The Green Bird was not so much a Broadway musical as a play with some background music and a few musical settings for bits of dialogue, and the original Broadway cast album of the show is not so much a conventional cast album as a recording of the 36-minute musical score. The Green Bird is an 18th century Italian fairy tale play in commedia dell'arte style, and the 1990s adaptation by director Julie Taymor was done in her familiar style, employing highly imaginative puppets and masks. In keeping with the flamboyance of the production,
Elliot Goldenthal's score is eclectic to the point of dilettantism, its 20 musical cues running through a dizzying number of styles from classical to jazz and blues with many experimental forays in between, what he calls in a program note "a freewheeling, personal style," and Taymor refers to as "a combination of diverse genres from many eras." Divorced from the theatrical work for which it was intended, this incidental music doesn't make much sense, but you may have fun confusing your friends by putting it on unannounced. ~ William Ruhlmann