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‘Twin Spirits’
in aid of The Royal Opera House Foundation
(Two performances)
Thursday 20 December 2007
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Sir Derek Jacobi, Narrator
Sting, Robert Schumann in words
Trudie Styler, Clara Wieck in words
Simon Keenlyside, Robert Schumann
Rebecca Evans, Clara Wieck in song
Maxim Vengerov, Violin
Natalie Clein, Cello
Iain Burnside, Piano
Natasha Paremski, Piano
John Caird, Director
***Twin Spirits is to be filmed for release next year***
Twin Spirits, a truly unique and intimate evening tells in words and music of the love and tragedy in the lives of Robert Schumann and his wife Clara Wieck
Twin Spirits was conceived and first performed in June 2005 at the Royal Opera House, since then it has been seen by only a few hundred people including HRH The Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle. Such is the legacy and demand these performances have created that on 20 December 2007 June Chichester is bringing together the star studded cast in order that the production can be filmed for DVD, international television and general release in cinemas.
Not only will the audience be part of the film and part of this memorable, fascinating occasion, but their support will help the Royal Opera House to continue its inspirational work in education. The proceeds of the film will be used to that end and its distribution will reach a very wide public thus stimulating further interest in music.
Those that have seen Twin Spirits have never forgotten it. Its appeal is broad and has touched audiences of all ages and interests.
There will be a reception before the performance and afterwards a dinner to celebrate this filming in the Paul Hamlyn Hall which the artists will also attend.
8.00pm, Reception
8.30pm, Performance
10.00pm, Dinner in the Paul Hamlyn Hall
12.00am, Carriages
Dress: Black Tie
Suggested donation : £500 per person - in aid of the Royal Opera House Foundation
The programme (probably)
· Robert Schumann: "Preambule" from Carnaval, Op 9, arranged by Martin Ward for two pianos, violin and cello. Maxim Vengerov, Natalie Clein, Ian Burnside and Natasha Paremski
· Robert Schumann: selections from Kinderszenen, Op 15. Ian Burnside and Natasha Paremski
· Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano". Ian Burnside and Natasha Paremski
· Robert Schumann: "Stille Tränen" from 12 Kerner Lieder. Simon Keenlyside and Ian Burnside
· Clara Schumann: "Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen." Rebecca Evans and Natasha Paremski
· Robert Schumann: "Er und Sie,". Simon Keenlyside and Rebecca Evans
· Clara Schumann: Andante from her Piano Concerto. Natasha Paremski and Natalie Clein
· Robert Schumann: second of his Op. 94 Romances. Maxim Vengerov and Ian Burnside
· Mozart: "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni. Simon Keenlyside, Rebecca Evans
· Robert Schumann: from Dichterliebe
o "Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne,"
o "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'"
o "Ich will meine Seele tauchen"
o "Ich grolle nicht"
Simon Keenlyside
· Clara Schumann: "Sie liebten sich beide". Rebecca Evans and Natasha Paremski
· Robert Schumann: from Dichterliebe "Ich hab' im Traum geweinet". Rebecca Evans and Natasha Paremski
· Robert Schumann: "Stille Liebe" from 12 Kerner Lieder. Simon Keenlyside and Ian Burnside
· Robert Schumann: "Träumerei" from Kinderszenen. Maxim Vengerov, Natalie Clein, Ian Burnside and Natasha Paremski
· Robert Schumann: "Frage". Simon Keenlyside and Rebecca Evans
· Robert Schumann: finale of the Piano Trio in D minor. Maxim Vengerov, Natalie Clein and Ian Burnside
For background information, here are some extracts from a review of the original Twin Spirits production (without Simon), 28 March 2006 in New York.
http://nightafternight.blogs.com/night_after_night/2006/03/crazy_love.html
The romance of Robert and Clara Schumann -- the furtive courtship, the blissful early years, the tragic ending -- have always suggested the stuff of dramatic theater. Tonight, in a sense, it became just that, when the New Victory Theater hosted a performance of Twin Spirits, a semi-staged reading of passages from the Schumanns' love letters and diaries, with musical interludes. Conceived by writer-director John Caird, who has staged drama and opera but is probably best known for his productions of Les Misérables and Nicholas Nickleby with Trevor Nunn, the show was presented this evening as a one-night-only benefit for the valiant charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
My primary interest in attending Twin Spirits was musical, since it provided an opportunity to hear singers Thomas Meglioranza and Lisa Saffer (the latter replacing the originally announced Barbara Bonney), violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and pianists Jeremy Denk and Natasha Paremski all at once. The fine actor Jonathan Pryce narrated the show. But more titillating to several coworkers to whom I mentioned the show were tonight's Robert and Clara: respectively, rock star Sting and his wife, actor-producer Trudie Styler.
