Speak Low - the letters, Diaries and music of Lotte Lenya and kurt weill
Dark Weill-Lenya story brightens winter woes
MONTPELIER – Today, composer of Kurt Weill and singer Lotte Lenya bring back memories of his "The Threepenny Opera" and the dark decadence of pre-World War II Germany. But this most talented and colorful couple had a strong impact on American theater, and their "open" marriage makes their story fascinating.
This was made clear, Sunday afternoon at City Hall Arts Center, at the final performance of "Speak Low: The Words and Music of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenye," WordStage Vermont's musical theater showcase opening Lost Nation Theater's Winterfest '09.
Weill (1900-1950), while in Germany, was best known for his 1928 collaboration with the Communist writer Bertolt Brecht, "The Threepenny Opera," which has been performed worldwide ever since. Weill also collaborated with Brecht on the darkly satirical 1927 opera, "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," which has enjoyed worldwide popularity recently.
In 1935, Weill fled Europe for the United States and began writing sophisticated Broadway musicals. Although "Johnny Johnson (1936), "Knickerbocker Holiday" (1938 with Maxwell Anderson), "Lady in the Dark" (1941) and "One Touch of Venus" (1943 with Ogden Nash), are hardly household names, many, many of their songs remain familiar and popular today.
From her initial role, starring as the sultry Pirate Jenny, Lenya was an integral part of Weill's work and life. Although she had trouble breaking into American theater because of her unusual voice and German accent, she developed her own career here, as well as continuing her collaborations with Weill.
Almost as interesting as the music was the off-again, on-again marriage between Weill and Lenya. Despite their many extra-marital affairs, the two remained collaborators, confidantes and friends – and the details are intriguing, humorous and delicious without being tawdry.
WordStage Vermont's "Speak Low," created by Artistic Director Tim Tavcar, proved musically and intellectually rewarding as well as just plain fun. Songs, all ably accompanied by pianist Dan Bruce, were interspersed with short readings from biographical snippets and pithy excerpts from the subjects' letters.
The real singers proved to be the women, Carol Spradling and Kathleen Keenan, both well-known in musical theater circles. Spradling used her brilliant voice touchingly in "Stay Well" from the Weill-Anderson "Lost in the Stars." Keenan achieved a rich sultriness that proved touching as well in "Surabaya Johnny" from the Weill-Brecht "Happy End."
The guys were no slouches, either. Tavcar, a veteran tenor, achieved real tenderness in the well-known "September Song" from "Knickerbocker Holiday." Bruce, not known as a singer, delivered accuracy and real pathos in "Love Song" from the Weill-Alan Jay Lerner "Love Life." The ensemble pieces were well sung and attractively choreographed, particularly "The Saga of Jenny" from the Weill-Ira Gershwin "Lady in the Dark," and in the ever-famous "Mack the Knife" from "The Threepenny Opera."
WordStage has created an unusually successful way to educate without becoming pedantic. The only consistent problem was an over-theatricality, which cut back the emotional power in such an intimate theater space. Still, this was a pleasurable afternoon of theater, a welcome break from real-world woes
By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: February 5, 2009
Flower and Hawk | Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Art of Courtly Love
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S NOTE
I was particularly proud of this program. Lisa Jablow is Vermont's Maria Callas -
vocally and dramatically - a higher compliment I cannot give. Paula Ennis - our accompanist - specializes in 20th Century repertoire and is unreservedly amazing. The Lights (Kathy & Steven of the Fyre & Lightning Duo) are an absolute joy to work with, and play an incredible battery of Medieval and Renaissance instruments to perfection. Artistically, it was very satisfying production
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BURLINGTON – The idea that women got their power from the "women's lib" movement is surely disproved by Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), one of the most powerful and enigmatic women in history. Not only did she become queen of France, she was queen of England. As portrayed in the play and subsequent film, "Lion in Winter," she could be quite Machiavellian and, like many of her powerful male counterparts, spent a good deal of time in prison.
