'KRISTINA' from the YTL community show news.(Kuala Lumpur)

Russell's Kristina Performance "Brings the house down" - NY Times, 26th Sept 09"

 

Russell Watson has just flown back from New York after performing the lead role of "Karl Oskar" in the Opera "Kristina" at the world famous Carnegie Hall. Kristina is the brainchild of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus formerly from Abba fame and more recently behind the smash hit Mamma Mia.

 

Russell was chosen for the role after visiting Benny and Bjorn in Stockholm earlier this year. The original search to cast Karl Oskar took a mammoth 6 months in the US last year and many workshops. It was a difficult role to cast as the vocal demands require a wide range and unfortunately nobody was able to meet the criteria. A spokesperson for the show said "We searched far and wide for a Karl Oskar, and found no one with the vocal range to suit the role, that is until Russell came along."

 

Russell was offered the role after his brief meeting with Benny and Bjorn in Stockholm.

 

Russell's performance to quote Stephen Holden from The New York Times, "Both have first-rate poperetta voices, with Mr. Watson's Puccini-ready tenor the more operatic. He brings down the house at least once."

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26th Sept..
This review from the UK .....MusicOMH (musicOMH is a diverse and completely independent reviews and features publication, covering music, films and theatre in London, the UK and beyond. . Editorially it occupies a space somewhere between broadsheet culture supplements and specialist music weeklies.)
Has a good mention for Russell.............


Kristina: A Concert Event Carnegie Hall, New York, 23 September - 24 September 2009

If there's one word to describe Kristina, the theatrical concert that took place on September 23 and 24 at Carnegie Hall, it's "ambitious." Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (the two B's of Swedish pop group ABBA), the piece was originally presented in Sweden in the native language and is making its English-language debut with lyrics cowritten by Les Miserables translator Herbert Kretzmer.

In the title role, Helen Sjöholm impresses, her unique, crystalline voice hitting all the right notes. Though she's a bit old for the role she originated about fifteen years ago in Sweden, it was a genius idea to bring Ms. Sjöholm's experienced portrayal of the part along with the show to the United States. Her second act number, You Have To Be There, brought the house instantly to its feet even as the piece neared its end.
 As her husband Karl Oskar, British singer Russell Watson is similarly impressive, with a robust and vigorous voice.
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3.15am
From the NEW YORK TIMES

It is too big to put the full review but this is the bit that mentions Russell.

The lead singers, Helen Sjoholm, who played the title character in the original Swedish production, and Russell Watson, portrayed the
show’s central
 married couple, Kristina and Karl Oskar, who undertake the harrowing three-month voyage to the New World along with children and other residents
of their village
. Both have first-rate poperetta voices, with Mr. Watson’s Puccini-ready tenor the more operatic. Each brings down the house at least once.

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25th Sept.
From the UK Press assoc.

(UKPA) – 5 hours ago

Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus has brought another musical to New York.

The Mamma Mia! pair's epic musical Kristina - starring Russell Watson and Helen Sjoholm - was performed on Wednesday at Carnegie Hall, giving American

audiences a rare opportunity to see and hear a more classical side of the composers who formed one-half of Abba.

Making it more accessible to New Yorker theatregoers, this was the first-ever English-language production of the operatic, nearly three-hour piece, which was

written in Swedish and first performed in 1995.

The story is based on Vilhelm Moberg's The Emigrants, a classic of Swedish literature. It takes viewers on a family's odyssey from famine-stricken farms in Europe

to the promise and rigors of the American frontier.

This large-scale, concert production was performed by the American Theatre Orchestra, under the musical direction of conductor Paul Gemignani, and showcased
an impressive collection of singers

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This review from VARIETY.COM is too big to put it all here but there is a nice mention of Russell.......

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From THEATRE MANIA

Kristina

Russell Watson and Helen Sjoholm in Kristina (© Carol Rosegg)

Only time will tell if KRISTINA  Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson's overly lengthy if often beautiful pop opera about a group of 19th-century Swedes emigrating to America, will ever get a full-blown English language production. But even so, the show's current concert staging at Carnegie Hall (concluding tonight) might be the ideal format for those who want to experience this singular work.

