» February 22, 2008

One of those treasures which the most of pfans have been waiting to see or hear is finally online, publicly for everyone. It is two demo-tracks for Evita movie recorded by Michelle around 1994, (at the moment you can hear here the song "I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You"), Michelle attempts to sing the songs in the original keys here. According Tim -Xvaesthirxv- making a comparison with Madonna's version, Madonna's did ton of post to her voice. Like slight echo effects, making some parts louder than others. Basically, she and Michelle have the same amount of range, so between the two of them, voice wise, they are even.

If they did that post work to Pfeiffer's voice she would've been great too. Madonna didn't try singing the end either. Michelle would've pulled off that movie quite well. According Tim, her voice sounds very nice. Her voice just sounds so sweet, like Julie Andrews.

Let's remember Michelle Pfeiffer was the winner of this valuable part but she turned down... after many of the greatest actresses fighted for this role. Michelle actually worked for months on Evita but dropped out when director Oliver Stone withdrew and the production was moved from LA, Finally Madonna was the heiress.

I hope you like this video made by me where you can hear the song recorded by Michelle:

The genesis of the project of Evita begun many years before it were finally released. Ken Russell was the first director attached. His first choice to play Eva was Barbra Streisand, who turned him down. His second choice was Liza Minnelli, who he screen-tested, but her casting was vetoed by lyricist Tim Rice, who wanted Elaine Paige, who had originated the stage role in London. Paige was also Rice's girlfriend.

Other big names such us Meryl Streep, Pia Zadora, Charo and Maria Conchita Alonso were considered for the role of Evita for years.

Finally Oliver Stone planed to make the movie around early Nineties, in 1994 it was announced that Michelle Pfeiffer would be Evita, she even had taken a good few months voice training for the role, but after several disagreements of Stone with Argentinian President Carlos Menem , in summer of 1994 he abandoned the project —he received a token credit as a writer for this film, despite having made no input to the script—.

According Michelle, "I really wanted to do Evita with Oliver Stone. To me, that was a really exciting project, especially after how visually exciting The Doors was. When they came to me, I was hugely pregnant and said, "I'd love to do this but I don't know that I really have the chops." I was unwilling to commit until I went through a lot of voice training for a long time. I did demos, too. Ultimately, when I found out the shooting schedule and that it would be in England, I realized it would mean breaking up the family unit. I would obviously have a newborn and didn't want to take the kids from their father for such a long time. It's only OK to do that in short little sprints."

Then in December of 1994 it was announced that Alan Parker (who previouly had filmed Fame and Pink Floyd The Wall) would be the definitive director to film the movie.

Madonna was cast after she wrote a long and desperate letter to director convincing him she was perfect to play the role. The letter was accompanied by a copy of her video for "Take A Bow" where she had specifically asked the director that it should resemble the '40s and '50s.

According Madonna: "First I was chosen by Oliver Stone for the role, but we had creative differences and the project fizzled out. When Stone went to Argentina, there was some unpleasantness and President Menem's government stopped helping him. Now Parker's reaping what Stone sowed and he has to placate and persuade the government that this project is serious and that he's not trying to twist Argentina's history

When I found out that Alan Parker was working on a project and that Michelle Pfeiffer would be playing Eva, I got very nervy and I heard a voice inside me saying: Madonna, you've got to do it.

I don't know if God took a hand or what happened, but I soon heard that Michelle wasn't interested because she'd had a baby. So then, one night, I sat down and wrote a letter to Alan Parker. It was like an inspiration from God. I couldn't control what I was writing, I didn't know what I was doing, but I sent it all the same. In it I used all the arguments I could to convince him that I wanted to do Evita. It's not about money, just simple fascination"

For Michelle: "I actually liked the version that Madonna did, which was different from what Oliver had in mind, and I thought she did a great job."

Sadly, Michelle did never this movie, for me, it was one of my dreams never come true...

Maybe, this part had could be the role of all a life... maybe it doesn't...

Source: PfeifferTheFace, IMDb and Wikipedia