The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: “Into the Woods” proved a complete, first-rate theatrical experience
Leave a Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
Larry Wells – the very experienced Opera Guy for The Well-Tempered Ear blog – attended two performances of “Into the Woods” at the Wisconsin Union Theater, and filed this review. (Photos are by Beau Meyer for the UW-Madison Department of Theatre and Drama.)
By Larry Wells
The University Theatre and University Opera’s recent joint production of “Into the Woods” was a feast for fans of Stephen Sondheim (below). It was a complete theatrical experience with excellent singing, a nuanced orchestral accompaniment, skilled acting and enchanting staging.
The nearly three-hour work is an amalgamation of several well-known fairy tales exploring themes such as parent-child relationships, loss of innocence, self-discovery, the consequences of wishes being fulfilled, and death – but all in an amusing, literate, fast-paced kaleidoscope of witty dialogue, catchy music and sophisticated lyrics.
The production employed an attractive, ever-changing set, designed by John Drescher, that was vaguely reminiscent of Maurice Sendak.
Stage director David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke DeLalio) utilized the large cast and what had to be an equally large number of backstage crew members in a captivating succession of ensemble pieces and solo numbers. I was never aware of the passing of time. Not looking at my watch is my acid test of a production’s success.
Among the many standout performances, Bryanna Plaisir (below) as the Witch was comical in her delivery and quite amazing in the physicality of her performance. There were a number of times when she flew, and each time I was taken by surprise at her effortlessness. Her initial song, accompanied mostly by percussion, was mesmerizing.
There were two roles that were double cast: Elisheva Pront and Miranda Kettlewell (below) as the Cinderellas; and Meghan Stecker and Zoe Bockhorst as the two Little Red Riding Hoods.
Both Pront and Kettlewell possess excellent voices.
Stecker was the more girlish of the two Red Riding Hoods, whereas Bockhorst (below left) portrayed a slightly more canny character. Both were very funny in their encounter with Cobi Tappa’s Wolf (below right).
Tappa is a physical actor whose tall lankiness conveyed the Wolf’s lupine nature flawlessly. He also portrayed the Steward, and I was completely captivated by his performance, as was the appreciative audience.
Joshua Kelly (below) was the narrator and also played the baker’s father. His was a professional quality performance from beginning to end – enunciating so clearly that he was completely understandable throughout.
Jack was played by Christian Michael Brenny. His portrayal of a simple-minded boy was touching, and his singing was outstanding.
Emily Vandenberg (below left) as the wife of the baker (played by Michael Kelley, below right) was another outstanding performer – an excellent comic actress and an accomplished vocalist.
Mention must also be made of Rapunzel and Cinderella’s princes, Tanner Zocher and Jacob Eliot Elfner. Their two duets, “Agony” and “Agony Reprise,” were enthusiastically received by the audience not only for their delivery but also for such lyrics as “…you know nothing of madness ‘til you’re climbing her hair…”.
Sondheim’s way with words continues to amaze me. In describing a decrepit cow, Jack’s mother gets to sing “…while her withers wither with her…”. The Wolf gets to sing the line “…there’s no possible way to describe what you feel when you’re talking to your meal…”
Chad Hutchinson (below) conducted the orchestra in a finely shaded performance – never overpowering and always supportive.
There were many other excellent performances and memorable moments. Suffice it to say that altogether cast, crew, artistic and production staff created a show that I enjoyed on two consecutive evenings. In fact I was completely entranced both times.
Postscript: The first evening I sat in front of a person who coughed more or less continually the entire first act. Mercifully she left at the intermission. Next to me was a woman who alternated between audibly clearing her throat and blowing her nose — when she wasn’t applying moisturizer to her hands — throughout the entire show. Stay home if you’re sick. And remember that you are not at home watching your television. You are in a theater.