For one thing, no commercial staging could accommodate the enormous American Theatre Orchestra, led by the brilliant Paul Gemignani, who bring out the full colors in the lush, string-heavy (and ballad-heavy) score -- which is periodically reminiscent of the pair's well-known musical Chess and only occasionally similar to their work for their supergroup ABBA. And one could hardly ask for better voices than the ones on stage, even if they don't always clearly enunciate all of the score's lyrics (translated into English by Herbert Kretzmer). The show's choral numbers, in particular, could easily have benefited from the use of supertitles.

The true challenge of Kristina, however, is that the story being told is episodic without being theatrically dramatic. Young Swedish couple Kristina (Helen Sjoholm) and Karl Oscar (Russell Watson) decide -- along with a small group of family and friends -- to go to America once famine hits their homeland. While lots of things "happen" to them, especially once they arrive in Minnesota, there's very little actual conflict. Moreover, no matter how much they're given to sing -- including an odd number about lice and a paean to a cast-iron stove -- all of the characters remain primarily two-dimensional.

Fortunately, the concert's cast is fully committed to delivering all they can. Sjoholm -- who originated the role of Kristina in Sweden (and who is singing the score for the first time in English) -- brings spunk and fire to the flinty yet steadfast Kristina. Her voice, mostly pure and sweet, is well suited to the role's demands, and she pulls out all the stops on her show-stopping second act number "You've Got to Be There." Watson, the super-successful British tenor, has a superb instrument -- robust when needed and ethereally lovely in its top notes -- that makes his music soar.

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Still, the standout performances are given by the little-known Kevin Oderkirk as Karl Oscar's restless younger brother, Robert, and Broadway (and former Mamma Mia!) star Louise Pitre as Ulrika, the reformed whore who goes from being Kristina's enemy to her best friend. Both performers combine passion with top-notch singing and acting, leaving audiences to wish they had more to do. Still, Pitre makes every second count in the blazing "Never," while Oderkirk's glorious renditions of the pretty "Down to the Sea," and "Gold to Sand" -- the show's most dramatic number -- remain with you after the show is over.

Running nearly three hours, Kristina feels excessive, with much that can be excised with no loss of impact. But it's clearly a labor of love for its creators, and might well find an audience willing to love it back.


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24th Sept

A Review from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Scandinavian song-writing duo that gave us "Mamma Mia!" has brought another creation to New York, and it couldn't be more different from the pop musical that became a smash hit in London, on Broadway and around the world.

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Part of the review from TIME.COM






last night, at Carnegie Hall, played before the blondest, most Scandinavian audience likely to be assembled in New York City, except, perhaps, for a Prairie Home Companion performance. And what a treat they got; there's nothing like the spectacle of nearly a hundred singers and musicians gathered on a famous stage to present a work that deserves to be renowned. Sung in English, and trimmed by about an hour (losing a few favorite numbers in the process), this Kristina may not have the sweep and sonic magnificence of the album; but it's still likely to be the definitive reading of the new version.

Set in the 1840s and '50s, it focuses on the lives of Kristina (powerfully sung here, as on the original album and on the Stockholm stage, by Helen Sjoholm) and her husband Karl-Oskar (Russell Watson, the Salford factory worker known in England as "the people's tenor"). Nearly starved by crop failures in their native Smaland, Karl-Oskar and his brother Robert (Kevin Oderkirk, who earned vigorous shouts with each of his numbers) resolve to leave the land their ancestors have farmed for a thousand years and go to America. Despite Kristina's severe reservations, that's what they do, accompanied by Ulrika (Louise Pitre, the original Broadway mother in Mamma Mia!), the town whore who becomes Kristina's closest friend. In Minnesota, life is nearly as harsh; the characters are still buffeted and bullied by fate. Essentially stoic, passive characters, Kristina and the others triumph by surviving — by outliving their plagues and tribulations— until they don't. Endurance is heroism.

