Musicals, etc.

MAMMA MIA

Movies come from a myriad of different sources: plays, novels, TV shows, even comic books – each one requiring a careful melding of style and venue. But the most difficult transformation seems to be from the Broadway musical to the silver screen. Especially today. With modern technology, audiences expect to see total reality on the screen. Musicals are steeped in fantasy, not reality.

The latest attempt of that renovation is “Mamma Mia”, a pastiche of a musical with a story slapped together from the songs of the 70’s musical sensation, ABBA. The stage show is phenomenally successful, so they made a movie starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and others.

ABBA’s music is fun, danceable and utterly joyful. But as the kids would say, “It’s SOOO 70’s”. Before you hand over your money to see “Mamma Mia”, you should be somewhat aware of ABBA’s music and be prepared for its simplicity and predictability.

That said, the "Mamma Mia" movie will likely delight you. The setting is a gloriously beautiful Greek Island and has a goofily funny plot. A 20-year-old woman (Amanda Seyfield) is getting married and she invites three men, any of whom COULD be her father. Her mom (Meryl Streep) owns a small inn on the island and was a free-wheeling hippy 21 years before.

The movie is fun, fun, fun and totally mindless. Meryl Streep, that actress who wowed us in “Kramer vs. Kramer”, “Sophie’s Choice”, “The Devil Wears Prada” and dozens of others, shows here that she has no limits. Meryl Streep takes over her role and the entire film. Her voice, which teased us in “Postcards From the Edge” and “Prairie Home Companion” is terrific and her acting puts everyone else to shame.

Pierce Brosnan is a fine actor and proves those skills here, but his singing is average at best. Seyfield, is lovely to look at and her voice has warmth and emotion. The other folks who round out this excellent cast is Julie Walters (remember “Educating Rita”?) and Christine Baranski who team up with Streep to be the three amigos. The three middle-age women sing and dance up a storm and have great chemistry.

The dancing is unremarkable and unsophisticated but suits the setting fine and jumps forth with good humor. They often use chunky island women to dance in the chorus which gives the entire affair a realistic look. The music is mixed well and doesn’t sound overly loud, as some movie musicals do.

However, it is Meryl Streep’s movie (along with the breathtaking views of the Mediterranean). She’s marvelous and displays, once again, that she’s the greatest actress on the planet.

PANHANDLE SLIM & THE OKLAHOMA KID

The Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea has a giant hit on its hands, with the newest Jeff Daniel’s offering: “Panhandle Slim & The Oklahoma Kid”. It’s been extended to the middle of September.

But I’m not sure what the fuss is all about. The play takes place in 1894. We see a man drag another man on stage, hog tied and bleeding profusely from a stomach shotgun wound. This poor guy’s about to die. He’s Panhandle Slim (Tom Whalen).

Then, in gallops The Oklahoma Kid (John Seibert) – all smiles, happy and bubbly. Oh yes, his horse is invisible. One more thing. He doesn’t wear a gun, but travels everywhere with a guitar.

Mr. Slim is the definition of a slime ball. He has lived a horrible life of killing people senselessly and robbing banks and has no regrets.

What ensues is a musical morality tale, with Mr. Kid convincing Mr. Slim that love and goodness lead to a happy life and after-life. What makes the play interesting and unique is that it is almost a musical.

The Kid takes his guitar everywhere and sings six songs to the rascal, Slim (and sometimes with Slim). The songs are written by Daniels and they are good – cowboy-type songs with clever lyrics and sung with very nice voices.

This 90-minute play, about life, death and love, could have been written by Mitch Albom, a man who makes his living writing plays and books about such topics.

The acting in PS/OK is superb and it’s hard to believe how Whalen can act the entire play tied up in that awful, impossible position. And he sings quite well, too.

Director Guy Sanville does an excellent job of pulling so much from such limited material. Dennis Crawley’s set of a desert landscape is amazingly effective, and Daniels’ direction of the musical numbers adds much to the play.

