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selenakStarring Cecilia Bartoli as Maria; I saw it on Thursday and with one important caveat loved it. If you've read/heard about the production, you'll probably be familiar with the central gimmick; the critic of the Süddeutsche Zeitung suspected it's the result of the director anticipating cruel remarks re: the age difference between Cecilia Bartoli and the rest of the youthful cast, and preventing it by using that very age difference: the production is Maria, decades after Tony's death, remembering the events of her youth.
This I knew in advance, but what I hadn't known was that there's also a young Maria on stage, which works out surprisingly well. Young Maria does all the speaking and interacting, and the fact that older Maria (I can't write "old" Maria, because La Bartoli is a youthful looking 50 something) can't touch any of the characters (until the very end) contributes to the poignancy, though she sometimes acts as a mirror/contrast to her younger self in movements. Young Maria wears the traditional white dress until the last scene, older Maria the black dress from the last scene throughout. This concepts also changes the context/subtext of several songs: "I feel pretty", for example, is now older Maria looking back with amusement and a mixture of joy and longing to her young self, and "Tonight", in addition to being young Tony and Maria being passionately in love, is also older Maria with Cecilia Bartoli's mature mezzo soprano voice longing for what she's lost. The arrangement for "Somewhere" in this production isn't a duet between Tony and Maria, it's older Maria, having just relived the deaths of her brother and Riff and knowing what's to come for Tony, grieving and protesting fate. And so forth.
Unfortunately, where this is all working towards is my one big nitpick/caveat/complaint/what have you, the very end of the production: After the original ending - young Maria's furious dressing down of Sharks, Jets and Adults alike and her kissing Tony one more time -, it's older Maria who says "Te adoro, Anton", the lights go out, the noise of the subway which was there at the start when older Maria started her flashback returns, the light goes on again and older Maria walks gladly into Tony's arms for the first time, the implication being that she's committed suicide and now finally is reunited with him. This I am definitely not on board with. Romeo and Juliet both commit suicide due to assuming the other is dead, yes, but they are TEENAGERS, and they do it immediately. Older Maria - who now owns the store she worked for as a girl, we see this at the start of the production - has had a life, and the implication that in all those years she found nothing making it worth continuing, nothing to equal the passionate emotion of a few days as a teenager, is something very different and just feels wrong to me. Also like an attempt at a faux romantic "happy ending" (Tony and Maria reunited), when the power of the ending of both West Side Story and R & J is the utter destruction the feuding and hatred have wrought, which isn't reversible. Oh, and it does give conclusion to Bartoli's Maria, making her one with the rest of the cast, sure, but not like this, director. Even after all those longing songs. Not like this.
Other thoughts: the production was firmly set in the late 50s (as indicated by the boys' hair cuts and girls' dresses), with no attempt to update, but the blatant racism shown towards the Puerto Ricans and all the "who asked you to come here?" had very present day resonance for the audience; you could tell. Which is why I regret the production uses the original arrangement for "America" (i.e. Anita and her friends), not the revised arrangement and lyrics from the movie version (all the Sharks), because I heretically happen to consider the later one better, especially in the current day situation, see also this old entry as to the reasons, complete with quotes. Otoh the production swayed me a bit on my other movie-caused perference, i.e. the switch of places between "Cool" and "Gee, Officer Kruppke". In its original place, as in this production, "Cool" contributes to working up the tension among the Jets that's about to become lethal none too much later.
About that, though: seeing how skillfully Tony shames/manipulates the Jets and Sharks earlier into a one on one fist fight instead of the big rumble, it's frustrating to see him go about stopping the fight incredibly clumsily and with apparantly no plan beyond "I'll just say stop". Here, good old Shakespeare made the relevant plot point more plausible (i.e. Tybalt challenges Romeo, Romeo, newly wed to Juliet, has no intention of accepting, Mercutio is angry on his behalf and starts to fight Tybalt instead, Romeo tries to stop it, Mercutio's death happens, etc. On the other hand, I agreed, once again, with Arthur Laurents' boast that he bettered Shakespeare on the final tragic twist; Romeo simply not getting Friar Laurents' letter because the plague hits Mantua is an accident, the Jets assaulting Anita, thereby causing her not to deliver Maria's message to Tony, is directly related to the hatred and feuding that's been going on through the play. And that assault scene remains shoking and yet one of those instances where I consider it dramatically necessary and justified to have been written. (BTW, it's always interesting to see what the individual productions do with Anybodys during that scene. Most I've seen let her back off - but not intervene - when she realises where this is going; this one, taking its cue from the fact she's taunting Anita verbally early on, lets her be one of the pack assaulting Anita, the ultimate consequence of her desire to be one of the boys, and then caught up the shame when Doc puts an end to it.)
Bernstein's music remains glorious no matter how often I listen to it, and it occured to me that the lyrics for "Officer Kruppke" with their wordplay and sarcasm are classic Sondheim already. I wish these two would have collaborated more often. Then again, who's to say that more masterpieces would have resulted - maybe the uniqueness of the situation contributed to it.
In conclusion: despite my objection to the ending, a great experience in the theatre. Definitely worth a trip to Salzburg for.
