<>
A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS WITH DONALD PIPPIN
And Operas from All Over, Sung in
English
By Paul Hertelendy
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of March 29-April 5, 2010
Vol. 12, No. 85
The rarity “Halka,” playing San
Francisco and Berkeley
these days, is a nationalistic opera with surprising proletarian
leanings,
given its mid-19th-century origin in Eastern
Europe.
This lively,
folksy opera pits the
peasants against exploitations by the land-owning class. A member of
the latter
seduced a peasant girl, rendered her pregnant, and opportunistically
abandoned
her to marry a wealthy woman.
For the
heroine’s plight, think “Jenufa”
and “Rigoletto” rolled into one, with a little Ophelia (Shakespeare’s)
thrown
in to provide the tragic closure.
Along the way,
it’s a colorful and
often upbeat romantic opera, Polish to the core.
A legend even
today, composer Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-72)
was influenced by both von Weber and Auber in the structure of his
grand opera,
which features festive scenes and ballet. He is to Polish opera as
Chopin is to
Polish piano music.
Moniuszko ran afoul of the censors of his time, which
forced curtailment of his other notable opera, “The Haunted Manor.” “Halka” is a mature work showing enough inspiration that I am astonished neither the
Met nor the S.F. Opera ever tackled it (nor any other Moniuszko opuses).
Any language
problems were
circumvented by the intimate staged production of Pocket Opera, which
does
virtually everything in English. The March 27 opener at the Legion of
Honor
Palace featured the debut of a translation by P.O.’s mastermind and
artistic director Donald Pippin, still
going strong at
the keyboard at age 84, in a lifespan longer than the existence of the
Golden
Gate or Bay Bridge. In two more years he’ll round out an incredible 60
years of
presenting concerts here, leading his scaled down orchestra of seven or
eight
with an occasional nod and a glance. If
he ever retires, his ubiquitous black beret belongs in a museum.
By far his
greatest contribution
have been his operatic translations into English---an astounding total
of 83 to
date. He knows French, Italian, German. And other operas from the
Czech,
Russian and Polish are done using French (as here) or German versions
of the
librettos as the departure point.
When
marketed around the country,
these Eastern-language versions are quite valuable, since few troupes
in Keokuk
or Peoria
or
Elko can come up with casts singing fluently in the original tongue. In
effect,
his output opens up many doors to repertory otherwise impractical,
inaccessible
or nonexistent.
Halka,
a dramatic soprano, is the likable
heroine of this opera, confronted by the opportunistic baritone Janusz.
No
amount of consolation by the village tenor Jantek can still her
despair. After
the death of her baby she tries burning down the church during Janusz’s
wedding
ceremony and commits suicide in tried operatic fashion.
The score is
predictably diatonic,
with a gift for melody and some characterization. Ensembles, church
hymns, duets
and display arias (particularly for Halka) are effective and memorable.
Symbolism and metaphors recur---the dove, the falcon, and the ominous
raven.
And there are major dance numbers featuring both mazurka and polka, in
the best
Polish tradition, punctuated by yips of delight.
These dances
in an otherwise very
modest P.O. production were dazzling, thanks to co-sponsorship from the
Polish
Arts and Culture Foundation making possible authentic national costume
designs.
The voices
ranged from adequate to
not-quite. Musical direction was needed, both for ensembles, as well as
to
avoid the oversinging. When she was not forcing her voice, soprano
Patrycja
Poluchowicz made an impact in the title role. Others were baritone Todd
Donovan
(Janusz), tenor Darron Flagg (Jontek), bass Clifton Romig (Stolnik) and
mezzo
Sonia Gariaeff (Janusz’ bride). Phil Lowery was stage director within a
very
confined space, forcing the combination of a tavern and a church side
by side
in the final act, without so much as a partition. You needed to yield
up your
yearning for reality willingly.
Pocket Opera
provided supertitle
projections of the English texts sung for optimum comprehension. The
libretto
that emerged was not especially rich, but it reflected the radical
politics of
poet W. Wolski at the time of the 1848 revolts against the ruling
establishment
throughout Europe.
POCKET OPERA
HISTORY---Pippin began
his San Francisco
career at the Old Spaghetti Factory and other mini-sites, alternating
operas
with other concerts starting in 1952. In the mid-‘60s at one of
these---I think
it was a Bizet or Haydn one-acter---I wrote in a Oakland Tribune review
that he
had a “pocket opera” company. He adopted the name, retained when the troupe
was formally incorporated in 1977. To date he has led an estimated
1,000-plus
performances, inevitably at the keyboard leading his scaled-down
“Pocket
Philharmonic,” and often adding witty, pithy narratives at the start of
each
act---yet another Pippin trademark. Though P.O. has had severe
financial jolts repeatedly
in its existence, it retains a loyal core of supporters and fans of
that unique
institution Pippin.
Moniuszko’s opera “Halka” (1858),
in a new Pippin English translation. Pocket Opera, March 27-28 opener
at the
Legion of Honor Palace, S.F., and April 3 at Julia
Morgan Theatre,
Berkeley. For
P.O. info: (415) 346-8705, or go online.
©Paul Hertelendy 2010
#
Paul Hertelendy has been
covering
the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with
relish
-- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never
weakly)
will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with
forays
into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local
artists as well.
#
Return to main menu