MAN WHO CRIED (OST)

Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Surprisingly, the music was the impetus for the film, The Man Who Cried. In her eloquent liner notes (SONY Classical, SONY Music Soundtrax), film and music producer, Sally Potter (Orlando, The Tango Lesson) describes the relationship of the extraordinary music captured on this soundtrack CD and the movie it spawned. "A film can start from an image, a word, a feeling, or a sound. In this instance, the original impulse came from music. The intention was to find a way of telling the story where music was carrying emotional and spiritual truth with as much force as the characters."

And so, this seemingly eclectic collection of diverse music of various ethnicities is bound together by a common human spiritual and emotional thread. The music is the pure expression of the human soul and each selection captures the essence of the people and places from which it belongs. Unlike a soundtrack from a blockbuster movie, such as Titanic, in which the music evokes specific scenes and plot twists from the movie itself, the music on The Man Who Cried soundtrack speaks for itself. It can be appreciated and enjoyed without ever having seen the film.

Potter explains that she was first drawn to an instrumental gypsy arrangement of a melody called "Gloomy Sunday." This haunting melody can be traced back to Eastern European Jewish history. The gypsy arrangement combines both pathos and celebration. Potter's research led her to the group, Taraf de Ha￯douks. While attending her first Taraf concert, Potter was amazed to hear a performance with the Kronos Quartet of the very tune that had begun her musical quest, "Gloomy Sunday." She immediately asked the arranger, Olvaldo Golijov, to write the score to her new movie and Taraf to perform in the film. The Kronos Quartet agreed to play on the soundtrack.

One of the most difficult tasks regarding the music in the film was to find singers who matched the bodies of the actors. After hearing Salvatore Licitra sing the glorious aria, "Je Crois Entendre Encore," by Georges Bizet, he was signed for the project. The vocalist/violinist, Iva Bittov￡, was recommended by the arranger, and she sings the heart rendering "Dido's Lament," from Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. However, with accompaniment by Taraf de Ha￯douks, this famous aria is seen in a very different light, twisting away from the poignant purity of Purcell's original aria to a harshness that comes from loss of innocence. The Labeque sisters, Katia and Marielle, appear in a pivotal scene in the film, accompanying Salvatore Licitra in Bizet's "Je Crois Entendre Encore."

By Perri M. Zimmerman