'A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'

John Rapson (Lady Hyacinth D’Ysquith) and Cast in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (photo by Joan Marcus)
We welcome this review from new theater contributor Philip Dickerson.

Stella Adler once said, “The theater was created to tell people the truth about life in the social situation.” If that is true there was no better time for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the 2013 musical by John Rapson and Kevin Massey Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, to open at the Kennedy Center than the night that the multibillion-dollar Powerball numbers were chosen. (The show, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical last year, has just closed on Broadway.) While everyone pondered all the things one might do with the Powerball jackpot, few likely discussed the lengths one might go to achieve such a fortune, or how that fortune, once achieved, might change a person.

The star of this non-stop, quick-paced, larger-than-life comedy is Monty Navarro (played by Kevin Massey), an earnest young bachelor living a quiet life in remote England. Grieving over the recent death of his mother, he discovers that he is a distant relative of, and possible heir to the famous D’Ysquith family. Resolved to avenge his late mother, who was cast out by the D’Ysquiths, Navarro reaches out to Lord-to-be Asquith D’Ysquith Jr. (John Rapson), who dismisses it. Undeterred, Navarro seeks out the six other heirs to the D’Ysquith fortune, all played with incredible energy by Rapson, embarking on a journey of love, murder, and a hint of revenge.

The production is filled with tight physical and vocal performances. The style is reminiscent, perhaps too much, of the 2005 hit Spamalot, heavy on tongue-twisting lyrics and instantly memorable melodies. The vocal casting hit its peak about a third of the way through the production with the entrance of Adrienne Eller's Phoebe D’Ysquith. Her quirky curiosity and genuine desire to connect with someone draw her close to Monty Navarro, who is of course not your typical D’Ysquith. Eller’s soprano voice gives life to her first duet with Massey during the song Inside Out and is a continued treat throughout the rest of the evening.

Other Articles: Nelson Pressley, Tony winner ‘Gentleman’s Guide’ is good but not a killer (Washington Post, January 14) Kristen Page-Kirby, ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder’ tests the show’s star dresser (Washington Post, January 13)

The character of Phoebe D’Ysquith also provides one thing the show would otherwise be lacking, and that is someone to hope in. As Navarro moved closer towards his fortune he also falls farther down the hole of greed and away from the genuine hero we saw in the beginning. Eller’s portrayal of Phoebe gives us a pure ray of “good,” one that we hope can pull Navarro back toward his old self.

In the end, this production is a night of enjoyment. Strong performances from Massey and Eller are matched by Rapson’s endless arsenal of D’Ysquith family members. When considering the bottomless bag of gags and tricks Rapson displayed, one must also applaud the team of costumers backstage ready to create a new D’Ysquith in seconds. Add in an extremely well-rounded cast of talented actors, a clever and colorful set by Alexander Dodge, and lighting by Philip S. Rosenberg, and you are left with a show that does not disappoint.

This production runs through January 30, in the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater. Run time is about 2 hours and 45 minutes, including a 15 minute intermission.

CORRECTION--In the first version of this review, the creators of the musical were mistakenly identified as John Rapson and Kevin Massey, who played the lead roles. Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak created the musical.

For Your Consideration: 'Le temps dérobé'

Le temps dérobé, A. Tharaud, directed by Raphaëlle Aellig Régnier (Erato, 2014)

Alexandre Tharaud, who last visited Washington in January, is an Ionarts favorite. The French pianist gave documentary filmmaker Raphaëlle Aellig Régnier (Les Villageois) permission to follow him in his travels and private life (up to a point) for a period of two years. The result, Le temps dérobé (from 2013, and released on DVD in 2014), is an intimate look at the performing life of the pianist, as we see his rituals in the green room before concerts, rehearsals with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and orchestras (including Les Violons du Roy, with Bernard Labadie), his work with composer Gérard Pesson on a new piano concerto. Washingtonians had the chance to see the film, which has not been widely distributed, thanks to the always rewarding film series at the French Embassy, where it was screened on Wednesday night.

