PASADENA,
CALIF
—
The idea of writing incidental music to Molière’s comedy Le
Bourgeois Gentilhomme (or “Bürger als Edelmann” in
German) first came to Richard Strauss in 1911, as he was
contemplating about a long summer ahead with nothing to do. The
resulting work – full of delectable wit, charm and self-quotations –
is among the best that Strauss ever wrote, a perfect match for
Molière’s classic play.
Less fortunate, ironically, is the work of the
poet/librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal, who always regarded himself
as Strauss’s intellectual and aesthetic superior. Hoffmansthal
refashioned, pruned and pollarded Molière’s prose over a period of
seven years, so much so that the final version (1918) can seem a bit
muddled and inconsequential. For example, in the Molière, Monsieur
Jordain learns the truth about the fake Turkish Ceremony and
realizes the folly of his aristocratic ambitions. In the
Hoffmansthal, Monsieur Jordain & co. merely exeunt in the epilogue
without a hint of enlightenment. How ever unsatisfactory
Hoffmannsthal’s version of the play (to this writer at least), there
is sufficient musical interest to make a staging of the work
worthwhile, especially one as engaging and delightful as seen at
Pasadena last Saturday night.
Director John de Lancie and his creative team
successfully created the illusion of a grand Parisian drawing room
using imaginative projection and a few simple props. Leading the
excellent cast was Steve Vinovich, who played M. Jordain, the
‘bourgeois gentilhomme’, with a cheerful bumptiousness that mirrored
the real-life Strauss himself. Marnie Mosiman’s Mme. Jordain was
shrewish and pragmatic, not unlike the real Pauline Strauss. Also
memorable were Ethan Phillips’ unctuous dancing master, and Musetta
Vander’s eat-your-eyes-out Dorimene that would put most Salome’s to
shame.
The many autobiographical sketches also extend
to the music, in the form of self-quotations from Strauss’s tone
poems and opera “Ariadne auf Naxos”. Don Quixote’s bleeting
sheep can be heard as the dinner guests munch on racks of lamb. And
Zarathustra’s speech falls on deaf ears as M. Jordain is more
worried about money than his own enlightenment. In his rare acting
debut, Maestro Mester showed an easy, engaging manner both on and
off the ‘podium’ as the music master. The musical interludes were
all impeccably played, particularly the sensuous violin playing by
concertmaster Aimee Kreston in the Dance of the Tailors (“Tanz
der Schneider”). Soprano Hila Plitmann and mezzo-soprano Nazani
Ashjian both got excellent marks as the music students. A nice
director’s touch was to have the orchestra musicians participate in
the drama at opportune moments. Strauss’s oft-told penchant for
kitsch finds a perfect outlet here in the rousing, colorful Turkish
Ceremony scene that was a highlight of the evening. In the end, it
may not be authentic Molière, but it’s top-notch Strauss all the
way.
Truman
C. Wang is editor of Classical Voice.
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