Marni Nixon, dubbing singer, performs Webern
mainShe covered Deborah Kerr’s singing voice in The King and I and Audrey Hepburn’s in My Fair Lady.
But here’s how good Marni really was: bareback Webern with Robert Craft at the piano. So beautiful.
Marni Nixon died on Sunday, aged 86.
Her first husband was Ernest Gold, composer of the Exodus theme.
She also sang many of the Charles Ives songs; wonderfully. Rest in peace.
And Natalie Wood in West Side Story.
She was a genius with uncanny powers of impersonation. And not half bad as herself.
So: an approved crossover singer?
She also covered Natalie Wood in West Side Story.
R.I.P. I heard her in two of those as a child.
Here is the interview I recently typed up between Marni Nixon and Bruce Duffie in Chicago. It makes for interesting reading and I enjoyed putting it all together with Bruce.
http://www.bruceduffie.com/marninixon.html
Have a read!
My first experience with Marni Nixon’s beautiful voice and superb musicianship was her recording of Schoenberg’s Herzgewaechse — I loved the music and her soaring voice… I think I probably wore out that vinyl recording. I was about 18 and working in a university music library with a rich collection of recordings.
It was not until many, many years later that I learned that she also worked as a ‘ghost’ singer – and in fact, I have always thought of her as a classical singer who also sang in films – just the reverse of how many others will remember her.
http://www.marninixon.org/recordings.htm
It is Leonard Stein at the piano, not Robert Craft.