Review: Shakespeare & Company, “Three Tall Persian Women”

Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA

www.shakespeare.org

through October 13, 2024

by Shera Cohen

What a coup it is for any theatre to present a World Premiere. A double coup for Shakespeare
& Company is a playwright starring in her own play. This is the case in “Three Tall Persian Women”.

Photo by Maggie Hall

“Women” is a generational story of the old country, reluctant or intended immigration, and the new country. How do people segue from lifestyles, mores, and particularly the roles of women to another while still appreciating their heritage?

Yes, three women populate this story of mother/daughter relationships in a contemporary setting in the U.S. None are “tall,” yet perhaps mighty in each one’s convictions. Their heritage is Iranian.

Golnar, the 20-something daughter, portrayed by the play’s writer Awni Abdi-Bahri, shows her audience a young woman, caught in the middle of generations, beliefs, and history. While the outward focal point of many of the laughs, Abdi-Bahri gives her character a somber churning in her entire being.

Niousha Noor’s depiction of Golnar’s mother is in direct opposition to the personality, dreams, and lifestyle of Golnar. Noor plays this well-meaning mother role with hesitance and self-questioning.

The matriarch of this family of women is acted by Lanna Joffrey as Grandmother Mamani. Joffrey plays a powerhouse senior, living in Iran’s past as if history made no edits on her life as it is now.

The interaction between the characters is primarily between mother and daughter. In her own quiet way, Nasrin is at the center of the picture, on this day marking the anniversary of her husband’s death. The audience knows little about this man, except that he is an example of Iranian society where women are viewed in ancillary roles in a family and society.

Yet, the play’s title is about three women; not men; the setting America. 

Into this picture walks the only male on the stage; Shayan, richly and realistically portrayed by Afsheen Misaghi. Mom and Grandma have set up Golnar on a date with Shayan. These scenes provide many moments of laughter, but the duo does not play coy. Each character gives what he/she gets in their verbal jibes. Misaghi has fewer lines than anyone else on stage, yet he makes the most of every line, whether speaking or singing.

The running time is long, especially with some unnecessary elements that might be deleted or reduced; i.e. Grandma’s dissertation on the Shah, actors giving candy bits to the audience, and the shadowed sexual encounter that opens the play. Note: Not recommended for anyone under 16.

Some may disagree; the story is somewhat generic where Iranians could be substituted with just about any ethnic group. What is true about immigrants, especially in this era and to America, can be true throughout the globe.

REVIEW: South Mountain Concerts "Wu Han & Friends"

South Mountain Concerts, Pittsfield, MA

www.southmountainconcerts.org/concerts.html

September 8, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

David Finckel & Wu Han

Pianist Wu Han, Co-Artistic Director (with her husband, cellist David Finckel) of the NYC-based Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, was joined by Finckel, violinists Chad Hoopes and Richard Lin, and violist Matthew Lipman to open the 2024 season of this century-old festival with a program of three major works for varied instrumental ensembles with broad appeal to chamber music veterans and newcomers alike.

The concert began with a lively reading by Lin, Finckel, and Lipman of Beethoven’s 1799 String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3. The key of C minor always drew music of high drama from the composer (for example, his fifth symphony). A turbocharged “Allegro con spirito” was followed by a gentle, almost happy-go-lucky “Adagio con espressione.” Both the energetic “Scherzo” and the tempestuous “Presto” finale had abrupt, quiet endings, a playful touch.                

Next came an impassioned account by Wu Han, Hoopes, and Finckel of Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s Piano Trio No. 1 in G minor, Op. 15. Written in 1858 in memory of his young daughter Bedriska, its “Moderato assai” first movement opened with a seven-measure violin solo, played with piercing intensity by Hoopes. Wu Han’s sensitive pianism and Finckel’s rich cello tone were equally affecting in the expressive middle movement, “Allegro…Maestoso,” and a defiant closing “Presto” which includes a brief funeral march.

The program ended on a more upbeat note with a joyous performance by the full ensemble of Robert Schumann’s most popular chamber piece, his 1842 Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44. It featured an exuberant “Allegro brillante,” an alternately somber and brisk second movement, marked “In the Style of a March,” a virtuosically nimble “Scherzo,” and a jubilant “Allegro, ma non troppo” finale.    

The frequent choice by Wu Han and Finckel to perform with musicians several decades younger, creates a cross-generational spark in their music-making that clearly resonated with today’s enthusiastic audience.

This venerable series of chamber music concerts performed by world-class ensembles continues on Sundays through October 6.

REVIEW: Tanglewood "Lewis+/Gerstein+/Ehnes+"

Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

www.bso.org/tanglewood

July 24, 31 & August 21, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

Three recent concerts in Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall extended the range and repertoire offered in earlier concerts during the 2024 season.