However, WordStage Vermont's production, "Flower & Hawk: Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Art of Love," Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, also focused on her development of a royal court as a center for the arts and genteel romance. (The program was presented Nov. 22 at the T.W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center in Montpelier.)
WordStage Vermont, which brings together music and literature, conveyed this great woman's power and emotional depth, both with a sampling of entertainment at the queen's court and a deeply moving contemporary solo opera about this politically savvy woman.
Best known for his opera "Susannah," American composer Carlisle Floyd (b. 1926) wrote both the music and libretto for the 60-minute opera "Flower and Hawk" for soprano Phyllis Curtin in 1972. Imprisoned by her second husband, Henry II of England, after she conspired with their sons in an attempted coup, Eleanor reminisces about her life – full of heartbreak and happiness. Extremely dark throughout, it ends in joy.
While the opera is complex harmonically and rhythmically, the music is very accessible because it is lyrical and direct. Written first for soprano and orchestra, Floyd created his own piano reduction of the orchestral score.
Saturday's virtuosic performance by soprano Lisa Jablow and pianist Paul Ennis was a truly moving experience. Jablow, professor of music at Johnson State College, has a brilliant and direct voice, which she colored to evoke Eleanor's rapidly changing moods. Ennis, a member of the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble who lives in Stowe, also colored her playing with a broad palette to reflect these dramatic situations. Both parts are amazingly complex, yet Jablow and Ennis made the experience natural and convincing.
Contrasting the darkness of the second half of the program was the bright music of court in the first half. Plainfield's Fyre & Lightning Duo – Steven and Kathy Light – delivered a rich and colorful performance of music of the era on a variety of instruments. Kathy Light's lyrical soprano proved ideal for the poetic songs of Guillaume Machaut (1300-1377). She also played tenderly on a harp of the time while Steven Light performed accurately and expressively on various instruments from recorder to Medieval bagpipes.
Actor Tim Tavcar, WordStage's artistic director and the program's author, provided intriguing and witty commentary throughout.
Although Tavcar's expert diction was easily understandable throughout, printed librettos of the sung material would have helped, more because of acoustics than articulation problems.
The program, like most WordStage Vermont presentations, was fascinating, musically rewarding and fine entertainment.
Jim Lowe - The Times Argus: December 3, 2008
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The
Letters and Diaries
of FrÉdÉric Chopin &
George Sand
The Letters, Diaries and Music of Frederic Chopin and George Sand presented by WordStage Vermont was elegant. Everything, from the setting in the period Unitarian church , the tuxedo and top hat, the pinstriped pants, the ‘long-hair” at the piano; the black, the white and the lust was elegant. The times (1831) demanded it. Paris demanded it.
Chopin, as portrayed by William Pelton never had a chance. His first concern was what would be on the tongues of all of Paris, to avoid scandal and impropriety; so he packed his music with the sublimation and it was sensual and beckoning. Pelton did well to convey the struggle of early success on an introverted man who just wanted to play his piano.
George Sand was a woman independent of popular thinking. For her “the eye of the body is not always the eye of the soul.” Played by Ellie Blachly, she was stunning in a black top hat and winter white scarf, her long legs and hair also dominated by black. Her dark blue eyes conveyed a woman after her man.
J.D. Williams, did a superb job of combining and translating into music the passions of the new romance and the despair of Chopin, Williams and the piano were one, imparting pure emotion into the room ever faithful to the compositional requirements of each piece.
As if the sensual stimuli of the evening weren’t enough, a muse of love, sung and played by Margot Button, as Delfina Potocka, a former friend and lover of Chopin, repeatedly brought us back to our senses in case we in the audience for a moment fancied a sort of dalliance such as the one passing before us in letters, poetry and music.
For a Saturday "date night" in Montpelier in late winter, nothing could have been better than perhaps an early dinner at one of the six restaurants on the next block, and this superb show created by Tim Tavcar.
Mary Alice Clark - for The Montpelier Bridge |
