Salad Days was commissioned in February 1954, by Denis Carey, at the time Director of the Bristol Old Vic. Julian Slade was the resident composer there, and Dorothy Reynolds one of the leading actresses. The show was written during March and April, and presented on May 1st for three weeks, as part of the regular summer season. It was designed to suit the existing company of twelve actors, who even though accustomed to acting in plays, entered so happily into the spirit of musical comedy. Salad Days was transferred in August 1954, to the Vaudeville Theatre, London.

Ernesto Halffter, one of Manuel de Falla’s most admired disciples and a student of Stravinsky and Ravel, was a close associate of iconic figures such as Dalí, García Lorca, and Buñuel on the 20th century Iberian cultural scene. His magnificent score for Jacques Feyder’s 1926 silent film, Carmen, is one of the great impressionistic Spanish masterpieces of its era. More sombre and tragic than the music for Bizet’s opera, Halffter’s vivid panorama depicts the range and depth of the powerful emotions encompassed within the Carmen story, a tale of thwarted love, passion, jealousy, and violence set in the heart of Andalusia in southern Spain. This is not only the work’s world première recording but the first performance to realise the composer’s musical intentions in full.

For the first time ever, a glimpse behind the scenes at the birth of a new musical comedy. Before the show could begin, production money for the budget had to be raised. And here is a unique opportunity to hear an actual backers’ audition in a fashionable East Side New York apartment with the actual songwriters performing the score. And as an added bonus, several songs were subsequently cut from the score and appear here for the first time in any medium. The extensive liner notes are written by Coleman biographer Andy Propst. Cy Coleman already could boast of hit Broadway shows such as Little Me, Seesaw, I Love My Wife and On the Twentieth Century. After the great success of Barnum, he would write the scores for the Tony Award-winning Will Rogers Follies, The Life, and others. Michael Stewart is best known for his masterful work on the libretto of Hello, Dolly! He had begun his Broadway lyric-writing career along with Cy Coleman on the hit show I Love My Wife. The two writers teamed up for their greatest success as a team, Barnum. Listening to this rare, historic recording, imagine yourself sitting in a lavish apartment plied with drinks and hors d’oeuvres and entertained by this marvelous score. Would you have invested in the show? Barnum eventually ran at the St. James Theatre for over 800 performances. It spawned a successful London production and countless regional and amateur productions since its opening night on April 30, 1980.