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players July 24 program opened with BSO flutist Elizabeth Rowe’s moving performance of Allison Loggins-Hull’s “Homeland” for solo flute, a harrowing 2018 depiction of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. English pianist Paul Lewis next joined BSO members John Ferrillo, oboe, William R. Hudgens, clarinet, Richard Svoboda, bassoon, and Richard Sebring, horn, in a sprightly reading of Mozart’s cheerful 1784 Quintet in E-flat, K. 452. The BSO’s Alexander Velinzon and Tatiana Dimitriades, violins, Cathy Basrak and Danny Kim, violas, and Blaise Dejardin and Oliver Aldort, cellos, closed the concert with a glowing account of Johannes Brahms’s radiant 1866 String Sextet No. 2 in G, Opus 36.

Photo by Hillary Scott

A week later, Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein was joined by American violinist Joshua Bell and British cellist Seven Isserlis in a program of French music written between 1915 and 1923. Bell and Gerstein played Claude Debussy’s violin sonata with the “joyful commotion” that the composer noted in the piece. Isserlis and Gerstein showcased the Spanish flavor of Debussy’s cello sonata. Bell and Isserlis focused their virtuosic take on Maurice Ravel’s sonata for violin and cello on its spiky modernism. In a solo piano set, Gerstein offered sensitive versions, with engaging commentary, of Gabriel Faure’s “heartbroken” Nocturne No. 13, an ethereal nocturne written in homage to Faure by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, and four haunting late works by Debussy. A bracing rendition of Faure’s piano trio ended the evening on a life-enhancing note.   

On August 21, Canadian violinist James Ehnes and Italian pianist Alessio Bax made their Tanglewood debuts as last-minute replacements for violinist Leonidas Kavakos (recovering from a shoulder injury) and pianist Danill Trifonov. Prefacing each piece with helpful commentary, Ehnes said they had selected three of their favorite sonatas. They began with a nimble account of Mozart’s brief 1778 Sonata in E minor, K.304, including a dramatic “Allegro” and a stately “Tempo di Menuetto.” Next came an impassioned Brahms 1878 Sonata No. 1 in G, Opus 78 (the only carryover from the original program). They ended with an exhilarating account of Beethoven’s towering 1803 Sonata No. 9 in A, Opus 47, “Kreutzer” (named, ironically, after a violinist who never played it).  

 

Their whirlwind encore, the jazzy “Perpetuum mobile” finale of Ravel’s 1927 second sonata for violin and piano, brought another diverse Ozawa Hall season to a dazzling close.

REVIEW: Tanglewood, "Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Series"

Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

www.bso.org/tanglewood

August 5, 12, & 19, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

The last three TMCO concerts presented the two 2024 TMC conducting fellows with new opportunities: vocal music, contemporary works, and replacing a missing conductor.

On August 5, TMC fellow Na’Zir McFadden led a touchingly vivid account of Maurice Ravel’s four-movement 1920 tribute to victims of World War I, “Le Tombeau de Couperin.” TMC fellow Ross Jamie Collins shaped a brilliant reading of Silvestre Revueltas’s 1938 tone poem “Sensemaya,” which fully captured its ritualistic Afro-Latin sensuality. American BSO guest conductor Alan Gilbert skillfully guided the TMCO through the complex rhythms and shifting colors of Henri Dutilleux’s 1964 “Metaboles” (“Transformations”), making this challenging piece surprisingly accessible. He then poked hilarious fun at himself and the audience with a playful rendition of Joseph Haydn’s 1788 Symphony No. 90, with its several surprise endings.      

Photo by Hillary Scott

A week later, the TMC conducting fellows led 12 TMC vocal fellows in excerpts from “The
Magic Flute,” “Don Giovanni,” and “The Marriage of Figaro” for a delightful “Mozart Opera Evening.” Collins cued the singers and instrumentalists more extravagantly than McFadden, whose more economical gestures drew equally compelling performances. Standouts included: soprano Emily Rocha’s devastating “Ach, ich fuhl’s” (“Ah, I feel it”) as a hopeless Pamina in “The Magic Flute;” a seductive “La ci darem la mano” (“Give me your hand”) from baritone John Arlievsky as a suave Don Giovanni and mezzo-soprano Anna Maria Vacca as a befuddled Zerlina; and a hilarious “Voi, che sapete” (“You who know”) by mezzo-soprano Carmen Edano as a lovestruck teenage Cherubino in “The Marriage of Figaro.” English subtitles were helpfully projected above the stage.