Tags: #AcidTest, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #BroadwayMusical, #BrothersGrimm, #ChadHutchinson, #CharlesPerrault, #ConcertEtiquette, #DavidRonis, #DepartmentofTheatreandDrama, #DuetMusic, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FairyTales, #Fast-Paced, #husband-and-wife, #IntotheWoods, #JackandtheBeanStalk, #LarryWells, #LIttleRedRidingHood, #LossofInnocence, #MauriceSendak, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicReview, #OperaCast, #OperaGuy, #OperaReview, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #Parent-Child, #PrinceCharming, #Self-Discovery, #StageDirector, #StephenSondheim, #TheWell-TemperedEar, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityOpera, #UniversityTheatre, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WishFulfillment, acid test, acting, actress, agony, amaze, amusing, appreciative, Arts, audience, backstage, baker, blog, blowing, boy, Broadway musical, Brothers Grimm, canny, captivated, cast, catchy, Chad Hutchinson, character, Charles Perrault, Child, CINDERELLA, clearing, comical, complete, composer, conductor, cough, cow, crew, David Ronis, death, delivery, Department of Theatre and Drama, dialogue, drama, duet, enchanting, encounter, ensemble, enunciation, etiquette, excellent, experience, explore, Facebook, fairy tales, fan, father, feast, first-rate, forward, funny, girl, girlish, hands, Home, initial, innocence, Into the Woods, Jack, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jacob Stockinger, kaleidoscope, Larry Wells, link, literate, Little Red Riding Hood, looking, loss of innocence, lupine, lyrics, Madison, madness, Maurice Sendak, Mead Witter School of Music, meal, mesmerizing, moisturizer, Mother, Music, narrator, nature, nose, number, opera, Opera Guy, Orchestra, orchestral accompaniment, outstanding, Parent, percussion, performer, photo, physicality, piece, postscript, ppassing, prince, Prince Charming, production, professional, quality, Rapunzel, relationship, reminiscent, reprise, review, role, set, share, sick, simple-minded, sing, Singing, skilled, solo, song, sophisticated, staff\, stage director, staging, standout, Stephen Sondheim, steward, success, support, supportive, surprise, tag, talk, tall, Television, The Opera Guy, The Well-Tempered Ear, theater, theatre, theatrical, theme, throat, time, TV, understandable, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, University Theatre, vocalist, watch, wife, Wisconsin Union Theater, wish, wish fulfillment, witch, witty, Wolf, woman, words
Classical music: Madison Opera’s “Seraglio” stood out for its singing and staging, its local sets and costumes, and provided a crowd-pleasing comic romp in trying times. Plus, Friday brings FREE piano and viola da gamba concerts
3 Comments
FRDAY ALERTS: This Friday’s FREE Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features Eric Miller playing the viola da gamba in a recital of early baroque music by Marais, Forquery, Sainte-Colombe, Abel, Hume and Ortiz. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
Then on Friday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the critically acclaimed guest pianist Marina Lomazov will perform a FREE recital of all-Russian music that includes “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky. Lomazov’s recital is part of a larger event, “Keyboard Day,” that has a French focus and takes place all day Saturday at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. See tomorrow’s post for more information about Saturday. For more about Lomazov, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artist-marina-lomazov-piano/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Opera Guy filed this review of last weekend’s production by the Madison Opera:
By Larry Wells
On Sunday afternoon, I attended the second and final performance of Madison Opera’s production of Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio” in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
This comic romp utilized a beautiful set and wonderful costumes designed and constructed in-house. (Below, Matt Bueller as Osmin peers out the door of the palace, or seraglio, at David Walton as Belmont.)
The orchestra, drawn from the Madison Symphony Orchestra and ably led by maestro John DeMain, was situated backstage. This was an effective novelty, although the sound was somewhat muffled, at least from where I sat in mid-orchestra.
The dialogue was in English while the singing was in German with English supertitles. I looked over the lengthy original libretto and was thankful that it had been heavily abridged for this two-hour production.
