Reviews 2015
Reviews 2015
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by Sigmund Romberg, directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin
Toronto Operetta Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto
December 27, 28 & 31 2015, January 2 & 3, 2016
“Golden days, in the sunshine of a happy youth”
Toronto Operetta Theatre has given Sigmund Romberg’s 1923 operetta The Student Prince a rousing revival. I have seen only three productions of the work, but this one strikes me as the best sung of all. In fact, just hearing the cast sing Romberg’s well-known hits so beautifully and with such passion is reason enough to see the show.
The Student Prince is the most popular of Romberg’s works and was the longest running Broadway show of the 1920s, running longer than even Jerome Kern’s seminal musical Show Boat of 1927. The operetta’s popularity was renewed in 1954 when it was made into a film with Mario Lanza doing the singing for Edmund Purdom in the title role. This is the TOT’s third staging after productions in 1989 and 2001.
Based on a German play from 1901, The Student Prince of the title is Karl Franz (Ernesto Ramírez), heir to the throne of the fictional kingdom of Karlsberg. The Prime Minister Count von Mark (Stuart Graham) permits Karl Franz to go out into the world for one year to study at the University of Heidelberg as long as he remains under the surveillance of his old tutor Doctor Engel (Curtis Sullivan), who himself attended Heidelberg.
One reason that the operetta has remained so popular is that it contains some of the most glorious songs Romberg ever wrote – “Golden Days”, “Deep in My Heart”, “Serenade”, “Just We Two” as well as many others. A second reason is that, despite the typical operetta set-up of royals and commoners, the real subject of the work is far more complex.
Dorothy Donnelly’s libretto initially views nostalgia in a positive light as in Doctor Engel’s memories of his own days at Heidelberg summed up in the song “Golden Days”. Yet, for Karl Franz to accrue any “golden days” of his own, he has to learn to live in the present. When Karl Franz is recalled to Karlsberg, he finds that he is already experiencing nostalgia, or living in the past, that prevents him from undertaking his duties. To solve this problem he returns to Heidelberg but discovers that because his status and that of his former student friends has changed he can no longer relive the past. Thus, strangely enough for work that seems so centred on nostalgia, the operetta ultimately demonstrates its hollowness. The past is irretrievable and life in the present is all their is.
The TOT has assembled an especially fine cast for the present production. As the title character, Ernesto Ramírez, who has shone in previous TOT productions like The Land of Smiles in 2013 and Luisa Fernanda in 2011, is now completely at home on stage. He has a rich, Italianate tenor and seemingly unlimited lung-power. His impassioned singing of the famous “Serenade” drew the loudest and longest applause of the evening. But Ramírez lends a heartfelt quality to all of his singing.
It is good to see Curtis Sullivan, known more nowadays for his work with Opera Atelier, have a chance to sing music outside the baroque period. His expressive bass-baritone brings out all the complex emotions that lie behind the show’s signature tune “Golden Days”. He may feign Doctor Engel’s age and infirmity, but in reality Sullivan is fit and vigorous enough to be a romantic lead.
Stefan Fehr uses his light, attractive tenor to illuminate the character of Detlef and make him the most light-hearted and persuasive of the students who befriend Karl Franz. He has the privilege of leading the chorus in the show’s famous three-quarter-time drinking song aptly titled “Drink!, Drink! Drink!”
As per operetta tradition, the main couple is paralleled with a second couple. Here they are Princess Margaret and the soldier Captain Tarnitz. From their first appearance late in Act 1, director Guillermo Silva-Marin has them suggest that the two are involved in a relationship of some sort. While the Princess’s attraction to Tarnitz seems more a dalliance than true love, she still must turn away a man who has helped get through the long period of waiting for Karl Franz to see his duty.
Dina Shikhman and Cian Horrobin sing and act these roles with more nuance that one expects of secondary characters and this only helps to reinforce the seriousness underlying the dilemma of the main characters. Both have fine voices – Shikhman a smooth mezzo-soprano and Horrobin a clarion tenor – and together they make the duet “Just We Too” a real delight.
In what are primarily comic speaking roles, both Sean Curran and Carrie Parks are very funny. Curran plays the Karl Franz’s fussy valet Lutz, who is foolishly more demanding than the Prince or his tutor. Parks plays the Grand-Duchess as a kind of Lady Bracknell more imperious than any other character on stage.
Silva-Marin has designed and directed the work with sympathy and admirable clarity. He stages Karl Franz’s scene in Karlsberg remembering his happy past in Heidelberg with typical simplicity and ingenuity. Rather than relying on scrims and lighting tricks as is usually the case, Silva-Marin simply places the voices from the past – the Doctor’s, Kathie’s and the students’ – in the darkness of the auditorium so that they do seem to come to the Prince out of nowhere.
Derek Bate leads an eleven-member ensemble in a lively account of the score gracefully negotiating Romberg’s frequent changes of rhythm. The TOT tends to wait ten or more years between productions of The Student Prince. If you want see this work so overflowing with familiar melodies that is important not just in the history of operetta but in the history of the American music theatre, you really should not hesitate. Live in the present and look back on your happiness at leisure.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Stefan Fehr, Jennifer Taverner, Adam Norrad and Ernesto Ramírez; Ernesto Ramírez; as Prince Karl Franz; Jennifer Taverner as Kathie. ©2015 Gary Beechey.
For tickets, visit www.torontooperetta.com.
2015-12-29
The Student Prince