 

McFadden and Collins faced a new challenge on August 19, when Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, who would have led Sergei Prokofiev’s 1945 fifth symphony, cancelled his Tanglewood appearances due to a recent leg injury. Their ingenious solution was for each of them to lead two of its four movements. McFadden’s more restrained conducting style produced a vibrant first movement (“Andante”) and a haunting third (“Adagio”), while Collins’s flashier style inspired a driving second movement (“Allegro moderato”) and an exuberant finale (“Allegro giocoso”). The result was a powerfully cohesive vision of the Russian composer’s heroic masterpiece.

That concert opened with Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz’s six-minute folk-inflected 2021 “Kauyumari” (“Blue Deer”), representing a spiritual guide for the Huichol people of Mexico, in a visceral reading under McFadden. Next came a sensitive account, also under McFadden, of British-American composer Bernard Rands’s equally brief but bracing “Adieu,” for brass quintet and string orchestra, in honor of the composer’s recent 90th birthday. The program’s first half concluded with an electrifying Collins-led rendition by the TMCO of Jean Sibelius’s 1892 tone poem “En Saga,” evoking the spirit of Finnish folklore.

The past eight weeks of intensive concerts, professional training, and musical camaraderie, including their major role in the annual Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, will surely be formative experiences in these young musicians’ careers.   

REVIEW: Jacob’s Pillow, "Dance Theatre of Harlem"

Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, MA

www.jacobspillow.org 

through August 25, 2024

by Josephine Sarnelli

Dance Theatre of Harlem has remained true to its classical ballet roots, while breathing life into this program with infusions of R&B and funk. The versatility of this dance company allowed for a brilliant and varied program from four diverse choreographers.

To open the program, Robert Garland, new Artistic Director of DTH, choreographed “Higher Ground” to several genius works of Stevie Wonder. Although written half a century ago, the lyrics of the songs remain relevant in addressing socioeconomic and political issues. A thought-provoking program note written by Garland reads, “Higher Ground represents a Sankofa-esque reflection on our current time.”  Sankofa is a Ghanian word meaning to go back for what you have forgotten behind or learning from the past.  Garland may be referring to this on a cultural level, but possibly also to DTH’s mission of making ballet attainable to all. The optimistic lyrics of the song for which the piece is named address reincarnation and a second chance at life. This, too, could be referring to our global state of affairs or to DTH, in particular.

   

The classical training of the six dancers provided outstanding en pointe work and partnering. There were numerous overhead lifts, cabrioles and grand jetes to satisfy traditional ballet audiences, blended with jazz-like movements in keeping with the contemporary nature of the music. The choreographer brought the dancers together at the crossroads of ballet, funk and soul.

“Take Me With You,” a short duet choreographed by Robert Bondara, relied heavily on the athleticism and connection between performers Delaney Washington and Derek Brockington. Set to Radiohead’s “Reckoner,” the dance’s entrance and exit offer haunting acapella clapping. Unusually complex lifts were masterfully executed as their bodies seamlessly unite only to separate again. As with “Higher Ground,” this choreography might be making a commentary on world struggles or on a more simplistic level examining the cycles of interpersonal relationships.

Photo by Christopher Duggan

Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” was an exuberant performance to Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No.3.” With only eight dancers performing for 13 minutes, the piece is a concentrated indulgence into classical Russian ballet style. It was joyful and an excellent complement to the other nontraditional offerings in the program.

“Blake Works IV (The Barre Project, 2023),” choreographed by William Forsythe to songs written by James Blake, closed off the program. With its start date during the pandemic, the original choreography was created over Zoom and echoes back to the isolation of that period. Dancers entered and exited singly to a ballet barre located at the back of the stage. The distance of the barre from the audience and lack of connection of the performers with one another was appropriate for the pandemic era but grew monotonous for a live audience. The dancers performed exquisitely, but in a vacuum, to the soulful music.

Sankofa is symbolized by a bird that has its grounded feet facing forward, while holding an egg in its mouth as it looks backwards. Dance Theatre of Harlem remains faithful to its founders’ mission of ensuring classical ballet is accessible to all, while keeping it relevant for a new generation.

REVIEW: Berkshire Opera Festival, “Faust”

Berkshire Opera Festival, Great Barrington, MA

www.berkshireoperafestival.org

August 27 & 30, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

Photo by Ken Howard

To conclude their ninth season, Berkshire Opera Festival presents its first French opera: a triumphant production of Charles Gounod’s 1859 masterpiece “Faust.” Based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play “Faust, Part I,” and with a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre, “Faust” was not only Gounod’s breakthrough work but has remained by far the most popular of his 12 operas.