The film is known in English, for better or worse, as Behind the Veil. Its actual title, which could be translated as Stolen Time or Time Eclipsed, refers to what Tharaud says at one point in the movie, about why playing concerts is so important to him. There is in every concert, maybe only for a short time but both for him and the listeners, a moment where time is suspended. That is apparently what keeps him going on the crazy, lonely schedule of an international performer. The movie is divided into sections shot in various cities around the world, as his time is taken up with practicing, yoga, a visit to a massage therapist or chiropractor, listening intensely to his own recording takes, an interview by remote radio connection. A scene where Tharaud worries neurotically over the sound of a piano he will be playing, ministered to by a pair of piano technicians, is reminiscent of similarly sound-obsessed performers in Pianomania.

Other Articles: Le Monde | Le Figaro | Gramophone | L'Orient-Le Jour

No narration intervenes, and the music heard is never identified with subtitles. Listeners who know the piano repertoire will easily pick out most of what he plays: here are fragments of Debussy's Danseuses de Delphes, there is just the tantalizing opening of Couperin's Le Tic-Toc-Choc. It is not really a film for serious listeners, though, as no excerpt is longer than a minute. One hears both sections of the air from Bach's Goldberg Variations, which is pretty much the most extensive excerpt in the film. If you want to listen to how Alexandre Tharaud plays, you are going to be disappointed. If you want to see glimpses of him backstage and offstage and hear him speak about his life, in ways that border only occasionally on self-indulgence, the film hits the mark.

The next screening in the French Embassy's film series will be L'ombre des femmes, released last year by Philippe Garrel, this time at the Avalon Theater in Chevy Chase (January 20, 8 pm).

Theater Critics Try to Make a Play

Robert Stanton (Moon) in The Real Inspector Hound (photo by Scott Suchman for Shakespeare Theater)
Theater is an incestuous business, and it was even more so in the 18th century. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, author of The Rivals and School for Scandal, targeted actors, playwrights, and producers as well as critics in his farce The Critic, premiered in 1779. In a streamlined adaptation that just opened at the Shakespeare Theater, Jeffrey Hatcher has kept the parts of the play, about half of it or so, that poke fun at theater critics and journalists who think they can cross the line and actually do what normally they only critique. This made it into a fine companion piece for Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, a one-act play about two theater critics who cross another kind of line into the theater, seen in a double-bill on Monday night at the Lansburgh Theater. The joke here, of course, is that Tom Stoppard once served as second-string theater critic for the Bristol Evening World. Through the connections he made writing reviews, much like the aspiring critic-playwrights in the Sheridan piece, Stoppard made the transition into writing plays.

Some viewers, who do not have a personal stake in the daily struggle of writing reviews, may not find the subject matter so engrossing. The style of the two plays may distance them farther, both the inside jokes of the Enlightenment critics in Sheridan and the absurdist turns of Stoppard. Fortunately this production, directed by Michael Kahn, is smart and beautifully produced, with performances that keep the dialogue crackling but with enough space and separation to be easily understood. In The Critic, John Ahlin (Mr. Dangle) and Robert Dorfman (Mr. Sneer) were the best as two masters of snark, who try to sink the play of the more naive Mr. Puff, played with oddly energy-sapping fussiness by Robert Stanton. The second part of this play had some of the funniest skewering of actors and their foibles, with strong ensemble contributions from Hugh Nees (Prompter), Sandra Struthers (Actress 1), and Charity Jones (Actress 2).

Other Articles: Peter Mark, Playwrights get last word in delightful ‘Critic’ and ‘Real Inspector Hound’ (Washington Post, January 13) Nelson Pressley, The wrath of Michael Kahn in comedies about critics (Washington Post, January 2)

As the "backup" critic Moon in Inspector Hound, Stanton was more subdued and, not coincidentally, more effective. In the double-casting, Ahlin was the most memorable in both of his roles, as he also excelled in the role of Birdboot, the theater critic most devoted to the beauty of actresses -- if you can accept the unbelievable idea that critics would chat about the performance under review, during or after it. In my experience, that is the worst form, not only because critics do not want to influence one another but also because they want their best lines to end up securely on the page the next day. The scenic designs of James Noone were most lavish in The Critic, especially the theater within the theater, complete with its Baroque stage effects of ocean and naval battle. The costumes (Murell Horton) were generally bright and garish in The Critic, while tending more toward tweed and evening gown in Inspector Hound.

