Vanity Fair Soundtrack CD

Out-of-print in the US. Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama), one of America's most popular stars unites with Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), one of the world's most acclaimed directors, to bring to the screen one of the greatest female characters ever created. The new film version of the classic novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray centers on the beautiful, funny, passionate & calculating Rebecca "Becky" Sharp. Becky, with a fine education but no inheritance to grant her security in 19th century British society, is bound & determined to be a success. Upon graduation she first works as a tutor, but seeing that the profession will lead only to degradation & low standing, she sets about utilizing her charm & attractiveness to climb the social ladder. The society she is battling is a rigid one, though, & it will take skill, luck & cleverness to achieve the social respect she so desires. Focus Features presents Vanity Fair opening September 1 at theaters nationwide (est. 800 screens). The Decca soundtrack will be released on August 31 & features original music composed by Mychael Danna (Monsoon Wedding) as well as the new song "She Walks In Beauty" performed by Scandinavian sensation Sissel, which plays over the opening credits.

Composer: Mychael Danna.
Personnel: Mychael Danna (piano); Shankar Mahadevan, Richa Sharma (vocals); Tony Hinnigan (bass flute); David McGuinness (piano, fortepiano); Joe Ayoub (bass guitar); V. Selvaganesh (percussion).
Audio Mixer: Brad Haehnel.
Recording information: Henry Wood Hall, London, England.
Editor: Jennifer Dunnington.
Arranger: David McGuinness.
William Makepeace Thackeray's satire Vanity Fair (first published in magazine installments, 1874-78) is a "Novel Without a Hero," as its subtitle proclaims, but it is not without a villain who has her reasons: Becky Sharp is a young woman lacking a fortune or a position in British society in the first half of the 19th century and is forced to make her way on her wits while happily unencumbered by scruples or morals. She is, in Thackeray's view, the ideal person in a world full of hypocrisy and materialism. In a contemporary world she is scarcely less so. Director Mira Nair might have attempted a modern version for her film adaptation, but she chose instead to go back to the original setting and cast Reese Witherspoon as Sharp. That compels composer Mychael Danna to write music in the style of the day, which means orchestral scores with classical and romantic antecedents, as well as chamber music. She sets poems by Lord Byron and Alfred, Lord Tennyson to tunes and has them sung by Sissel and Custer LaRue, respectively. She references Beethoven and Haydn, and even flirts anachronistically with Tchaikovsky when she gets to the battle of Waterloo. There isn't much suggestion of Thackeray's social criticism, at least in the music; the composer seems to have concentrated on matching the scenery and the costumes. Toward the end, there are a couple of Indian songs, "El Salaam," by Hakim, and "Gori Re," sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Richa Sharma, that come as a surprise and seem out of place. ~ William Ruhlmann