This I knew in advance, but what I hadn't known was that there's also a young Maria on stage, which works out surprisingly well. Young Maria does all the speaking and interacting, and the fact that older Maria (I can't write "old" Maria, because La Bartoli is a youthful looking 50 something) can't touch any of the characters (until the very end) contributes to the poignancy, though she sometimes acts as a mirror/contrast to her younger self in movements. Young Maria wears the traditional white dress until the last scene, older Maria the black dress from the last scene throughout. This concepts also changes the context/subtext of several songs: "I feel pretty", for example, is now older Maria looking back with amusement and a mixture of joy and longing to her young self, and "Tonight", in addition to being young Tony and Maria being passionately in love, is also older Maria with Cecilia Bartoli's mature mezzo soprano voice longing for what she's lost. The arrangement for "Somewhere" in this production isn't a duet between Tony and Maria, it's older Maria, having just relived the deaths of her brother and Riff and knowing what's to come for Tony, grieving and protesting fate. And so forth.
Unfortunately, where this is all working towards is my one big nitpick/caveat/complaint/what have you, the very end of the production: After the original ending - young Maria's furious dressing down of Sharks, Jets and Adults alike and her kissing Tony one more time -, it's older Maria who says "Te adoro, Anton", the lights go out, the noise of the subway which was there at the start when older Maria started her flashback returns, the light goes on again and older Maria walks gladly into Tony's arms for the first time, the implication being that she's committed suicide and now finally is reunited with him. This I am definitely not on board with. Romeo and Juliet both commit suicide due to assuming the other is dead, yes, but they are TEENAGERS, and they do it immediately. Older Maria - who now owns the store she worked for as a girl, we see this at the start of the production - has had a life, and the implication that in all those years she found nothing making it worth continuing, nothing to equal the passionate emotion of a few days as a teenager, is something very different and just feels wrong to me. Also like an attempt at a faux romantic "happy ending" (Tony and Maria reunited), when the power of the ending of both West Side Story and R & J is the utter destruction the feuding and hatred have wrought, which isn't reversible. Oh, and it does give conclusion to Bartoli's Maria, making her one with the rest of the cast, sure, but not like this, director. Even after all those longing songs. Not like this.
Other thoughts: the production was firmly set in the late 50s (as indicated by the boys' hair cuts and girls' dresses), with no attempt to update, but the blatant racism shown towards the Puerto Ricans and all the "who asked you to come here?" had very present day resonance for the audience; you could tell. Which is why I regret the production uses the original arrangement for "America" (i.e. Anita and her friends), not the revised arrangement and lyrics from the movie version (all the Sharks), because I heretically happen to consider the later one better, especially in the current day situation, see also this old entry as to the reasons, complete with quotes. Otoh the production swayed me a bit on my other movie-caused perference, i.e. the switch of places between "Cool" and "Gee, Officer Kruppke". In its original place, as in this production, "Cool" contributes to working up the tension among the Jets that's about to become lethal none too much later.
About that, though: seeing how skillfully Tony shames/manipulates the Jets and Sharks earlier into a one on one fist fight instead of the big rumble, it's frustrating to see him go about stopping the fight incredibly clumsily and with apparantly no plan beyond "I'll just say stop". Here, good old Shakespeare made the relevant plot point more plausible (i.e. Tybalt challenges Romeo, Romeo, newly wed to Juliet, has no intention of accepting, Mercutio is angry on his behalf and starts to fight Tybalt instead, Romeo tries to stop it, Mercutio's death happens, etc. On the other hand, I agreed, once again, with Arthur Laurents' boast that he bettered Shakespeare on the final tragic twist; Romeo simply not getting Friar Laurents' letter because the plague hits Mantua is an accident, the Jets assaulting Anita, thereby causing her not to deliver Maria's message to Tony, is directly related to the hatred and feuding that's been going on through the play. And that assault scene remains shoking and yet one of those instances where I consider it dramatically necessary and justified to have been written. (BTW, it's always interesting to see what the individual productions do with Anybodys during that scene. Most I've seen let her back off - but not intervene - when she realises where this is going; this one, taking its cue from the fact she's taunting Anita verbally early on, lets her be one of the pack assaulting Anita, the ultimate consequence of her desire to be one of the boys, and then caught up the shame when Doc puts an end to it.)
Bernstein's music remains glorious no matter how often I listen to it, and it occured to me that the lyrics for "Officer Kruppke" with their wordplay and sarcasm are classic Sondheim already. I wish these two would have collaborated more often. Then again, who's to say that more masterpieces would have resulted - maybe the uniqueness of the situation contributed to it.
In conclusion: despite my objection to the ending, a great experience in the theatre. Definitely worth a trip to Salzburg for.
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Date: 2016-08-27 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-27 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-08-27 05:46 pm (UTC)(Though I also share your preference for the movie version of 'America', I'm sure this is partly influenced by imprinting not so much on the film as a cast recording of a London version that used to the film 'America,' and being befuddled when I finally saw the 'original' version of the show live). I think your reasonings reL the improvement hold up though.
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Date: 2016-08-28 04:58 am (UTC)Incidentally, the programm notes for the Salzburg production mention that Lin-Manuel Miranda worked on a famous new Broadway production some years ago, which had all the dialogues betweeen the Puerto Rican characters in Spanish - have you seen that one?
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Date: 2016-08-28 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-28 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-08-28 10:17 am (UTC)(Also lots of thanks for the cute card, which arrived intact and all in one piece :))
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Date: 2016-08-29 06:40 am (UTC)It was a great production, and Percyowner above offered an alternate explanation for the one thing that troubled me.
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Date: 2016-08-31 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-01 07:04 am (UTC)