The simple, elegant single set, by veteran stage and television designer Howard Clausen, placed Sting and Styler at the front of the platform, in elegantly upholstered vintage chairs. The singers were seated similarly, Meglioranza to Sting's right, Saffer to Styler's left. Two grand pianos were angled behind the singers, with the keyboardists facing in -- Denk behind Meglioranza and Paremski behind Styler. Continuing the male-female opposition, Bell sat in the curve of Denk's piano, while Weilerstein was placed on a platform against Paremski's instrument. Pryce was seated upstage, at a point bordered by the pianos' ends. Tall floral arrangements and a chandelier completed the set. Howell Binkley's sensitive lighting design directed attention to featured performers in turn, and subtly extended the overall mood.
The show -- a taut 90 minutes with no intermission -- alternated between words and music in a seamless flow; while the Schumanns' compositions played a supportive role, they were generally treated respectfully, rather than merely as ornamentation. Moreover, the musical selections, presented mostly if not entirely in chronological progression, unfailingly echoed the mood of the letters or diary entries they followed. The "Preambule" from Carnaval, neatly arranged by Martin Ward for two pianos, violin and cello, served as an opening fanfare, following which Denk and Paremski alternated in selections from Kinderszenen. When the infatuated Robert and Clara, held apart by her domineering father, agreed via post to conjoin on some spiritual plane by performing Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" at a prearranged time, Denk and Paremski followed with a playful rendition of that work.
A song apiece by Robert and Clara illuminated their swelling romance: Meglioranza and Denk offered a meltingly lovely rendition of Robert's "Stille Tränen," which Saffer and Paremski countered with Clara's radiant "Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen." The singers were brought together in Robert's duet "Er und Sie," midway through which they met at center stage; a gentle touch, a meaningful glance, and they parted, as had Robert and Clara. Her burgeoning fame as a soloist and composer were depicted with an arrangement of the Andante from her Piano Concerto (played by Paremski and Weilerstein), his melancholy struggle by the second of his Op. 94 Romances (Bell and Denk).
Robert and Clara's union, finally effected in 1840, was celebrated with a performance by Meglioranza and Saffer of the Mozart duet on which Chopin's elaboration was based. Robert's subsequent happy fecundity found expression in four selections from Dichterliebe ("Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne," "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'," "Ich will meine Seele tauchen" and "Ich grolle nicht"), lovingly and excitingly sung by Meglioranza, with Denk a superlatively alert accompanist.
This, we know, was not to last. Haunted by the early deaths of Mozart and Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin, Robert Schumann soon began to slide into his own slow deterioration. Clara's heartbreaking "Sie liebten sich beide" spoke to the couple's growing alienation, during a time in which not only was she bearing and rearing the couple's eight children, but was also the chief (nearly sole) breadwinner through her performances. Estrangement continued even as Robert's handsome young protégé, Johannes Brahms, became an extended family member; here, Saffer and Paremski appropriated another number from Dichterliebe, "Ich hab' im Traum geweinet."
A failed suicide attempt and two-and-a-half years of institutionalization left Robert scarcely able to communicate; the futility of his attempts was conveyed by his "Stille Liebe," given an utterly haunting performance by Meglioranza and Denk. Despite the watchful care of Clara and Brahms, Robert Schumann died alone in asylum, set here to the "Träumerei" from Kinderszenen affectingly played by Bell, Weilerstein, Denk and Paremski, during which Sting rose and left the stage. The narrative noted that Clara rebuffed a later romantic overture from the devoted Brahms. (This may depart somewhat from reality: Jan Swafford, if I recall accurately his enormously informed and engaging Brahms biography, suggested a more challenging scenario, in which an emotionally stunted Brahms was actually provided with an opening, only to prove unable to act upon his youthful impulses.) Here, the notion of a love lasting beyond the grave was preserved; Sting came forward to lay a hand on his wife's shoulder as Meglioranza and Saffer sang Robert's "Frage," and the evening ended heroically as Bell, Weilerstein and Denk played the dashing finale of his Piano Trio in D minor.
That this combination of musicians would provide a worthy experience had never been in doubt, but if I'd experienced any misgivings in the casting of Sting and Styler as Robert and Clara, they were swiftly put to rest. Not a thespian noted for subtlety, Sting delivered Robert Schumann's lines with abundant wit and genuine affection, while refraining from overplaying the composer's mental decline; Styler enacted Clara's fastidiousness and tenderness in equal measure, with real sympathy. In the end, the casting of a celebrity couple well known for public displays of affection proved entirely suitable….