Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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music, book and lyrics by Paul Sportelli and Jay Turvey, directed by Jackie Maxwell
Shaw Festival, Court House Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
August 5-October 2, 2011
August 5 saw the world premiere of Maria Severa, the sixth musical by Paul Sportelli and Jay Turvey. The work has many inspired sequences imbued with the fado music native to Portugal, but it does not rise to the height of Tristan, the duo’s previous musical for the Shaw in 2007. Whereas Tristan was based on a novella by Thomas Mann, Sportelli and Turvey have had to concoct their own, severely flawed story for Maria Severa.
As the programme note by fado specialist Richard Elliott makes clear, little is know about the historical Maria Severa-Onofriana (1820-46) except that she was the first fado singer to become famous. It is also known that she was one of the mistresses of Francisco de Paula Portugal e Castro, 13th Count of Vimioso (1817–1865), who used to take her to watch him bullfighting. Fado, a blues-like urban song style that became popular in the mid-19th century predates Severa, but the myth that she originated it dates from the novel A Severa by Júlio Dantas (1876-1962) that he made into a play in 1901.
Sportelli and Turvey accept the myth at Severa invented fado but otherwise make no use of Dantas in their musical. They begin by having Carlos, Maria’s guitarist, state that he wants to go back whereupon eight of the cast members claim in turn that he or she was responsible for the tragedy. We assume they refer to Maria’s tragedy, but by the end that is not at all clear. This introduction seems to have been forgotten by the creators when they reached the conclusion. The action cannot be the flashback of Carlos, since he dies before it is complete and the idea that all may be responsible is never mentioned again. If the musical purports to show Maria’s tragedy, what is it? It can’t be that she cannot marry the man she loves because she repudiates him. It can’t be that someone dies who loved her because she does not know until he dies that it was so. The real Maria Severa died of tuberculosis and Dantas’ Maria dies on stage while singing and a character exclaims “Morreu o fado!” (Fado has died!)--yet neither happens in the present musical.
In creating a book to accommodate the few facts of Maria’s life, Sportelli and Turvey have not come up with anything peculiar to Portugal but rather one of the most archetypal operetta plots--”nobleman falls in love with commoner but cannot marry her”. Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince (1924) is probably the best-known example. Yet, while we can get caught up in spite of ourselves in the break-up between Karl Franz and Kathie in The Student Prince, we feel nothing about Armando (as the Count is called) or Maria in Maria Severa. Part of the reason is that Sportelli and Turvey have not just concocted a generic plot but have also created, with one exception, completely generic characters, defined by only one or two personality traits, who function more as part of the plot mechanics than as complex people.
Most of the songs Sportelli and Turvey have written are very good, though, unlike Tristan, there is a greater tendency in the lyrics to fall back on clichés. All three fado-like songs for Maria are powerful, especially the final song, “Who Am I?” Otherwise, the two best numbers are the song for Clara (Maria’s aristocratic rival) “The Money Tree” about having to smile and keep quiet; “The Bullfighting Song” for the whole company, except Armando, who express their feelings while watching Armando in the ring; and “The Fountain in the Square”, an hilarious attempt by Maria’s mother to relive her own past glory as a singer. On the other hand, a song like Bread and Butter” keeps struggling not to sound like “The Money Song” from Cabaret; “A Prayer is a Boat” about polytheism versus monotheism has no real purpose in the plot; and “It’s in the Blood”, where Armando and his brother satirize other blue-bloods like themselves, means Maria’s outburst against aristocrats doesn’t quite make sense if the two closest to her are so self-aware.
The cast is uniformly excellent. Julie Martell holds the title character together by force of her personality alone. Maria is the cliché of the poor woman and prostitute proud of herself despite her class and profession. Martell puts real feeling into her songs, but her role is hampered since her character doesn’t change. If only Sportelli and Turvey did not try to make her into a symbol of fado rather than a complex woman who furthers the cause of fado, her character might be able to breathe. Mark Uhre is well cast as the aristocrat and part-time bullfighter. He shows hauteur and elegance in his every move. He sings his one solo “Wandering Moon” beautifully although the lyrics are rather hackneyed. His character also does not change which causes Maria’s rejection of “his people” not to make much sense. The musical should more logically be presented as his reminiscences of the past rather than Carlos’s.
The only character who really comes to life is Maria’s Mama played by Jenny L. Wright. Haranguing customers for stealing from her as she serves them five-day-old stew shows a nice cohabitation of moral contradictions. Her performance of her favourite song from the past with all its stylized gestures is the funniest part of the show while it also, belatedly, points out while the fado Maria favours is so revolutionary.
Neil Barclay is in fine voice as Father Manuel, the Vimioso family’s padre, although we’d like to know more about what he did to cause an exile to the northern provinces. Jonathan Gould is forceful as Armando’s brother, but the facts that he drinks and is the second son are merely repeated without elaboration. Jeff Irving is a brooding Carlos, but the creators give no explanation why he should keep his love for Maria hidden for so long. Saccha Dennis is a fiery Jasmine, Maria's friend and co-worker from Brazil. Her character has no particular function other than as Maria's confidante and, rather improbably, to encourage Armando not to give up, as if matadors needed such advice. Jacqueline Thair is excellent as Clara, who shows through body language long before she says anything that she chafes under the role as Armando’s destined fiancée. Sharry Flett seems to revel in the chance finally to play a real villain. She is so good at covering scheming with politeness that one hopes there are other such roles for her in future in more substantial works.
Sue LePage’s costumes accurately capture the exotic setting of mid-19th-century Portugal, something rather like one associates with Carmen but more straight-laced and more baroque. Judith Bowden’s bizarre expressionist set, however, has nothing to with the period. Inspired by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neta, the middle and upper sections suggest an abstract tree while the awkward ramp at its foot which cuts the stage diagonally in two has the sole virtue of separating the world of the tavern in the Mouraria district of Lisbon on stage right from upper class world of the Vimiosos on stage left.
Since Maria Severa died ten years before Shaw was born, the musical is the first new work the Festival has produced about someone who lies outside both the Shaw’s original and extended mandate. One can’t really complain since the Festival routinely neglects works from the 19th century even though Shaw lived almost half of his life in that period and was necessarily influenced by it. It is more than a little ironic that this new musical should have such an operetta-like plot since the Festival also routinely neglects operetta, even though both the Golden and Silver Ages of that genre occurred during Shaw’s lifetime.
While Maria Severa is not a success in its present form, let’s hope that Sportelli and Turvey are able to take another look at it and rethink it to enhance its drama and round out its characters. First they will have to decide if the story is about communal guilt, the rise of fado or about the love of two dynamic people from different social classes. At present it tries to be about all three and treats none of them satisfactorily.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Mark Uhre and Julie Martell. ©2011 Emily Cooper.
For tickets, visit www.shawfest.com.
2011-08-06
Maria Severa