In fact, one could say that Daniels’ message here is how important the curative power of music is to living a happy, love-filled life.

MOT's "Traviata" at Wharton

Lansing is blessed with a wonderful symphony orchestra, several fine choirs, a host of excellent theater companies (professional and amateur), ballet and even community bands. But what the city has struggled with over the years is creating and maintaining an opera company.

Under Melanie Helton’s leadership, Michigan State University has grown a fine opera department which presents very good student opera performances, but the Lansing community has never been able to put the money together along with resources and talent to sustain a company of its own.

Lansing opera lovers have had to listen to the FM radio on Saturday afternoon, drive to Detroit or Chicago, or take a chance with the traveling shows that came to Wharton Center – with uneven quality.

But for the last couple of years, Wharton’s Executive Director Mike Brand, tried to fill the void. He has brought in Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theater to the Great Hall for a one-show-only production each season. The MOT is a superb company that is housed in an extraordinary, new (well, ten years old) opera house across from Comerica Park.

The Lansing productions are not “road shows”, then, but rather the complete opera (soloists, chorus, full orchestra and sets) that was just performed on the Detroit Opera House stage. They tear down the set and rebuild it on the Wharton stage. The addition of the MOT/Wharton shows has been a welcome success in Lansing.

This year (5/22/08), the MOT brought one of the opera world’s most beloved works, Verdi’s “La Traviata”, to town. Just having seen two sumptuous NY MET operas on the movie screen (“Daughter of the Regiment” and “La Boheme” – see previous posting) I was interested to see if an old fashioned stage opera still holds up.

My answer is an unequivocal, “Yes”. The movie screen operas, a new innovation in the opera world, have great sound, acting, voices, sets and backstage goodies, but nothing compares to the real thing.

As in all theater productions, one must see the entire stage at one time to understand the drama of the story – even though “La Traviata” admittedly does not have much stage action. To hear real unamplified voices blending with a real orchestra is a magical experience.

The Lansing MOT production had its minor flaws, but overall was ravishing and beautifully sung.

When we first met Erin Wall as Violetta, the courtesan and toast of Paris night life, her voice as a bit harsh and lacked subtlety. But as the opera continued, Ms. Wall got better and more confident. By the end of the evening, the audience was taken away by her huge, rich sound that also had darkness, depth and beauty. Her low range was slightly weak, but her coloratura flourishes as well as her lyrical passages were stunning and exciting.

Mark Panuccio, as Alfredo, had a lovely tenor voice, but didn’t quite have the ease and phrasing as Ms. Wall. His acting was natural and believable as the destroyed lover of Violetta.

One of the most interesting characters in “Traviata” is Germont, Alfredo’s father. Because of Violetta’s low status in society, he finds it imperative to convince her to leave Alfredo, but is conflicted and torn by this decision. As Germont, Luis Ledesma adds little depth to this tragic person. His diction was difficult to understand and his acting stiff.

But these blemishes did not take away from MOT’s by and large superlative production. The opera had a lovely flow to it, the orchestra was a joy to hear, and of course Verdi’s sensuous, flowing and lush melodies make for some of the most beautiful music ever composed.

One hopes that the San Francisco and Metropolitan opera company’s movie-house operas, as excellent as they are, will not detract from appreciating real singers, on a real stage, singing their hearts out for you.

Thank you Wharton and MOT for bringing real opera to Lansing.

Muffit's Surprise

For the Lansing Symphony’s final offering of the 07-08 season, music director Timothy Muffitt programmed a concert that had some unexpected surprises.

Since most orchestra concert goers have a great fear of “modern” music, conductors usually sandwich the dreaded work between two beloved favorites, so season subscribers can’t escape the concert hall. During the intermission, the bemused listeners will say that the new piece was “interesting” or maybe even “lively”. Certainly by the end of the concert most folks will have forgotten it completely – which is OK because it’s likely they’ll never hear it again anyway.

