SSC pulls out all the stops in delicious ‘Bach At Leipzig’

Bach’s presence is felt throughout the play: in soaring music between scenes, in counterpoint to the dreams and aspirations of half a dozen lesser 18th century German musicians all vying for a prominent musical post, and in the contrapuntal structure of the play itself, composed like a musical fugue for six voices. But you don’t have to be a musical scholar to enjoy this play. As stylized as its construction, and as rich as the text is in sly digs at politics, philosophy, and religion, this is a very human comedy delivered by an expert cast who know how to make the most of every laugh—and there are plenty of them.

In the bustling German town of Leipzig in 1722, the organ master of the largest church, and head of the adjacent musical school, dies on his bench, collapsing over his keyboard (having thereby “performed his own dirge with his face”). His former pupil, Johann Fasch (played by the engaging Stephen Caffrey as a hopeful, middle-aged Everyman) comes to audition for the post of new organ master. So too does Georg Schott (a waspishly funny Larry Paulsen), a dour, puritanical organist at one of Lepizig’s smallest, least fashionable churches.

A third aspirant is Georg Lenck (the vivacious Allen Gilmore). So poor “I cannot afford even a middle name with which to distinguish myself” (in a world full of Johanns and Georgs), organist Lenck is an unlucky gambler and habitual pickpocket. (“A keyboardist’s fingers—if I do not keep them busy, they busy themselves,” he apologizes.)

This trio is soon joined by two more ambitious organists, Georg Kaufmann (a charming and moving Paul Vincent O’Connor) a befuddled, but affable old duffer, and Johann Steindorff (exuberant Drew Foster), youthful, indiscreet son of a wealthy prince who would really rather be a dancer. Not only rivals in music, Kaufmann and Steindorff hail from two Germanic provinces about to go to war against each other over little more than petty differences in the brands of Lutheranism they embrace. Rounding out the candidates is foppish, perennial also-ran Johann Graupner (the delightful Mike Ryan).

Playwright Moses takes crisp, hilarious potshots at religious warfare, zealotry, and factionalism of all kinds. (“Why must everything have a name?” challenges humanist Fasch. “So we know which houses to burn,” ripostes the rigid Schott.) As characters resort to intrigue, blackmail, and other skullduggery to gain their agendas (in a marvelous series of intricate recurring verbal motifs), old Kaufmann is persuaded he’s watching a play in rehearsal— leading to a lovely divertimento on the art of stagecraft that also illustrates the debate on predestination at the play’s core.

The massive arched church doorway of John Iacovelli’s striking set and creative spotlighting by lighting designer David Lee Cuthbert provide a solid framework for the play’s comic as well as physical action: the virtuoso sequence when Fasch explains the composition of a fugue in which the cast mimes a fast-forward repeat of the entire previous act in illustration; a swordfight highlighted by the spanky verve with which Foster’s Steindorff gets to show off his dancing prowess at last. Even B. Modern’s elaborate period costumes suggest subtle moral, financial and philosophical differences between the characters whose comic rivalries and wistful revelations make this production such a pleasure.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

Comments

Add New Search

Write a comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
UBBCode:	-color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."