Evening star., 1960-03-01


series of contemporary Ameri-
can operas the New York City
Opera last night presented
six Characters in Search of
an Author" music by Hugo
Weisgall, libretto by Denis
Johnston, at the Lisner Audi
torium. The problems presented
by the unusually skillful and
provocative libretto make the
work, both theoretically and
actually, of great Importance to
anyone interested in opera as
a living and developing art.
The rehearsal Of an opera,
"The Temptation of st. An
thony," by one Weisgall, a
composer Of modern tuneless
stuff" as the Director says, is
in progress. The scene is de-
veloped with mordent gaiety
and continuous wit, parodieS of
all the personalities of an opera
production being created and
abandoned rapidly and breezily.
The text is Of paramount i'm
portance to the proceedings, as
it is for example in the pro-
logue of "Ariadne auf NaxoS. -
and as it is not in the first act
of "Traviata."
Into the rehearsal come six
Characters, whose lives and
destinieS have been suspended
midway by their author who
turned to another book. In
their limbo they become con-
vinced that a character, how
ever insignificant, has eternal
life in the art of its creator,
and that all they need is to
find an author to materialize
the future unborn life with
which they are pregnant. They
suggest that they substitute
their own story for that being
rehearsed, and the opera troupe
finally agrees, with seme mis-
givings.
Play-in-Play Avoided
The story proceeds not as
conventional play within a play
but rather with admirable skill
as a unified situation, with the
Characters explaining and act
ing and becoming involved with |
the characters of the opera,
now sympathetic, now antag-
onistic, who seem gradually to
attain a new superhuman di-
menson as they become ANAL
gamated with the lives Of the |
Characters. The Characters
are a family of violent passion
and lurid histories, and it would |
have been all too easy for the
show to have deteriorated into
Eugene ONeill surrounded by
farce. One Of the great beauties
OF the opera, however, is that
the comic spirit pervades ev-
erything, even the introspective
tragedies of the Characters.
1t is clear that the success
of the opera depends on the
audience understanding the in
tricate lines. Even in the best .
sung opera productions it is
only the most conventional
phrases that can be projected
through the medium of sing
ing. Thus there must be a level
at which the show is imme-
diately accessible to the audi
ence, even though the finer de-
light must wait on study or a
more intimate familiarity on
the stage. If this is fault of
opera, it is also a fault of |
Shakespeare and Goethe. Fur
thermore, it seems to me, in
any art whatever - sonnet,
novel, play, opera, symphony,
painting-the substantial mar
row must be fought for by
cracking the bone. 1t can sell
dom be accepted with casual
thanks. How does "Six Charac-
ters" make out in this regard?
Smoothly Presented
1t makes out superbly. Much
of the dialogue cannot be un-
derstood, but most of it can,
and the show is carried on so
smoothly by the combination
of dramatic skill and expertly
devised stage music that the
audience is never confused or
left out Of the story. Hugo |
Weisgall's score is modern, but !
by no means tuneless, although |
the melody is hardly Of the
Verdi kind.
In its way, 1t is the finest
brand Of theater music, the
driving force Of what is hap
pening onstage, often incon-
spicuous but never inconSe-
quential, and at times rising