A Little Night Music

A lovely production of A Little Night Music is running at Theatre 2020 in Brooklyn Heights thru May 12th. I highly recommend it.

The show has some excellent acting and much wonderful singing. Josh Powell as Frederik Egerman and Maria Tramontozzi as his much younger wife Anne are among the best of people I've seen in those roles, and I've seen a lot of people in those roles. Alex Kopnick's gorgeous projections provide an enjoyable and convincing sense of place. The direction of David Fuller and Judith Jarosz captures both the humor and wistfulness of the piece. 

And it's unmiked! People's voices flow from their actual mouths! 

One of the production's biggest strengths is its use of nontraditional casting. It's great fun to see people triumph in roles that they usually wouldn't even be considered for. 

Projection by Alex Kopnick
Photo: Amy Schachter

Granted, the show suffers some of the problems of very-low-budget shows: a piano rather than an orchestra, no scenery or props, unimpressive costumes. How, this production gets Night Music's essential Night Music-ness. I already have my ticket to see it again. 

Wendy Caster

***

Two little suggestions: (1) At the beginning of the show, project the time and place of the show to orient newcomers (not everyone in the audience has already seen Night Music a dozen times!) (Just most.) (2) While the show gets away without props, relying on much miming of drinking schnapps, etc, you gotta have a rope. Again, remember the newbies.

William Grant Still and the Harlem Renaissance

The Orchestra Now (TON) regularly presents concerts keyed into exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The most recent, William Grant Still and the Harlem Renaissance, focuses on Still's "Symphony No. 2, Song of a New Race," reflecting the Met exhibit, "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism." Still had an impressive career full of firsts for Americans and African-Americans. He wrote five symphonies, nine operas, and four ballets, along with various choral works, art songs, and chamber pieces. His best known piece is probably his "Afro-American Symphony," which was the most frequently performed piece by an American for years, pre-1950. TON conductor/founder Leon Botstein chose to focus on Still's second symphony, which he felt was not sufficiently known.

The structure of these "Sight & Sound" performances starts with a curator discussing the art exhibit with accompanying slides, followed by Botstein's introducing the music through brief excerpts and a detailed discussion of the piece's strengths, meanings, and context. Then the piece is played in full, followed by a Q and A.

Tisch Curator at Large Denise Murrell's introduction to "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism" was elucidating and thoughtful. Botstein's discussion of the music was also elucidating and thoughtful and also sometimes funny. He's a charming teacher. The excerpts from the symphony were inviting, and the orchestra was excellent. Strangely enough, the whole symphony was less than the sum of its parts, at least to me.

At the beginning of the Q and A, a Black woman complained that the performance exploited and appropriated Still's work and was arguably racist. With our country's history of systemic racism, the accuser's feelings and distress are understandable. I wish now I had heard Botstein's answer, but I left because these discussions seem to me to be impossible by their nature. (Also, to be honest, I was antsy.) What could Botstein really say? How can one answer such strongly felt emotions? Particularly when you've just been called racist?

I have an answer, however, since I'm not standing there in public like Botstein was. I think that the accusations were unfair.

I should mention that my friend and I had already noted how few Black people there were in the orchestra and the audience. That fact at least partially reflects racism in education and opportunity in the USA. But the woman's comments were specifically about this orchestra playing Still's piece.

First, TON was likely making little to nothing doing this performance. They were taking nothing from Still; I can't see how that would constitute exploitation.

As for appropriation: Botstein's discussion was the exact opposite of that. He spoke at length of Still's experiences, of the pitfalls of people of color or various ethnicities writing for a largely white audience, of how much he respected Still's work, and of how important it be that Still not be forgotten. Botstein in no way took credit for the work or tried to adopt it. Instead, he worked in service to the piece.

As for the day being racist, I do not think it is racist for a white conductor and largely white and Asian-American orchestra to play work by an African-American composer. I also think it's fine for gay people to play straight people in movies (and vice versa), for Asians to play Jewish roles, for men to write female characters, for Black people to perform in classics, and so on. The bottom line is the quality of the work.

The best depiction I have ever seen of a conversation between two teenaged girls was written by John Sayles. In Appropriate, currently on Broadway, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a Black man, has written a strong play featuring only White characters. Barbara Kingsolver's brilliant Demon Copperhead is written in the voice of a young man in Appalachia. And so on.

And, yes, I think it is okay for a non-Black orchestra to play music by a Black man, particularly in the context that Botstein provided. (Though, of course, there should be more Black people in the orchestra!) What wouldn't be okay would be for Still's work to be neglected due to the current cultural climate.

Wendy Caster