European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Residents a new York tenement gather to investigate a comm Otic or in the Climax of Street & we seen Here in rehearsal against the backdrop of Adriani Globe asset. Courtesy photo bringing Kurt Weill s is Dave Casoy Tenor Kenneth Posey will share the role Flippo Fiorentino. By Deedee staff writer he gloss of the american dream has dimmed in new York Between the two world wars. In the shabby tenement Block where the Murrant family lives life serves primarily to crush souls and extinguish aspirations. And yet the dream never completely Dies. This is the stuff of which Kurt Weill s Street scene is made. And in the Houston grand opera s staging of the 1947 opera the lives of the dysfunctional Maur rants and their multiethnic neighbors Are colourful fragments in a fluid mosaic tempered with love and optimism As Well Spain. Set the living mosaic to a soundtrack of jazz and blues and the result is accessible thrilling drama to be played at the theater in Pfalz Bau in Ludwigshafen Germany from saturday through wednesday and then at Berlin s theater Des westerns from Jan. 15 through March 3. A mostly american cast will perform Street scene in English bringing to Europe a production that was first staged last Winter in Texas at the Houston grand opera to great critical acclaim. One standout of this production is director Francesca Zambello s ability to present a Story clearly without sacrificing music or dramatic effect. It s wonderful. I love this production very much said Michael Hansel general manager of the theater in Pfalz Bau. It s understandable. You can sit in the theater and know exactly what s going on Street scene take place during a hot hot summer in new York when Anna Murrant wife of a hard working but harder drinking stagehand is having an affair with the neighbourhood milk collector. The Maur rants daughter Rose is seeing a married Man and ponders becoming his kept woman although she is loved by the introverted intellectual Law student next door. The Maur rants son Willie is running wild. Neighbourhood gossips feed on Anna Murrant s indiscretion and attack each other s ethnic heritage. Tragedy is inevitable. Yet the cyclical nature of the residents lives also ensures the occasional bit of happiness. As Anna Murrant sings at one Point one must believe a better Day will come. I had a sense of bonding with her said Soprano Kay paschale one of two singers who will play Anna Murrant. But there were no options for her. She had a great Deal of optimism but they say that s True of a lot of abused women today. They say there s a better Day ahead but it s denial of their because Street scene features spoken dialogue it is closer to the american notion of a musical than an opera. The cast which includes american adults teens and children from nearby military bases in Heidelberg and Mannheim features performers with diverse talents. In spite of the show s downcast themes Street scene offers Points of respite. One is an ode Sung by an italian tenement resident to the glories of the american soda Fountain and ice Cream. The show s Giddies segment a rip snorting Boogie Boogie Pas de Deus called Moon faced starry eyed whirls the show s somber mood into the stratosphere. It takes a lot of stamina said dancer Danny costello a Boulder colo., native of the fast and furious number that requires him and partner Anita Vidovic to dance Uphill on the elaborate set. At the end i m just dying. Another Brushstroke of sparkle in a smaller role is delivered by a 13-year-old american student at the european school in Karlsruhe who credits.11 years of Ballet training for helping me with everything i Michela Carat Tim dances and sings in two roles a High shool graduate and a neighbourhood girl. The latter allows Ier a Solo turn which she performs with swaggering aplomb and zest. It s got a Little part of me in the daughter of a defense department contractor and a Ballet teacher Michela auditioned for Street scene last summer singing a Kurt Weill song she Learned from a compact disc of her father s. She was notified several weeks later that she d been cast but did t find out about the extent of her role until last month. Even with rehearsals taking up her evenings the thrill has t worn off. I love to watch from the Side. I m sitting there in Awe she said. Another local american in the cast is army capt. Ben Romer a jewish chaplain in the 26th area support group in Heidelberg. He took his daughter Elly to audition and also picked up a part for himself requiring a Brooklyn accent and a willingness to Wear what he Calls intensely awful clothes. Working with professionals Romer said has been a great experience. They tolerate Bur he added that the Opportunity was an example of Side benefits that come along sometimes when you re in the meshing the schedules of the full time professional performers with those of the locally hired part timers who hold other full time jobs or go to school has been a Challenge acknowledged the show s director. It s been a scheduling Nightmare Zambello said cheerfully. A Jigsaw Puzzle a youngster brought from the states to play Willie Murrant arrived in Germany and promptly caught the Chicken pox causing him to miss a week s rehearsals. The Chicken pox was a pain said Gabek Phaneof Rochester n.y., who played his role four years previously at the University of Rochester s Eastman school of music. The revival of Street scene involves some performers from the Houston production and some newcomers Many of whom Are american opera singers and dancers based in Europe. Tenor Kenneth Posey who will play the ice Cream Loving Lippo florentine was so eager to get his part that he requested a copy of the character s aria on arrival at the audition Hall and locked