This production runs through February 14, at the Lansburgh Theater.

Christopher Taylor

W. Bolcom, Twelve New Etudes, C. Taylor (JDR, 2000)

Charles T. Downey, Pianist Christopher Taylor cranks the bombast dial a little too high (Washington Post, January 12)

Christopher Taylor is a concert showman of virtuosic excess. At the last solo recital he gave in Washington, in 2009, he played on a special two-manual Steinway for double the effect. This time around, on Sunday evening at Dumbarton Oaks, he had only a single keyboard, but in many ways he seemed to strive for sounds that were more massive and more complicated than the instrument could achieve.

The high point was a bombastic rendition of the first opus of Johannes Brahms, one of the early piano sonatas that many pianists avoid in favor of the composer’s later variations and character pieces... [Continue reading]

Christopher Taylor, piano
Friends of Music
Dumbarton Oaks

PREVIOUSLY:
Charles T. Downey, Christopher Taylor Doubles His Trouble (Ionarts, October 16, 2009)

Latest on Forbes: National Symphony Orchestra's New Conductor Ideal—But Audience Quality Has To Match Him

National Symphony Orchestra's New Conductor Ideal -- But Audience Quality Has To Match Him

[It] is good to be ambitious, it is also unhelpful to be deluded. To strive for name recognition above all is a great recipe for orchestral regression… as any big name who might come wouldn’t likely be in it with his heart... Barring unforeseen downturns in chemistry, appointing Noseda might be the NSO’s best shot yet at getting a foothold in musical relevance in Washington and beyond, [but he, in conjunction with the NSO leadership, has to overcome stodgy programming to win an interested, intrigued, active audience.]

The full article on Forbes.com.

Perchance to Stream: Boulez Est Mort Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio and online video from the week gone by. After clicking to an audio or video stream, you may need to press the "Play" button to start the broadcast. Some of these streams become unavailable after a few days.

• Watch the tribute performance of Pierre Boulez's Repons with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Matthias Pintscher. [Philharmonie de Paris]


• Listen to Pierre Boulez conduct the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Schoenberg's Transfigured Night, Piano Concerto, and Variations for Orchestra, plus the Nocturnes of Debussy, recorded in 2009 and 2005. [France Musique]


• From 1981, the Orchestre National de France, under Pierre Boulez, performs Stravinsky's Le Chant du Rossignol, Schoenberg's Pélleas et Mélisande, and Boulez's Le soleil des eaux, with soprano Phyllis Bryn Julson. [France Musique]


• Watch Pierre Boulez speak about his composition Sur incises and conduct it. [France Info]


• Music of Pergolesi, Ferrandini, and Vivaldi performed by Les Accents and Thibault Noally, plus singers Ana Quintans and Marianne Crebassa, recorded last November at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. [France Musique]


• Pianist András Schiff plays Bach's Goldberg-Variationen this past August at the Royal Albert Hall in London during the Proms. [ORF]


• Jesús López Cobos conducts a performance of Rossini's Guillaume Tell with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, starring Jean-François Lapointe (Guillaume Tell) and Nadine Koutcher (soprano) (Mathilde), recorded last September. [Radio Clásica]


• Listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, starring Sondra Radvanovsky (Anna Bolena), Ildar Abdrazakov (Enrico), and Jamie Barton (Giovanna Seymour), conducted by Marco Armiliato. [ORF]


• The contemporary music ensemble Psappha performs music by Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, and George Crumb, recorded at St Michael's in Ancoats in Manchester. [BBC3]

Read more »

American Opera Initiative: Snoozy 'Better Gods'

Rexford Tester (Lorrin Thurston), Timothy J. Bruno (Judge Albert Judd), Daryl Freedman (Queen Liliʻuokalani), Ariana Wehr (Kahua), and Hunter Enoch (James Miller) in Better Gods (photo by Scott Suchman for Washington National Opera)
Many Americans likely do not know the ugly details of how Hawaii became our 50th state. Part of the world's shameful history of colonialism, the annexation began with the forced abdication of the islands' last monarch, Queen Lili'uokalani, the ancestor of the family in Alexander Payne's film The Descendants. This is the subject of Better Gods, the latest new opera presented by Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative, which has been guiding new works by developing American composers to the stage since 2012, an hour-long work by composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist Caitlin Vincent. This is the first contribution to the program by Woolf, who is married to cellist Matt Haimovitz, while Vincent wrote the libretto to Joshua Bornfield's Uncle Alex in 2013, sadly not reviewed by Ionarts.

