| . | 03/21/2009
The Firebrand of Florence
By: Michael Patrick Hearn
Confident with such stellar successes as Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus behind him, German-born composer Kurt Weill eagerly adapted Edwin Justus Mayer’s hit play The Firebrand as a “Broadway operetta in two acts” in 1944. Ira Gershwin agreed to supply the lyrics as he had for Lady in the Dark and refashioned the 1924 script with Mayer. Famed designer Raoul Pène du Bois provided the elaborate sets and costumes for the unmemorably titled The Firebrand of Florence. Weill conceived of the new show as “a real opera, with big choral and ensemble numbers, full of melodic invention, and my taking advantage of all the craftsmanship I have acquired throughout the years.” He thought Gershwin had never surpassed his lyrics. They were never friskier (“We gotta lotta terracotta in Florence”). Oddly, only the lovely romantic ballad “Life, Love and Laughter” has had any sort of life beyond the show. The production became more Broadway than operetta, more Knickerbocker Holiday than Die Dreigroschenoper, merely a Tin Pan Alley answer to Offenbach’s opéra-comique. When it opened on March 22, 1945, the critics were merciless. No one was more wounded than Weill’s wife, the legendary Lotta Lenya as the Duchess of Florence: she never appeared again on Broadway until after her husband’s death. Weill complained that his “intimate” opera was “killed by production.” What it needed was a good director, a good cast and a good libretto. The Firebrand of Florence lacked fire and died after 43 performances.
The Collegiate Chorale more than made up for these defects during a one-night-only concert version at recently renovated Alice Tully Hall on March 12, 2009. With the cooperation of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., this was the first time the Weill-Gershwin score had been performed in all its glory in New York since 1945. The Chorale is justly famous for its superb revivals of obscure productions such as Scott Joplin’s lamentably under performed ragtime opera Treemonisha and the grim Robert Moran-Philip Glass opera The Juniper Tree. The producers assembled a dream cast of superior singers for The Firebrand of Florence, and everyone got caught up in the silliness of the libretto. The complicated plot was loosely based on the life and loves of the notorious Italian Renaissance sculptor Benevento Cellini. Condemned to hang for his attack on a Florentine count, the artist is pardoned at the last moment so that he might finish a statue commissioned by Duke Alessandro de’Medici. Of course that work of art gets lost in all the amorous intrigues and political treachery as Cellini pursues his delectable model, the Duke goes after her as well, and the Duchess of Florence chases Cellini. All looks bad for the artist when he is once more condemned to death, but in the nick of time he is again saved from the noose.
Famed heartthrob baritone Nathan Gunn’s Cellini was engagingly cocky and seductive; and soprano Anna Christy as the voluptuous artist’s model Angela was a delicious ditz. Versatile David Pittu, who played Bertolt Brecht in the 2007 Weill-Lenya biomusical LoveMusik, portrayed villainous Count Maffio, Cellini’s butler Ascanio, First Clerk and the French ambassador Marquis Pierre with increasing aplomb. Roosevelt André Credit and Krysty Swann with their glorious voices stood out in the minor roles of the Hangman and Cellini’s maid Emilia. Tony-winner Victoria Clark was highly amusing as the sexy, conniving Duchess of Florence; too bad there was not more of her throughout the show. Broadway veteran Terence Mann as lecherous Duke Alessandro de’Medici was a perfect foil for Clark’s man-eating diva. The only mishap of the performance was a candle malfunction, but Clark and Mann’s quick comebacks preserved the spirit of the evening.
It was refreshing to hear so varied and melodious a Broadway score with a full chorus and orchestra. Ted Sperling thoroughly enjoyed himself as he vigorously conducted the New York City Opera Orchestra. Tony-winning actor Roger Rees doubled as director and narrator; and his modulating Royal Shakespeare Company trained voice tripped adroitly over the harmless comic couplets of the new script. Michael Clark’s visually arresting computerized projects also wittily commented on the action of the play. The only melancholy note of the evening was the reminder in the program that the company’s longtime musical director Robert Bass died suddenly last August. But this deep loss did not dampen the vitality of The Firebrand of Florence. What a shame it was only one night!
Alice Tully Hall
Lincoln Center
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