Timecapsule: 13 years of ''Evita''

''Evita'' is the third soundtrack album to feature Madonna (''Who's That Girl'' and ''I'm Breathless'' were the first two), released 13years ago, on October 25,1996. The soundtrack was released in two different versions: a two-disc edition entitled ''Evita: The Motion Picture Music Soundtrack'' featured all the tracks from the film (cover is n the right), and ''Evita: Music From The Motion Picture'', a single-disc edition contained a selection of highlights from the soundtrack. The single-disc version uses the same artwork that was used to promote the film.

The Argentinians were still touchy on the subject of Eva peron, a national icon since her early death in 1952. When Alan Parker went to film his movie version of the musical there, outrage ensued. When he announced the actress who would play their saintly Evita, the country almost exploded. “Evita lives! Madonna get out!" read the graffiti. “Madonna,” declared the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, "is pornographic and unsuitable".

From then until the New Year of 1996, when the movie finally opened, Evita/Madonna parallels will be made. The first person to grasp the similarities was, of course, Madonna herself. From the moment the job was advertised, she lobbied passionately on her own behaIf. "I see this role as being my destiny," she said. "1 don't think anyone could have prayed as hard as I did for the film to go ahead. I put on amulets, I lit candles - even consulted fortune-tellers.” Who, then, was this Evita and why is Miss Ciccone obsessed by her?

Madonna says that movie success is doubly hard because her off-screen fame gets in the way. The great virtue of playing Evita is that any overspill from her own persona can only reinforce the realism of her performance. Pop stars are hired by directors for box-office clout, not thespian talent, but Madonna first came to New York with her options open: singer, model, dancer, actress - she was up for anything. So was Eva, and she ended up running the country. And ''Evita'' is, after all, a musical. If there was ever an ideal vehicle for Madonna's dream of transcendent stardom, this must be it.

As it turns out, she brings a good deal to Andrew Lloyd Webber's party. The soundtrack carries some of her most commanding vocal efforts so far. Cleverly, her singing develops with the plot. When she's a callow showgirl, hustling her way from the pampas to Buenos Aires (which they call "Big Apple"), you hear the old Ciccone squeak. But there is maturity and richness in her rendition of the dying Evita's swan song, the pathos-ridden Final Broadcast.

"You Must Love Me", specially composed for the film ''Evita'', won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Madonna, herself, took home the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and the film won the award for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.

It definitely helps if you like ''Don't Cry for Me Argentina''. The song reappears in various disguises on at least half the soundtrack. Admittedly, it's the closest Lloyd Webber has ever come to an enduring pop music standard. Sunset Boulevard may play to packed houses every night, but who among us can hum a single tune from it? Elsewhere, there is nothing as memorable as Eva's famous theme. Of the "real" actors, Jonathan Pryce sings his Juan Peron parts with due care and attention, but Jimmy Nail sounds downright peculiar as a tango-dancing gigolo. Then there is hunky Antonio Banderas, the same handsome Spaniard that Madonna had a crush on in her documentary film. Here he plays guerilla hero Che Guevara, the story's sardonic narrator (still an irritating, un-historical gimmick of an idea). He copes, but the results are inescapably theatrical.

Love, death and the fate of nations - these are the big ideas that underpin ''Evita,'' and they're certain to be trivialised when you try to make a musical out of them. For all we know the movie may restore some sense of drama, but the unadorned soundtrack is kitsch when it wants to be epic, and banal when it wants to be charming. Yet Madonna comes through it unscathed. She gets a hit single specially written into the script for her (''You Must Love Me'') as well as the best tunes in the show - just to sing ''Don't Cry for Me Argentina'' guaranteed her the pivotal emotional moments. Even so, her own pop songs are better than most of this, and ten times more adventurous.

There were three official singles taken from the soundtrack: ''You Must Love Me'' (October 1996), ''Don't Cry for Me Argentina'' (February 1997) and ''Another Suitcase In Another Hall'' (March 1997 - UK only) and one promo CD for US clubs - ''Buenos Aires''.

Worldwide the album has sold 11.000.000 copies to date.