Other Articles: Anne Midgette, Deposed queen leads valiant but flawed ‘Better Gods’ at WNO (Washington Post, January 11) Alex Baker, Throne away (Parterre, January 11) Jeanette Kelly, Montreal composer Luna Pearl Woolf writes first opera, Better Gods (CBC, January 7) Steven Mark, Washington opera brings Liliuokalani’s story to stage (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, American Opera Initiative: 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The musical contributions were excellent, led by conductor Timothy Myers, who has impressed us over the years at the Castleton Festival and Wolf Trap Opera. Impressive mezzo-soprano Daryl Freedman was dignified and regal as Queen Lili'uokalani, with the sneering Lorrin Thurston of tenor Rexford Tester, who leads the coup against the queen, as a foil. Baritone Hunter Enoch was strong as a journalist who covers the events in Hawaii, although his role seemed largely superfluous to the story. Fine supporting performances came from bass Timothy J. Bruno (the judge who decides the queen's fate), bass Wei Wu (the royalist general who leads a rebellion in support of the queen), and soprano Ariana Wehr (the queen's ward).

Even with so much going for it, the opera was a disappointment. Vincent's libretto had its ponderous moments, saying a lot of things more than once that could have been left unsaid. Woolf's score had some appeal, tarted up with the sounds of traditional Hawaiian flutes and percussion, the latter played by Greg Akagi, one of the orchestra's percussionists, on stage. Queen Lili'uokalani was also a musician and composer, known for the song Aloha 'Oe, among many others, and Woolf weaves her melodies in with her own, as well as an ill-advised use of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Ethan McSweeny's production was functional if somewhat plain (sets by Daniel Conway, costumes by Lynly A. Saunders), with a static quality that drew attention to the static qualities of the opera.

This performance will be repeated this evening, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Briefly Noted: Blue Heron's Peterhouse Set

Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 4, Blue Heron, S. Metcalfe (released on August 14, 2015) BHCD1005 | 65'51"

Vol. 1 (2010) [Review] Vol. 2 (2012) Vol. 3 (2013)

Back in 2010, we took note of Blue Heron's project to record all of the music from Nick Sandon's reconstruction of the music in the Peterhouse Partbooks. This set of partbooks was probably copied around 1540 for use at Canterbury Cathedral, just after the Benedictine monks who had cared for the cathedral for centuries were driven out by the plunderers of Henry VIII's reformation. Peterhouse, one of the colleges at Cambridge, later acquired the books as part of its attempt to establish its own chapel and choir, but at some point the set lost its tenor partbook and several pages of the treble part, which Prof. Sandon has had to recreate.

Of the fifty-some pieces in this extraordinary source, largely unstudied before Sandon's work to restore it, forty are unica, unknown in any other source. The completions heard on these discs, while speculative, are the closest we are likely ever to come to this music in its original form, unless by a miracle the missing parts turn up somewhere. Blue Heron, based in Boston, still may not measure up to British counterparts like the Tallis Scholars and Stile Antico in terms of perfect intonation and musical sense, but the group seems to improve each time their sound reaches my ears. In Volume 4, the centerpiece is Missa Spes nostra, an extremely beautiful setting of the Latin Ordinary for Trinity Sunday by Robert Jones (fl. 1520-1535), a musician employed by the Royal Chapel under Henry VIII. The Sanctus, often the most gorgeous movement of a Renaissance polyphonic Mass in my experience, is a high-water mark both for this piece and for Blue Heron. The Kyrie, not set to polyphony, is sung in the form of a Sarum plainchant, in an odd style which is the low point of the disc. Thanks to Alex Ross, whose mention of this disc in his Best of the Year post brought the project back to my attention. Many delights await you, and a fifth and final disc is reportedly on the way.