The Ark, Day 10: Tuning

We will be reading “Threepenny Opera” and “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” in the middle of next week, and so many days of The Ark begin with music rehearsal so that we’ll be prepared.  Today and tomorrow we are reviewing the score for “Threepenny”.

Listen: Peter Hinton can be a lovely, giving, wonderful person.  But he also likes people to give 100% whenever possible.  When he is focused and passionate about something, he can be intense in a manner that I find a little intimidating.  And he is focused and passionate about “Threepenny Opera”.  I know this because he has the Willett-translated lyrics for “The Jealousy Duet” locked into his head and can recite them at a moment’s notice. So I am more than a little nervous about reading and singing the role of Macheath next week, even though it’s just a reading for ourselves.

I have all of my solos recorded for me and have been working on them, but my ear is not exceptionally fine when it comes to tuning: I can practice a melody and think I’ve got it right, only to discover (as I did today) that I’m coming up short on intervals (as I know I often do) and turning (for example) an A-flat into an A.  This is a source of some stress, because these are not issues I can correct if I’m working on my own and don’t hear them. Compound this with the fact that I would like to be able to match the music with a characterization of some kind, and brother I have some work cut out for me.  I don’t want to be yelled at, even if it is just meant to be helpful-because-I’m-really-focused-and-passionate yelling.  I can take as much time as I need to practice, really, but what I’m missing is someone to drill me on tricky notes and phrases and intervals.  Weill, by the way, loves writing tricky note and intervals and phrases.  Bastard.

It’s funny to think I’m not as confident a singer as I am an actor, considering I came at my artistic career from the music side first.  And I know I’ll get through it, but I need to put the anxiety on the table.  ‘Cuz it’s bothering me.

The bulk of this afternoon was spent reading “The Good Person of Szechuan“, which we finished right at the end of the day.  This bummed me out a bit because it left us no time to discuss the play, and the one thing that is consistent with Brecht’s work is that it makes people want to talk.  The play shows us the world of a woman whose desire to do good seems to cost her a great deal (people always take advantage of her), and how she balances it by pretending to be another person who acts far more selfishly.  The central conundrum, for me, is summed up in one of Shen Te’s final speeches (this is from Tony Kushner‘s adaptation):

Don’t know how it happened: to be good to others
And to myself was impossible for me,
To help others, and myself, was too hard.
…
Where could I find everything that was needed? Only
From out of myself!  But in doing good, I died!
The burden was too much, it buried me alive.
Then when I did evil, I was respected, feared, I
Ate very well.  Something is wrong with your world.

The play ends with three gods joyfully ascending to the heavens insisting that she be good, with her in despair on the ground, asking in despair for help with the strength to do just that.  The juxtaposition is heartbreaking.

Nothing like a small idea to wrap up the afternoon, especially with no time to discuss it.

One thing that I can clearly say about this play (and I know I will say about “Caucasian Chalk Circle” tomorrow) is that I needed to hear it out loud in order to properly grasp the size and scope of it; perhaps even to comprehend it.  This morning — after only ever having read “Szechuan” to myself — I was confused about why Brecht fans love it so much.  Now the brilliance of it is clear to me, just as it is clear that I can’t communicate the joy of that discovery here.  How lucky we are to have an opportunity like this to lift these plays off the page (even if there’s hardly any rehearsal beforehand) instead of being left to read them on our own…

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