The Bridges of Madison County, adapted from the 1992 best-selling novel, boasts one of the most resonant, profound and gorgeous scores in recent memory. Tony-nominated composer Jason Robert Brown has created a ravishing and rapturous score of thrilling songs and brilliant orchestrations that rise to the echelon of Rodgers and Hammerstein classics. Kelli O’Hara as Francesca, a lonely Italian housewife living in 1960s Iowa, is vocally exquisite and passionate in songs like “What Do You Call a Man Like That?” Steven Pasquale is Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic photographer, perfectly paired with O’Hara with whom Francesca embarks on a life-changing four-day romance. Pasquale’s voice, in songs like “It All Fades Away” is astonishing and powerful, challenging the barrier of sound, yet equally lush and hypnotic with tenderness and truth. When he and O’Hara come together in duet as in the epic “One Second and a Million Miles”, the fortitude of their performances is beguiling and captivating. The Bridges of Madison County cast album preserves this ground-breaking and magnetic musical for all to relive and believe in its passion.
[rating:4]
-Kyle Poluyko