But Maestro Muffitt did something different this time. He placed the new work, David Maslanka’s “In Lonely Fields” at the very beginning. Gutsy move, I’d say.

But in reality it was a well calculated move. Muffitt knew he had a winner here.

Maslanka, a man who has a special affinity for the breadth of sound of percussion instruments, surrounded the abbreviated orchestra with seven percussionists. A marimba player and vibraphone player were in the front of the ensemble, and five other players with various mallets, African and traditional percussion instruments spread across the back of the stage.

What resulted was a positively wonderful work of dazzling beauty, deep emotion and evocative sounds of the earth. Graciously, Muffitt had all seven drummers come out to the front of the stage at the beginning of the work for a bow, as if they were piano soloists. In fact, watching them make their magic with literally dozens of shakers, bangers and such was a delight. But the real joy was hearing the lovely blending of the orchestra with the percussion instruments.

Maslanka wrote the work in memory of a Central Michigan University percussionist who died from an auto accident at age 24. His parents commissioned the work and Maslanka gave them the most heartfelt memorial one can image.

After the Maslanka, the LSO played one of the most popular and familiar pieces in the classical repertoire, Incidental Music to “Peer Gynt” by Edvard Grieg. And here was the surprise.

Although we all know the Grieg from music appreciation classes to Saturday morning cartoons, it sounded hopelessly simple and uninteresting next to the invigorating Maslanka. As I sat listening to the movie-music sounding “Peer Gynt”, my mind kept on going back to the new and refreshing piece before. So, during the intermission, instead of discussing the hackneyed “Peer Gynt” most people were talking about the exciting Maslanka, a work I’d love to hear it again.

Muffitt concluded the evening with the ravishing Sibelius Symphony No. 2, his most popular symphony. Muffitt gave the work his rapt attention to detail and intensity – two elements of his conducting style that he has displayed to the Lansing audiences amply since he took over the helm of the orchestra last year.

The symphony is one with great heroic themes and sounds that bring out the vast Finnish landscape. Sibelius makes the most of pairing the low brass with the low strings to produce deep grandiose chords. The orchestra came up to Muffitt’s demands, for the most part. All the soloists were excellent, but at times I would have wanted to hear a violin section that was twice as large to give those Sibelius chords the heft they required.

All in all, Muffitt and his musicians brought forth a sincere and passionate reading of this work which seems to straddle the 19th and 20th century.

Opera Revolution

Last Saturday afternoon I witnessed an opera revolution. Actually I was late. The revolution began last season, when the Metropolitan Opera began sending out live HD transmissions of selected operas to movie theaters throughout the country.

Although I knew this was happening, I didn’t really take notice until La Boheme was broadcast April 5. I began receiving calls and emails from friends everywhere. They raved about the sumptuous Franco Zeffirelli production and the voice of soprano superstar Angela Gheoghiu.

Because of their excitement, I saw the April 26th transmission – Donizetti’s wonderfully entertaining La Fille du Regiment (The Daughter of the Regiment).

It was strange to go to a movie theater in the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon and see live opera (tickets: $22). In California, the show starts at 10:30 AM. In a movie theater we are supposed to see movies that were filmed and edited months before. This was live, immediate, and transforming.

Opera diva Renee Fleming was the host and she was engaging and of course very knowledgeable. Backstage we watched the stage manager cue maestro Marco Armiliato to take his place in the pit, and cameras were down with the orchestra with perfectly timed close-ups of the musicians.

The picture is sharp and clear, and the surround sound is everything you’d expect. As the opera continued on, it became clear the grandness of opera had finally found its place – on the movie screen. Operas on TV, no matter how well done, never captured the full spectacle of this unique theater/music blend.

Technically, the entire presentation was dazzling. Close-ups, interesting angles, large stage shots, plus great footage of backstage people and interviews was all thrilling to watch.

But for this production, it would have all been for naught, had it not been for the stunning performances of Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez and the creative a fast moving new production by director Laurent Pelley.

