SYMPHONY REVIEW
Performance leaves some confused
By Gregory Shepherd
Advertiser Classical Music Critic
In what is perhaps an attempt at diversifying its repertoire, the Honolulu Symphony offers rarely heard music by Felix Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss in this weekend's program.
Part of the Halekulani Classical MasterWorks season
And while Mendelssohn's "Overture to (Shakespeare's play) 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' " is an acknowledged masterpiece, the incidental music he wrote for the play is not, nor was it ever intended to be. Instead, it is essentially background music for a staged version of the play, and thus the major portion of the work's effectiveness depends upon dramatic, not musical, elements.
'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
The main problem in presenting a narrated version of the work is that unless listeners are familiar with the story line, Shakespeare's Elizabethan-era words and speech patterns are likely to go right over their heads, especially when only two actors, albeit brilliant ones, are playing upwards of eight roles.
And deprived of any real theatrical context (costumes, sets, variety of actors, etc.), the audience can be easily confused as to what character is doing what and why. Or as a person in a nearby seat whispered minutes before feigning a cough and walking out, "What the heck is going on here?"
Terence Knapp and Eden-Lee Murray are the actors for the 70-minute work, and while both were at the top of their game Friday night, the acoustics of the Blaisdell Concert Hall did not lend themselves to intelligibility of archaic words, some of which were delivered at a breakneck pace.
Murray's adaptation of the play compresses the action nicely, but again, to the listener unfamiliar with just who Theseus, Hippolyta, Oberon, Puck, Bottom, Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius are will likely also be thinking, "What the heck is going on here?"
Vicki Gorman and Malia Ka'ai do nice work as the Fairies despite being positioned far upstage, and the women's sections of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus gave much-needed variety in their short passages. Of the 12 scenes, the Wedding March and the Nocturne were the best-played by the orchestra.
Surprisingly, the familiar Overture was a bit ragged in some of the entrances and cutoffs. One would have expected the best music of the program to be the most polished.
Richard Strauss' youthful tone poem, "Macbeth," opens the Shakespeare-themed program, and while well-executed by Samuel Wong and the orchestra, the work is almost unremittingly loud and overly dramatic with little of the composer's gift for subtle orchestration in evidence.
Gregory Shepherd has been The Advertiser's classical music critic since 1987.