Act I opens as Faust, an aging scholar, plans to end his life in despair at its meaninglessness, when the sound of happy young voices outside his window makes him long to regain his lost youth. Mephistopheles, the Devil, promptly appears and offers to grant his wish on earth if Faust will serve him in hell. The remaining four acts follow the handsome younger Faust’s seduction of the beautiful Marguerite and its effects on both of them and on her family and community.  

Tenor Duke Kim is an ardent Faust, singing and acting with passion, clarity, and plush tonal beauty. Bass-baritone Justin Hopkins portrays Mephistopheles with a winning mix of demonic power, comic wit, and even sex appeal. Soprano Raquel Gonzalez tracks Marguerite’s journey from demure grace through amorous infatuation to abject heartbreak with unerring skill. Mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce as Siebel, a local boy in love with Marguerite; baritone Jarrett Porter as Marguerite’s brother, Valentin; mezzo-soprano Abbegael Greene as her neighbor; Marthe, and baritone Kyle Dunn as Wagner, a student, all make strong impressions in their roles.

Vocal highlights include: Porter’s affecting rendition of Valentin’s Act II aria “Before I Leave This Place;” Gonzalez’s poignant reading of Marguerite’s Act III “King of Thule” aria; Greene’s hilarious pass as Marthe at Hopkins’ roguish Mephistopheles in the Act III quartet; a stirring Act IV soldiers’ chorus; and Hopkins’ menacing laughter in Mephistopheles’ Act IV serenade.

Resourceful direction by BOF Co-Founder Jonathon Loy culminates in a stunning coup de theatre at Marguerite’s Act V redemption, when Alex Jainchill’s subtle lighting design suddenly brightens. Committed performances under BOF Artistic Director and Co-Founder Brian Garman by the BOF orchestra and chorus (led by Chorus Master Geoffrey Larson) bring Gounod’s brilliant score to vivid life. Sensitive choreography by Andrea Beasom, elegant costume design by Brooke Stanton, and spare but flexible scenic design by Stephen Dobay keep the focus squarely on the characters and the drama.

This outstanding “Faust” shouldn’t be missed by lovers of Romantic grand opera. Perhaps more importantly, "Faust" offers the opportunity for those who aren't opera aficionados to see a love story sung in French.

Note from editor: A surprising start to the performance was the swift staccato beat of a solo snare drum, followed by the full orchestra, and the unprompted audience immediately standing, facing the U.S. flag to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner". Now that both the Republican and Democratic conventions are behind us, without touching on politics, a salute to our country seemed fitting.

REVIEW: Barrington Stage Company, “Next to Normal”

Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, MA

https://barringtonstageco.org

through September 8, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

Winner of three Tony Awards in 2009 and the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2010, “Next to Normal” is one of the most acclaimed and widely produced musicals of the 21st century.  The Pulitzer board called it "a powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals.” BSC’s intensely moving production shows just how powerful it can be in the right hands.

 

Photo by Daniel Rader

The story focuses on Diana Goodman’s struggle to manage her psychotic disorder and its effects on her family -- husband Dan, son Gabe, and daughter Natalie. The other two characters are Henry, Natalie’s high school classmate; and Dr. Madden, Diana’s therapist. The plot merges scenes of Diana’s treatments with past and present scenes of her family life and Natalie’s budding romance with Henry, leading to hope for a life that, if not exactly “normal,” is at least “next to normal.”

The six-member cast of singing actors uniformly realizes the often-heroic demands of Tom Kitt’s searing score and Brian Yorkey’s lucid book and witty, poetic lyrics. Natalie Joy Johnson is sensational as Diana, capturing the full range of her emotions, from rapture in “I Miss the Mountains,” to sardonic humor in “My Psychopharmacologist and I,” to despair in “Didn’t I See This Movie?” Alan H. Green, a resourceful veteran of many BSC shows, is stalwart as Dan in “A Promise” and vulnerable in “Song of Forgetting.”

Adante Carter is a mesmerizing Gabe, defiant in “I’m Alive” and haunting in “There’s a World.” Madison McBride and Ben Clark are appealingly awkward and resilient as Natalie and Henry in their duets (“Hey” and “Perfect for You”). Joseph Morales is an empathetic Dr. Madden. The full ensemble is impressive together in a resonant choral finale, “Light.”    

Director Alan Paul (BSC’s Artistic Director) creatively uses Nicholas Hussong’s live video projections to immerse the audience in the characters’ emotions throughout. Choreographer Eamon Foley imaginatively deploys the cast and scenic designer Wilson Chen’s flexible set to suggest the fluidity of the characters’ experiences. Music direction by Angela Steiner and a powerhouse band of six under Jacob Carll binds the musical forcefully together.    

BSC’s “Next to Normal” is “must see” theatre for all fans of serious musical drama.