Dessay, a skinny bit of a thing, sang with beauty and superb technique. But, the surprising thing was that Ms. Dessay acts with all the spunk, energy and personality of a comic actress. We’re not used to seeing that in opera.

Whether Dessay was ironing, peeling potatoes, lying down on the stage, being held horizontally by her soldier “pappas”, she managed to sing flawlessly and shamelessly mug to the audience. This French superstar was delightful from beginning to end.

Despite her knock-out performance, many people thought she was outdone by her co-star, tenor Juan Diego Florez. This Peruvian with movie star good-looks sang the difficult tenor role like he was singing with his buddies at a party. In the aria that gave Pavarotti the “King of the High C’s” moniker, Florez came forth with such perfection on opening night, the Met audience demanded that he sing the aria “one mo’ time” - almost unprecedented on the Met stage. For the matinee that I saw, the applause was long and appreciative. Florez is indeed, the tenor we will hear about for decades to come.

To hear Florez and Dessay and the entire Met ensemble sing their beautiful music on a huge screen with surround sound was a special treat indeed. Special enough, that I wonder what this new technological wonder will do for regional opera companies around the world.

Seeing the world’s greatest opera stars in the most lavish productions up close and personal for a ticket of $22 (and free parking) may take the wind out of the sails of local companies. Actually, it can also make opera so accessible and so enjoyable, that live opera will become more popular.

We’ll have to wait a few years to see what happens, but make no mistake about it: This is new HD transmission direct from the Met stage is an Opera Revolution.

Instead of listing times and days of performances, check out www.metopera.com for more info.

Sensitive and Important: "Miss Evers" Boys" @ Riverwalk

Ken Beachler’s current play (opened 2/22/08) at Riverwalk Theater, Miss Evers’ Boys, takes the audience to rural Alabama ,1932. It’s a time when most blacks in the South could not read, the nation was in fear of the plague of syphilis, and modern medicine was just starting to emerge.

The play is a fictional rendering of one of most heinous programs our federal government was ever involved in. Our leaders in Washington decided to use several hundred syphilis-afflicted rural blacks in a medical experiment (The Tuskegee Study). Doctors and nurses followed the progression of the disease, never treating it, but merely examining how it affected the body and to study whether it was different in blacks than whites. Over the years they literally watched these men die a horrible death.

The fact that most people know about this experiment undermines the dramatic impact of the play. But despite that fact, the fine acting and sensitive directing brings forth a strong emotional statement.

The action opens on a stunning set. Craig Mitchell Smith designed an open-raftered church/schoolhouse building complete with a cupola and bell. The structure is a powerful image throughout the production and Richard Chapman makes the most of it with lighting angles that produce dramatic shadows of the rafters.

We meet the four engaging young rural black men who represent the hundreds of others who will be the government’s guinea pigs: Caleb (Guy Stockard), a charismatic, fast talking, would-be preacher man; Hodman (Bruce Wade), a man who believes in folk medicine and black magic more than he does science; Ben (Ralph Sims), a slow, amiable and agreeable farmer; and Willie Johnson (Markitwia Jackson), a bright-eyed entertainer who tap dances like a champ. And we also meet the heart of the show, Nurse Eunice Evers (Monica Sanders), a woman who believes in nursing and believes in her people.

It is heartbreaking to watch these ignorant rural men give up their future and their life to get suckered into this infamous experiment. They did it for free medical care and for $50 in burial money. As a gift, the government also gave them a whopping $14 after undergoing fourteen years in the study.

The most tragic character in the play is Nurse Evers, played beautifully by Sanders. She brings to the character all of confusion and ambivalence she has throughout the experience. She wants to help her “boys” but she also wants to be a nurse involved in an important study. As the play continues, she begins to understand the enormity of the lies she must tell to her four subjects. The pathos she brings to the role, focuses the entire audience to the core of play.