himself away for 30 minutes to learn the piece. I knew it was something i wanted to do said Posey. Potential Street scene viewers he urged should turn Down their metabolism and just sit Back and experience it. This is not a painting. You have to be in 8&8 do a my Kay paschale and cabe Kahane play Mother and son. Ives on Kurt Weill wanted to replace Prima Donnas Arias with popular songs. By Deedee Doke staff writer keeping it simple is the key to performing the music of Kurt Weill As he intended. Utter simplicity. He had a great love for utter simplicity. Weill kept to that theme recalled Lys Symonette whose unofficial title could be keeper of the flame the flame of his musical heritage that is. It s an ongoing Mission of almost a religious nature that brought her to Europe. To guide advise and make suggestions on musical presentation and interpretation for Weill s Street scene. Her miss on comes As part of her responsibilities As vice president and musical director of the new York based Kurt Weill foundation for music an organization that has overseen the copyrights for we Iii s works and administered the Weill estate since the 1981 death of his wife Singer actress Lotte Lenya. Weill died in 1950. She was concerned about what would become of his heritage his oeuvre said Symonette whose eyes Light up fondly when she discusses her old friends and Weill s music. I was assistant to Weill while he was alive so she Felt take care of his Symonette is dedicated to ensuring that Weill s works Are presented As he wrote them. That Means staying True to the work As a whole for instance adding or subtracting songs from the show s lineup is strictly verboten. And seeing to it that singers the orchestra and others connected with productions of Weill s creations stay True to the simplicity Weill craved. It is not like Puccini it is not Verdi it is More like Mozart the Curtis Institute trained musician said comparing Weill s clean musical lines to the flourishes of certain classical composers. As an example of the appropriate simplicity she pointed to the Sung and spoken performance of Mezzo Soprano Janice Felty in Street scene who plays the mean spirited gossip Emma jones., Felty agreed with the requirement for restraint in interpretation. If i punch the lines they d go Over the Edge. They jump out there anyway and if you punch them too hard you d just make the woman a caricature Felty said. The German born Symonette knew of Kurt Weill and admired his music from such works As the threepenny opera before both left nazi Germany for new lives in the United states. Weill took direct aim at Hitler in a work entitled Sil Bersee and was warned that he faced dire danger if he remained in Germany. Friends helped him escape from Berlin to Paris and he eventually wound up in the United states. Y sym Oriette and Weill met when she showed up to serve As a rehearsal pianist for him on a production. She then Mether future husband Randolph on the Weill show firebrand of Florence. Randolph Symonette later played the male Lead of Frank Murrant in the 1947 new York production of Street scene against the initial objections of Street scene author Elmer Rice. At first Rice would Only agree to cast Randolph Symonette in a strictly speaking role. Weill liked his voice Lys Symonette said in her Ludwigshafen hotel room. The show s first Outing in Philadelphia was a miserable failure Symonette said. They did t understand but an heir to the John Deere Fortune saw the show believed in it arid offered to finance it in new York where it was a sensation a tremendous Street scene was not Weill s first Success in the United states following his flight from Germany. Lady in the dark and one to Burn of Venus already had handed him commercial rewards. But although Street scene fared Well in new York it closed after 148 performances because it was too expensive to run. It in t always easy keeping wilful theater or opera directors with a mindset locked on the concept in line with the original concept. A production several years ago in Munich for instance in which terms Symonette describe As anti jewish were introduced into the script did t measure up. We had a big Row about it it was very unpleasant and the performance was no Good Symonette said. It did a lot of harm for the work " few German Heaters risk Weill pieces although the German composer is enjoying a Renaissance in the United states particularly in universities. German musicians Symonette said Don t understand the necessary looseness of the music or grasp the style of the american influences shading Weill s work. Something like that will take a Long time she said. Maybe a younger generation. Symonette she would like to see a greater appreciation for Weill in his Homeland where he has been dismissed As a Fortune seeker who abandoned Germany and has been relegated to a secondary role in his creative collaboration with the venerated German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Symonette politely refers to Brecht As not very generous but it is her View that Brecht contributed to Weill s discredit in Germany by downplaying his role in the pair s successes. Of the current Street scene production Symonette said she believed her former employer would be so thrilled with the production and its run in Germany. This work was very close to his his dream she said was to Advance the american musical part of that dream was to create music that fit into the contemporary lives of american listeners and to replace the aria with a popular song. Symonette shared an anecdote in which a contemporary of Weill s bragged that his music would live on 50 years after his death Weill responded i Don t give a Damn about posterity. I care about 24 the stars and stripes Friday december 16,1994 the stars and stripes v 25