Jumping from one crisis to another, Kristina may prove not only too epic but too episodic — and far too dour — for a Broadway audience. The age of the serious musicals, your Les Miz and Phantom of the Opera, ended abruptly when The Producers and Mamma Mia! showed that theatergoers prefererd perky, gaudy, old-fashioned musical comedies. But Kristina should find a constituency among those who love hearing wonderful music sung by gifted voices.

If any naughty folks last night recorded the show, they should immediately post some of its instant classics: Robert's devastating solo Gold Can Turn to Sand, the rollicking girl-group number American Man, the anthemish Summer Rose and a whole sheaf of romantic duets, the most memorable of which is Kristina's and Karl-Oskar's I'll Be Waiting There. Not to bring the show to the stage, or at least in a CD or DVD or this concert, would deprive audiences of the most luscious score since... well, Chess.

About a decade ago, one promoter offered ABBA a billion dollars, easily turned down, for a reunion tour. But the group was nowhere near as notable for its on-stage electricity, for the performing verve and preposterous costumes, as for its songs. Now that Kristina seems headed for a fuller life in the West End or on Broadway, ABBA fans — all lovers of irresistible tunes that lodge in your internal iTunes and never go away — may have one more chance to tell Benny and Bjorn, "Thank you for the music."

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24th Sept 4.50pm       A REVIEW OF KRISTINA from TalkinBroadway.com



Kristina Theatre Review by Mathew Murray

A contemporary musical with enough lush grandeur to fill Carnegie Hall - and I mean with sweeping sound, not with bodies - is rare enough. That its creators are the same duo responsible for Chess and Mamma Mia! only makes the achievement more stunning. Yes, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus have accomplished the unthinkable with Kristina, their 1995 Swedish hit tuner (originally titled Kristina fran Duvemala) that’s finally arrived in New York and is playing at Carnegie Hall for one more performance tonight. It’s a musical you don’t just want to listen to: During the better portions of its score - of which there are many - you feel you have to.

As played by the upliftingly enormous American Theatre Orchestra under Paul Gemignani’s baton, Andersson’s music captures everything that’s richest about this adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s “The Emigrants” novels. Establishing in awkwardly hopeful melody the challenges and persecutions of people in mid-19th-century Sweden and the frontier spirit they adopted when a group of them resettled in the United States, Andersson finds an appropriately oversized lyricism that borders on opera but remains strictly within the unapologetically staid world of European musical theatre. This approach doesn’t guarantee a great deal of warmth, or any real sense of the unique character of America in the 1850s, but it’s a fine approximation that convinces you it at least understands what’s going on in its own language.

Except for a few uncomfortably extended electric chords betraying Andersson’s 1970s rock roots, the score behaves itself, trusting most in a hefty coterie of strings to communicate its romantic and Romantic ideals about life in the Old and New World. Songs that summon up visions of sun-parched farms, unsteady church services, roiling sea voyages, and personal devastation in the Promised Land don’t skimp on the size or scope needed to make even the smallest emotions feel like the beginning and end of the world.

So three solid, American cheers must go to Andersson for ensuring that the music conveys so much. And it’s a good thing it does: Without it, this show would say nothing at all.

As dramatically inert as it is aurally sumptuous, the Carnegie Hall Kristina is in every way other than its music typical of the late-1980s/early-1990s “pop opera” that won’t go away no matter how many titles - like A Tale of Two Cities, The Pirate Queen, or for that matter Chess - bomb. Alternately incomprehensible and irrelevant, with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer (working from Ulvaeus’s originals) that speak all the music’s lofty sentiments in earth-chained language of no discernible consequence, this show is difficult to follow and impossible to care about.

The format of the genre is so inherently chilly and distant that only a few titles ever emerged from it in any real way - The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables (for which Kretzmer also did the lyrics), and Miss Saigon were the exceptions, not the rules. It’s when faced with something like this that you see what so many of the other entries lacked: an intimacy of character, of situation, that draws you in and lets you experience the world through other eyes, much the way the most significant plays and musicals of the past always have.