Another stand-out is Jackson who displays stunning tap dancing technique and a sparkling stage personality. The scene he shares with Dr. Douglas (J.D. De La Ossa), the white doctor who heads up the project is one of the best of the evening. Thinking that he has nothing in common with white men, Douglas tells Johnson about attending the Cotton Club and The Apollo Theater in Harlem, and describes the dance steps used in those hallowed halls.

The audience watches his slick dance steps destroyed by the onslaught of syphilis.

The four black men create a wonderful ensemble, playing off each other’s personalities and styles perfectly. And their affection for Miss Evers, and hers for them, is the centerpiece of the story.

Despite the appealing and interesting characters, and touching story , the play suffers somewhat from a slow pace and by the inevitability of the ending. Everyone knows how it will continue and how it will end. But still, Beachler molds his cast to produce an emotional and important piece of theater.

Zukerman and the Brits: A Transcendent Evening

Any concert by a world class orchestra at MSU's Wharton Center is a special event, but Tuesday's (1/15/08) program by the Royal Philharmonic with violinist Pinchas Zukerman was a sublime delight.

I knew I had to attend when I heard that Pinchas Zukerman, the world's greatest violinist (in my humble opinion), was scheduled to play the grand dame of violin concertos, the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Also on this all-Beethoven program was the legendary 5th Symphony.

Zukerman, now a dapper white-haired 60-year-old, walked out on stage to reveal that he was not only soloing on this devilishly difficult concerto, but conducting it as well. He stood in front of the orchestra - violin in one hand, conducting with the other.

As the virtuoso began to play his opening notes, we knew that this would be a rare musical evening. Zukerman's tone was warm and sweet and shimmering with transcendent beauty. Some soloists rip through this work with great bravado, showing off their technique. Instead, Zukerman took his time with each phrase, adding nuance, beauty and elegant musical touches. He played with a gracious rubato give and take, as a great opera singer would.

Miraculously, Zukerman did a 360 when he wasn't playing, to conduct the orchestra to compliment his playing style. How a violinist who is playing one of the most challenging concertos, seperate his brain to also conduct the orchestra, is beyond me. Sometimes the orchestra played with robust force, while at others it sounded like a small chamber group playing is someone's drawing room. The melting together of orchestra and soloist created musical magic.
Zukerman has never been one to pander or be over-demonstrative with an audience. He plays with understated artistry. He's there for the music and only the music. When the treacherous cadenza's came up, with double stops (playing two strings at once) flying up and down the fingerboard, Zukerman was totally unfazed. He simply navigated the rapids, thinking only about how beautiful he could make it sound.

His glorious tone had a presence that floated across the Great Hall audience, even when he was playing pianissimo. The orchestra must have been communicating with him by radio waves, because individual musicians entered in the most delicate, exposed passages with no visible cue from the conductor/soloist. Again, it was magic.

Throughout the entire performance, I was in another world, entranced by the glorious music making of this great artist at the top of his game.

After intermission (called the "Interval" in the UK), Zukerman traded the fiddle for a baton and conducted the triumphant Fifth Symphony.

Although the Israeli-born musician has been conducting for many years, now, he looked like a novice on the podium. His motions were broad, flowing and vague and I tried to imagine myself playing under him and guessing whre his beat was. But, no matter, the orchestra sounded great - which is the only thing that matters.

He appeared to have a terrific rapport with the players, molding the music to fit his vision. The entire wind section was superb, but the first flutist (Paul Edmund Davies) and oboist (John Anderson) played together like two birds on a branch of a flowering tree on a spring day.

Zukerman was able to extract the sounds of each individual section of the orchestra. We heard robust cello and bass playing, but also strong and raucous brass playing.

For the encore, Zukerman led his Londoners in a ravishing reading of a movement of fellow Englishman Edward Elgar's masterpiece, The Enigma Variations. It was lush, romantic and heartfelt.

All in all, this concert by absoulte world class musicians was one of the finest I have ever heard in East Lansing. Zukerman the consumate artst and combined with a responsive and virtuosic ensemble made this evening a true gift from Wharton Center to the people of East Lansing.