There's ache that permeates the TheaterWorks Silcon Valley manufacturing of “Chopin in Paris,” the solo present by grasp pianist and musician Hershey Felder.
That deep, resonant melancholia, constructed from the embattled and tortured lifetime of Fryderyk Chopin and his multitude of private and bodily points, doesn't really feel overwhelming, thoughts you. The play’s premise, in any case, is a piano lesson the place Chopin unlocks secrets and techniques and mysteries, many tales ending with one in every of a mess of classical requirements being carried out on piano.
Felder is a maestro’s maestro, a person who glows with the convenience at portraying a composer as he dons black tails and a cravat. On this occasion, he's not portraying any composer. Chopin’s creation of among the most transcendent music the world has ever identified is ideal for deeper exploration. Chopin was not only a composer, however a person obsessive about instruction, one who gave his time, effort and power to instructing piano to the crème de la crème of Paris’ excessive society.
On this evening, Chopin’s “college students” sat within the rows of the Mountain View Middle for the Performing Arts in March of 1848, a yr earlier than his passing, taking in Felder’s savant-like skills. There have been a number of jokes concerning the 20 francs it prices for next-level piano instruction; it seems these francs are monies properly spent.
Felder’s piece will get a principally static staging from director Joel Zwick (probably greatest identified for helming “My Massive Fats Greek Marriage ceremony”), which is sensible primarily based on the solo type of the piece. Because the storyline continues to evolve by way of the greater than 90 minutes of runtime, we study many devastating components that contributed to a brief life — Chopin died at age 39, dealing with an assortment of illnesses — filled with distress and loss, informing how the numerous sonatas, nocturnes, concertos and mazurkas had been crafted. It was that devastation that birthed probably the most succulent and romantic compositions, greater than 230 in complete.
What each Zwick and Felder clearly perceive is that Chopin’s music and its presentation are awash in very important particulars. Context is constructed round loads of probably the most well-known items the Polish pianist ever wrote, and people particulars are calamitous.
Felder, who additionally designed the set that’s coupled with Erik S. Barry’s extremely metaphoric lighting that retains the stage comfortable with hints of purple, permits for giant swaths of the present to go improvised. There’s an ease and luxury to opening up the viewers to questions, which was a chance to permit a deeper understanding of how Chopin’s prodigious skills had been constructed from youth to maturity. These moments, the place Felder went on the ledge carrying supreme confidence and a focus to element, had been among the greatest and most revealing morsels the present produced.
He spoke of his eager for Poland whereas residing briefly in Vienna earlier than spending practically his total grownup life in Paris. There was additionally the topic of the Poland November rebellion, which blocked his return dwelling.
But probably the most devastating moments within the narrative got here from his private loss. As a young person, his youthful sister Emilia turned ailing, which Chopin hauntingly described as “amusing that become a cough.” Because the viewers, we feature that crushing setback as Felder brings forth all the great thing about Nocturne in E Flat, Op. 9 No. 2.
Chopin has particular windfall in how reflective one might be whereas performing a chunk that clearly has a deeply private origin, and Felder’s dexterity and his extremely nimble fingers craft each ounce of nuance. The dynamics occur all through the present, together with when Chopin is sharing why he's typically thought of a nationalistic composer, the mazurkas offering proof of that. We hear the enjoyment of the “Grande Valse Brillante” and its reflection of what Nineteenth-century higher crust society felt like. There are additionally reflections on his relationship with novelist Amantine Dupin, higher identified by the pen identify George Sand, the rivalry with Franz Liszt, and his fixation with the damaged “blue observe” round which he sought to construct a composition.
To additional replicate his emotions of isolation and loss, the chilling third motion of Piano Sonata No. 2, higher often called the “funeral march,” performs a prescient function within the narrative.
There are moments when it's blatantly clear that Chopin’s genius was not simply from his other-worldly piano skills. It was his understanding of unlock these skills. Within the phrases of Chopin, vesseled by Felder, when music is in its purest kind, “each observe should come out of your soul.”
That straightforward thought could be probably the most helpful perception shared in “Chopin in Paris.” It’s actually price 20 francs.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Affiliation and served as a juror for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Twitter: @davidjchavez.
‘CHOPIN IN PARIS’
Conceived and carried out by Hershey Felder, introduced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Via: Sept. 11
The place: Mountain View Middle for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.
Working time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $25-$103; www.theatreworks.org