Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack

Disc: 1 1. A Cinema in Buenos Aires 2. Requiem for Evita 3. Oh What a Circus 4. On This Night of a Thousand Stars 5. Eva and Magaldi/Eva Beware of the City 6. Buenos Aires 7. Another Suitcase in Another Hall 8. Goodnight and Thank You 9. The Lady's Got Potential 10. Charity Concert/The Art of the Possible 11. I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You 12. Hello and Goodbye 13. Peron's Latest Flame 14. New Argentina Disc: 2 1. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada 1 2. Don't Cry for Me Argentina 3. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada 2 4. High Flying, Adored 5. Rainbow High 6. Rainbow Tour 7. The Actress Hasn't Learned the Lines (You'd Like to Hear) 8. And the Money Kept Rolling (In and Out) 9. Partido Feminista 10. Santa Evita 11. Waltz for Eva and Che 12. Your Little Body's Slowly Breaking Down 13. You Must Love Me 14. Eva's Final Broadcast 15. Latin Chant 16. Lament

Evita was finally filmed in 1996, 20 years after its initial incarnation as a studio-bound rock opera. In between, of course, it was one of the most successful and long-running musicals on either side of the Atlantic. Given such a long history, the film might easily have been a stale anticlimax, fatally holed by our overfamiliarity with songs such as the ubiquitous "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." On the contrary, it was an impressive and immensely satisfying production. The numbers, augmented by a new song for Eva ("You Must Love Me"), sound fresh and the singing is excellent. Coming from Jonathan Pryce (Peron) and Jimmy Nail (Magaldi), this is hardly a surprise. The real revelation is Antonio Banderas as Che, a kind of one-man Greek chorus commenting on Eva's rise and the price she must pay. His warm tenor dispels memories of previous, rougher interpretations from such singers as David Essex and Colm Wilkinson. Ultimately, though, the star is Madonna. She is totally immersed in the role of Eva from start to finish, her singing ranging from girlish delicacy to a hard-edged stridence as the dictator's wife achieves her goals. Rarely has a film so successfully given a stage show such a new lease on life. --Piers Ford