*****
Sherman Cymru, Cardiff, Tue 4 July
Though it may not have seemed like it at the time, who better to compose a dramatic theatre piece about social ills that involved racism and poverty along with bloodshed than Kurt Weill, who fled Hitler’s Germany? Weill’s Street Scene, his “Broadway opera,” with realistic lyrics by poet/author Langston Hughes and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Elmer Rice, pulls back the threadbare curtains of a New York City tenement, giving a glimpse into America’s melting-pot of the 1940s. He blended traditional European opera and American musical theatre to come up with a hybrid called “American opera” and scoured the city for ideas. Street Scene is a fusion of operatic arias, ensembles, classic show tunes, jazz and blues with dramatic dialogue along with a couple of dance numbers, and it was given an absolutely inspiring rendition by Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama students.
The story of tenement dwellers that takes place over a stiflingly hot two days is filled with passion and tension that ignites into tragedy. Onstage were a half dozen families, but the main focus of building No. 346 in a nameless street are the Maurrants – brutish Frank, his long-suffering wife Anna and their daughter Rose. Frank, a prejudiced thug, keeps them in line (including a young son) with threats and violence and was menacingly played by Andrii Ganchuk. He not only looked intimidating, he sang with a strong bass-baritone – particularly well on There’ll Be Trouble – and totally inhabited the role. Irish Soprano Rachel Goode simply shone. Her portrayal of abused Anna, who loved her family but sought solace in an extra-marital affair, was perfect. Whether pouring her heart out in the showstopping aria Somehow I Never Could Believe or singing to her son (A Boy Like You) she poignantly dazzled.
Lyric soprano Lucy Mellors and tenor Rhodri Jones were suitably cast as Rose and her ardent but inexperienced suitor Sam. Their three duets were marvellous, including the very lovely We’ll Go Away Together. Jones wowed with the show’s other highlight, the jazz-tinged arioso Lonely House. He so convincingly sang of emptiness and solitude that his isolation was palpable. Lesley Dolman as bitchy gossip Mrs. Jones in a role that you could see she relished, acted/sang to the hilt, and Cristina Negoescu, a mezzo-soprano, had a delightful turn as Jennie in Wrapped In A Ribbon And Tied In A Bow.
Just wonderful singing, especially during the lament The Woman Who Lived Up There, when the ensemble turned into a mournful Greek chorus. Conductor Wyn Davies brought out the best in Weill’s music of not only pathos and despair but of hope and yearning with the superb orchestra. Nice choreography in the jitterbug scene and in Ice-Cream Sextet, where the spinning trash can lids reminded me of the three little maids twirling their parasols in The Mikado. At first, the stick-like façade of the building didn’t seem to suit and seemed primitive, but it was actually signifying that the residents were trapped in a cage or in a jail. Having that move up and down to show inside was another clever idea. Accents and clothing were on target and points to design, also, for eye-catching program art. Martin Constantine gave strong, sure direction and got right the street of bleakness where the multi-ethnic characters eked out a hard life and strove for the American dream. Street Scene’s songs aren’t as recognizable as say West Side Story’s but RWCMD gave this production everything and made you feel, and that’s what it’s all about.
words RHONDA LEE REALI