Here you’re never given that chance. Director Lars Rudolsson uses scrolling projections to set the scenes (“Some of their names can still be read on crumbling tombstones...”), and someone will occasionally step out of the action to gloss over several months of happenings to make sure you understand what sets up the next song. But it’s those in-between moments that encourage character, comedy, and bewitchment. Without them, you get a stagy, stodgy, and usually boring treatment of a story that - so the music insists - should be anything but.

The tale focuses on four of the emigrating Swedes: Kristina (Helen Sjöholm, who originated the role at the Malmo Music Theatre 14 years ago); her husband, Karl Oskar (Russell Watson); his brother, Robert (Kevin Odekirk); and Kristina’s prostitute-turned-enemy-turned-friend, Ulrika (Louise Pitre, who was the original star of Mamma Mia! on Broadway). But aside from sing, they don’t do much. Kristina gives birth several times, once with poor results, and sings the obligatorily 11-o’clock “I need you” number, “You Have to Be There” (which received a standing ovation Wednesday night). Karl Oskar gets a stove. Robert goes off searching for gold and returns with yellow fever. Ulrika falls in love with the local preacher, Jackson (Walter Charles), probably because he inspires the only halfway-comic number, “American Man.” And they all have a building party early in the second act.

The writers assume that these people’s struggles are, by dint of their existence, exciting enough to be narrated through without loss of audience involvement. (My favorite example: the drive-by explanation of death by oatmeal.) That’s simply not the case. Perhaps Swedish theatregoers, who are likely as well versed in the original novels as Americans are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, didn’t need the context because they knew it already, and were able to assimilate the action as a “greatest hits” concert based on Moberg’s ideas. Things still work on that level, but that doesn’t make this effective musical storytelling for the rest of the world.

Not that there’s much wrong with the cast. Sjöholm does committed work as the stouthearted Kristina, singing beautifully through a towering songstack of ballads, belt tunes, and anthems pockmarked with unparalleled emoting potential.

Watson’s voice is even stronger, a commanding dramatic tenor that lends firm and necessary authority to a somewhat reluctant romantic lead that becomes a major transformative force. Odekirk is spectacular as the tragic Robert, wrenching every conceivable drop of pathos from his inch-deep character. 

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Pitre does her limited best with an uninteresting role that wouldn’t make it easy for anyone, though one does hope most actresses wouldn’t make the narration more interesting than the character.

It’s not entirely her fault. No one has anything to play in the traditional sense, so all the performances are just variations of the same basic quest to spin gold from fishing wire. That’s why the music is so crucial: It lends the material the gravitas it sorely needs it just to stay afloat. That the show does, for two hours and 45 minutes, without even the threat of a collapse despite its featherweight foundation, is the finest imaginable testament to the strength of Andersson’s compositions. They’re real, they’re fantastical, and they’re theatrical, all at once - an elemental part of what the best music theatre should be.

They’re not enough to make everything work theatrically, or even suggest that a fully staged production might fare better. (Connecting songs or book scenes not heard at Carnegie Hall, those might help; the inevitable thinning out of the ensemble and orchestra definitely wouldn’t.) They are, however, sufficiently thrilling to restore your faith in humanity’s ability to recognize and write theatre music that adheres to grandiose classical principles without mocking or apologizing. Andersson’s work is so big, so thoroughly conceived, and so varied in style, tempo, and color that it often feels more like a symphony than a musical. Of course, making it one would mean jettisoning the specific story treatment and lyrics, losses most shows couldn’t weather. But its music is so good that Kristina could be even more powerful as a result.

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Lyrics for WILD GRASS (Translated)......


.... VILDGRÄS                                                  WILD GRASS

 (Karl Oskar                                                  (Karl Oskar)

 Här fanns bara vildgräs                            Here was only wild grass,
 fanns bara bete                                      Only pastures existed
 åt hjort och rådjur och älg                        for deer, reddeer and elk
 Nu växer här vete,                                   Now wheat grows here 
 och korn och potatis                               and corn and potatoes
 all tänkbar gröda                                    All conceivable crops
 Den vildmark som jag har plöjt                The wild land that I have plowed
 den ger oss föda                                    It gives us food enough
 nog har jag gjort rätt för                          I have done right by 
    landet som jag röjt                              the land that I cleared.

