Musica Viva is to be applauded for its efforts to explore innovative ideas for the presentation of classical music.
To this end, the idea of showcasing the prodigious talents of Musica Viva’s 2018 “Future Maker”, Aura Go, by presenting all twenty-four of Chopin’s preludes against the background of the fascinating story of the small pianina from Majorca on which Chopin composed them, offered enticing prospects.
Adding to the enticements were the facts that author, Paul Kildea, would work with director, Richard Pyros to adapt his best seller, Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism, and that both celebrated actress, Jennifer Vuletic, as well as the featured artist, pianist Aura Go, would enact the adaptation.
Given therefore that the concert was entitled Chopin’s Piano, and that Chopin’s actual piano was a rather small instrument, it came as something of a surprise, when entering Llewellyn Hall, to discover that the program would be performed on a full sized concert grand, rather than a period instrument, and that both Go and Vuletic would interpret a number of characters during the performance.
The concert commenced promisingly with Vuletic, a striking figure in the costume of an Eighteenth century gentlemen, beginning the story of the piano, while Aura Go, dressed as Mozart, commenced the first of the preludes.
It quickly became obvious that Go was indeed an exciting pianist. However it was also obvious that the acoustic on the vast concert hall stage favoured the piano. But as attractive as the piano sounded, the acoustic reverb muddied the spoken word, so that when Vuletic changed characters, and adopted histrionic, theatrically heightened, European accents; it became nearly impossible to understand what she was saying.
Further acerbating the problem was the fact that as Vuletic’s costume for all four characters in the first act; Juan Bauza, George Sand, Franz Liszt and Eugene Delacroix, remained pretty much the same, making it difficult to keep track of which character was which, particularly for those in the audience unaware that George Sand was a female with a penchant for wearing men’s clothes.
For the second act, Vuletic changed into a period female costume to portray Wanda Landowska and Peggy Guggenheim, then a Nazi Officer and back to Juan Bauza.
Go, an untrained actor, was given an impossible task which would have challenged even Sir Laurence Olivier. That of providing convincing portrayals of five male characters, Alexander Binder, Henri Lew, Constantin Brancusi, a Nazi Office, US Immigration Officer, as well Wanda Landowska’s lesbian protégé, Denise Restout, while interpreting the rest of Chopin’s preludes, still wearing her Chopin costume. It’s doubtful whether Olivier could have managed the preludes, but Go did, superbly.
Although director, Pyros, made effective use of lighting and silhouettes to create some striking stage pictures, even if every line of dialogue had been crystal clear, his over-ambitious effort to cram too much superfluous detail into what surely was meant as a showcase for Aura Go’s pianistic virtuosity, may have been better served by simply accompanying her preludes with a simple narration.
Chopin’s Piano
Llewellyn Hall, William Herbert Place, Canberra
Performance: Wednesday 19 July 2023
Chopin’s Piano will also be presented in Perth (24 July) and Adelaide (26 July). For more information, visit: www.musicaviva.com.au for details.
Image: Jennifer Vultetic and Aura Go in Chopin’s Piano – photo by Aaron Francis
Review: Bill Stephens OAM