The St. Louis Symphony rarely has sounded better, turning "A Little Night Music" into a large and luscious musical performance, and a June night never was more perfect for anything that came to mind. There were some superb vocal moments from the stage, and the super-titles made the wonderful and clever, but convoluted lyrics of Stephen Sondheim much easier to assimilate and understand.
And yet. . . .
Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer of great renown, displayed some lovely gowns, but true to the place and the time (Sweden at the turn of the 20th century), his color palate had to be rather subdued. Making his debut as a director of opera, he also became the first to take a curtain call without socks. His set, a lawn, was superbly green and dotted with trees, but in the course of the performance (a couple of weeks of stage time, 2 1/2 hours in actuality), branches came and went, providing work for actors in the trees, but interrupting audience focus and becoming a distraction. Another distraction came from a great deal of movement of props and furniture that interrupted and slowed the action, especially in the first act.
Mizrahi says that he's trying to meld Bergman's film with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but rubbing two diamonds together creates only…well, what?
The story, by Hugh Wheeler, is based on an Ingmar Bergman movie of 1955, and deals with attorney Fredrik Egerman (a very solid Ron Raines, shown center left) and his 18-year-old trophy wife, Anne (delightful Amanda Squitieri). They've been married 11 months but she remains a virgin. Meanwhile, his 18-year-old son Henrik (charming Christopher Dylan Herbert), a fumble-footed would-be dour Lutheran minister, is desperately in love–and in lust–with step-mom, even as the perky, lusty, available maid, Petra (excellent Candra Savage), tries to solve half his problem. At the same time, actress Desiree Armfelt (miscast Amy Irving, shown far left), a former mistress of Fredrik, comes to visit her aging mother, Madame Armfelt (impressive Sian Phillips), and her daughter, Frederika (cute Vivian Krich-Brinton). Filling out the cast are Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (outstanding Lee Gregory, shown above, the gentleman to the right), Desiree's jealous male of the month, and his wife, Countess Charlotte Malcolm (exciting mezzo-soprano Erin Holland, making her OTSL debut).
A wonderful quintet of singers, dressed as fairies, sprites and other forest creatures of midsummer nights, act as a sort of Greek chorus, and despite having to work from tree branches, behind shrubs and other odd sites, they are simply wonderful. Aaron Agulay, Lauren Jelencovich, Mark van Arsdale, Laura Wilde and Corinne Winters comprise the group, who fit together like a straight flush. Bass Matthew Lau, who also is Dr. Bartolo in "The Marriage of Figaro," is a late replacement as Frid, Mme. Armfelt's butler, and handles the role with style, grace and a superior bass voice.
Stephen Lord conducts a group of St. Louis Symphony musicians, and they probably give the Sondheim score the finest performance it ever has received. Their control is splendid, and the music was thrilling. Musical theater scores rarely, if ever, are performed as if they were real music, but this one was right. Speaking of "right," so is Michael Chybowski's lighting.
There's nothing wrong with Mizrahi trying to attach his own signature to "A Little Night Music." Directors do it all the time with Shakespeare, or Sondheim, and others, but Mizrahi made it fussy and too busy, and neither great Scandinavian design (the Arch) nor great Scandinavian direction (Bergman) need that sort of extra attention.
Irving, many years since her relationship with a pickle-seller in the wonderful "Crossing Delancey," has a number of bright moments, and interacts beautifully with her daughter and her lovers, past, present and future, but I think it was unfair to cast a non-singer in a show filled with real opera singers. Her breath control was occasionally off, and she seemed unsure of herself from time to time. Phillips, the other major name, is a trained singer who was Desiree in England not long ago opposite Judi Dench as Mme. Armfelt.
But considering the singing of the rest of the cast, plus the remarkable Sondheim score, "A Little Night Music" is a very good, extremely worthy evening at the theater.
"A Little Night Music," a production of Opera Theatre of St. Louis at the Loretto-Hilton Center, June 9, 11, 15, 17, 19.
–Joe