 En enahanda låt, en enda ton                 A similar son, a single note
 en ödslig klang av                                  A deserted sound of crowbar 
    mot sten på Korpanoem                      against stone in Korpamoen, 
 den ekar i mej än om tröstlöshet             it echoes in me like hopelessness. 
 Om sänt som varje                                A certain truth which every 
    fattigbonde vet                                    poor farmer knows, 
 Stenen låg där som ett                           the stones lay there as a mockery

 (Karl Oskar och nybyggarna:)                        (Karl Oskar & the Settlers)
 Stenen kom man aldig från                     One never gets away from stones

 (Karl Oskar:)                                                (Karl Oskar)
 Och när jag slet för                                And when I pulled out 
    några magra strån                              some meager straws, 
 Då låg all jorden här i väntan på               then all the earth laid here in wait for
 sin brukare, till ingens                            it's user. Of no use,
    nytta låg den så                                  it lay there
 - all orörd, fruktbar mark -                       all untouched, fertile land.  
    sen skapelsen                                   since the creations
 tills så en dag där kom en man              so that one day a man came 
 som var beredd                                     who was prepared 
 att bruka den                                         to use it.

 (nybyggarna:)                                            (the Settlers)
 Här fanns bara vildgräs                          Here was only wild grass, 
 fanns bara bete                                    Only pastures existed
 åt hjort och rådjur och älg                      for deer, reddeer and elk
 Nu växer här vete.                                 Now wheat grows here 
 korn, råg och potatis                            corn, rye and potatoes
 all tänkbar gröda                                  all conceivable crops.
 Den vildmark som vi har röjt                  The wild land that you have plowed, 
 med mod och med möda                      with courage and labor, 
 nu ger den oss föda                              it gives us food

 (Karl Oskar:)                                             (Karl Oskar)
 Jag synade mitt arv, min ödeslott          I saw my inheritance, my fate...
 beströdd med sten och skärv                strewn with stones and rocks 
    var gården som jag fått                      was the farm I had. 
 Min far han gav sin rygg och sina ben    My father, he gave his back and legs 
 At denna tysta, gråa, grymma sten       to those silent, gray, cruel stones
 När jag började förstå                          Then I began to understand

 (nybyggarna:)                                            (Settlers)
 att det aldrig skulle gå                         ...that it never would be able...

 (Karl Oskar:)                                             ( Karl Oskar)
 att klä och föda oss                             to clothe and feed us 
    och våra små                                   and our little ones
 Då låg all jorden i orördhet                    then all the earth here lay untouched,
 I väntan låg den djupa myllan                in wait lay the deep soil,
    vart och fet                                       black and rich
 Den hade legat så sen skapelsen         It had lain so since the creation
 dat året då där kom en man                  that years later a man came
    på eftersommaren                             in the late summer
 och började att bruka den                     and began to use it

 (nybyggarna:)                                                (Settlers)
 Här fanns bara vildgräs                         Here was only wild grass
 nu står här gröda                                 now here stands crops

 (Karl Oskar och nybyggarna:)                   (Karl Oskar & the Settlers)
 Nog är det rättvist att jag                      Surely it is just, that I 
 får lön för min möda                             get a reward from my labor.
 Jag bröt mina åkrar                              I broke my fields 
 och körde plogen                                 and drove the plow.
 Och varje stork i vårt hus                      And every log in our house,
 den högg jag i skogen                          I cut in the forest.
 Att sträva och slita                              To strive and labor 
 en dag i sänder                                   every single day, 
 det är en settlares lott                          it is a settler's lot.
 och jag har röjt och bräckt                    And I have cleared and broken 
    och plöjt och sått                             and plowed and seeded 
 och skördat och tröskat                      and harvested and threshed 
 mer än de flesta                                 more than most, 
 jag har gjort rätt för min mark               I have done right by my land.
 jag gjorde mitt bästa                           I did my best.
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