It had also been updated to be both hip and politically correct about Islamic culture and Turkey, where the story takes place. But it made me idly wonder what the reaction would be if the music had been likewise updated to be more in tune with the times.
The production was all about the singing.
David Walton’s Belmonte (below right, with Amanda Woodbury as Konstanze) was beautifully sung, particularly in the second act. He has a Benjamin Britten tenor voice with remarkable breath control.
Eric Neuville’s Pedrillo was also admirably sung. Neuville is an accomplished comic actor, as well.
Ashly Neumann’s singing as Blonde (below center, with women of the Madison Opera Chorus) was clean, clear and bell-like.
Amanda Woodbury as Konstanze (below right with Brian Belz as Pasha Selim) was virtuosic. She displayed vocal fireworks several times and was especially effective in her lament toward the end of the first act.
This quartet’s ensemble work in the second act was a vocal high point. (You can hear the quartet from a different production in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
But to me the most impressive singing and comic acting belonged to Matt Boehler as Osmin. His bass was simply majestic. (Below, from left, are Brian Belz as Pasha Selim; David Walton as Belmonte; Matt Boehler as Osmin; Eric Neuville as Pedrillo; Ashly Neumann as Blonde; and Amanda Woodbury as Konstanze.)
The well-prepared chorus appeared briefly in each act, adding some color and motion to the production.
Musically and visually the production was a success. The audience responded with 19 ovations during the performance – yes, I counted. Every time the orchestra reached a cadence and paused, the audience members applauded as if they were at a musical. With the incessant coughing throughout the performance, I felt like I was at a performance of “South Pacific” in a tuberculosis ward.
The audience leapt to its feet at the end, and this made me wonder what it was that they found so praiseworthy. The story itself is inconsequential and has little relevance to life today.
The singing was very good, but this is not La Scala.
The music itself, with the exception of a couple of sublime moments, does little more than foreshadow the mature Mozart of “The Magic Flute.”
I concluded that the opera is unalarming, unthreatening, and simple. This is perhaps what people long for in these trying times.
I do look forward to the Madison Opera’s production of Daniel Catan’s “Florencia en el Amazonas” this spring. Based on repeated hearings of the recording, I guarantee that Madison will be in for a treat. And there is nothing threatening or alarming or complex about the music, despite it being a work of the late 20th century.
Tags: #BenjaminBritten, #LaScala, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #PoliticallyCorrect, #TheMagicFlute, #UnitarianSociety, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, 20th-century, Abduction From the Seraglio, Abel, abridged, act, Actor, alarming, applauded, applause, Arts, audience, backstage, Baroque, bass, beautiful, Bell, Benjamin Britten, breath, Britten, cadence, Capitol Theater, Cello, Chamber music, chorus, Classical music, clean, clear, comedy, comic, complex, composer, Concert, construction, control, costume, cough, coughing, Daniel Catan, design, dialogue, door, Early music, English, ensemble, Fireworks, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Florencia en el Amazonas, foreshadow, Forquery, France, free, French, Friday, German, hearing, high point, hip, Hume, impressive, inconsequential, Islam, Islamic, John DeMain, Keyboard, lament, libretto, life, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Opera Chorus, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Magic Flute, majestic, Marin Marais, Marina Lomazov, mature, Modest Mussorgsky, moment, Mozart, Music, musical, musically, novelty, opera, Ortiz, ovation, Overture Center, palace, pause, People, performance, Pictures at an Exhibition, politically correct, production, reaction, recording, relevance, relevant, review, romp, Russia, Russian, Sainte-Colombe, Saturday, set, simple, singer, Singing, Sound, South Pacific, Spring, story, sublime, success, supertitles, tenor, The Magic Flute, threaten, threatening, time, times, today, treat, trying times, tubercular, tuberculosis, Turkey, unalarming, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, viola da gamba, virtuosic, visually, vocal music, voice, ward, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, women, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 