Once More unto DelShakes, Dear Friends...for Henry V

L-R: Carlo Campbell as Exeter, Emilie Krause as Henry,
Savannah Jackson as Ely and Guillermo Alonso as Canterbury.
Photo by Alessandra Nicole.

By Mike Logothetis

In his time, William Shakespeare became the toast of London theater circles by pleasing critics and the masses with popular plays which contained exceptional turns of phrases. Centuries later, his words remain steeped in the English lexicon. But did you know The Bard was also a motivational speaker? Actually, he wasn’t…but he wrote some extremely stirring speeches.

In America, we have “Give me liberty, or give me death!” (Patrick Henry) and “Let’s win one for the Gipper” (Knute Rockne). These are powerful words from our history which moved politicians and collegiate football players to greatness.

In Henry V, Shakespeare wrote not just one, but three superb speeches which continue to stir passion and urge listeners to action – sometimes beyond their apparent means and abilities.

“O ceremony, show me but thy worth!” (Act IV, Scene I)

But the power of these speeches and other lines of script mean little without context and delivery. The 15th annual Delaware Shakespeare production of Henry V provides its audience with those parameters of success (plus wine!). Director Jessica Bedford has assembled an excellent cast of nobles, soldiers, and other players to bring the 16th century show about the trials of leadership to life for a contemporary audience.

The most notable is the role of the titular king, played with fiery depth by Emilie Krause. Yes, the king is really a queen of the stage in this gender-blind production. Because the words are so strong and the direction so polished, you don’t dwell on “Harry” being played by a woman. (You shouldn’t anyway.) Krause wrestles with decisions, lashes out at traitors, fraternizes with common soldiers, and courts a French princess like any good Shakespearean hero king would. She’s the foundation on which this lovely outdoor

L-R: Adam Altman as Fluellen
and Guillermo Alonso as MacMorris.
Photo by Alessandra Nicole.

production sits.

Along with Krause, Leonard Kelly stands out playing three disparate roles to perfection: Bardolph, Erpingham, and the King of France. Kelly’s ability to transition from the drunken common man in the trenches to a king trying to control his nobles, son, and armies against English invaders is impressive.

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more” (Act III, Scene I)

If you are unfamiliar with the play, the story focuses on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. Characters on both sides scheme for power, jostle for political and economic position, and steal for profit. The scene where Henry confronts those who conspire to murder him is a powerful one. The audience can feel the walls closing in on those who wish to depose their king.

Don’t be frightened of Shakespeare’s famous wordplay – the actors convey more than their scripted lines with their actions and reactions to events taking place on stage. The pacing is tight and the plot is clear to follow. Even if you miss some nuance due to language, you can follow the story and empathize with the heavy situations King Henry must weigh in his mind.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” (Act IV, Scene III)

The raised circular stage has four entrance and exit passages which makes the audience feel part of the action, especially during the climactic battle. This intimacy also allows those delicate lines delivered with passion or humor or anger or pathos to draw you closer to identifying with certain characters and circumstances. It is an ideal venue and setting to enjoy Shakespeare’s work. (It's also beautiful when you settle into a chair and soak it all in.)

Only three actors play single roles and the well-drilled cast of Guillermo Alonso, Adam Altman, Nathan Bunyon, Carlo Campbell, Macy Jae Davis, Kristin Devine, Nico Galloway, Savannah Jackson, Annette Kaplafka, Marcellus McQueen, Adam Pierce Montgomery, David Pica, and Cristina Riegel are a worthy Shakespearean troupe.

Attending performances outside in the round (under the stars!) at Rockwood Mansion is a delight that longtime area theater-lovers and burgeoning fans should make plans to experience. Henry V runs from July 14-30 with gates opening early for pre-show entertainment and picnics. For the first time, bottles of wine will be available for purchase this year, courtesy of Swigg. Concessions featuring foods from Janssen’s Market will also be on sale. Patrons are encouraged to bring picnicking items plus lawn chairs and blankets to the park for the performances.

General admission is $18 with discounted tickets for seniors and active military ($16) as well as students ($14). Children age 5 and under are free and each Sunday is Family Night. Curtain is at 7:30 from Wednesdays through Saturdays and at 6 on Sundays.

The 2017 Delaware Shakespeare season will include two full productions – the current Summer Festival (Henry V) and a fall Community Tour (As You Like It) from October 25 through November 9. There will also be three ticketed performances on November 10-12 at OperaDelaware Studios.

“The game's afoot: Follow your spirit” (Act III, Scene I)

See www.delshakes.org.

DSO Concludes Its 2016-17 Season Celebrating Beethoven

By Christine Facciolo
A Beethoven overture followed by a Beethoven concerto followed by a Beethoven symphony. It doesn’t get much better than — that unless you factor in solid performances in a lush garden venue on a perfect early summer evening.

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Amado gave a post-season performance in the open-air theatre at Longwood Gardens that continued the orchestra’s year-long exploration of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven.

The opening offering, the Coriolan Overture, was written in 1807 intended for Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s tragic play Coriolan, which was about the semi-legendary Roman figure Gaius Marcius Coriolanus. The work loosely follows the course of the play, beginning with some emphatic declamatory chords followed by an anxious scurrying motif. The first part is cast in a minor key depicting a bellicose Coriolanus and his intention to invade Rome. The move to a gentler theme in a major key suggests a softening of his attitude as he yields to his mother’s pleas not to invade the city. He has, however, brought his army to Rome’s gates and cannot turn back, so he kills himself. The performance was as fierce as the music, allowing Amado to demonstrate to perfection his control of the orchestra and its dynamics.

The highlight of the evening was Peter Serkin, one of the great pianists of our time, playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2. It was hard not to feel starstruck by such an accomplished musician, and when he walked onstage with a relaxed smile, he seemed not only confident but relaxed and generous.

This work, which Beethoven wrote before the first piano concerto, features some of the composer’s most famous tunes. Serkin, who is obviously very familiar with this concerto, gave the first movement a delicate and elegant reading. He captured the serenity and spirituality of the second movement with a personal and beautifully touching interpretation. The third movement was all fun as it introduced the theme in an off-beat rhythm. (Later when the theme is played on the beat, it almost sounds wrong.) The tempo was well-judged and the interplay between orchestra and soloist was well-nuanced under Amado’s direction.

After the break, the evening continued with the Symphony No. 4, an Amado favorite but one that continues, unfortunately, to be underrated given its position between the “Eroica” and the ubiquitous Fifth.

The first movement opened with a tension-filled Adagio which gave way to a vigorous Allegro with striking dynamic contrasts, including some mellow sounds from the woodwind section. The Adagio was beautifully sculpted with some very effective soft-playing mid-movement. The finale scampered along with a strength and brio that characterized the entire performance.

See their new website! www.delawaresymphony.org.

Delaware Chamber Music Festival Closes 32nd Season with More Brahms & Jazz

By Christine Facciolo

The Delaware Chamber Music Festival continued its celebration of the music of Johannes Brahms June 23 through 25 with complementary works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Mozart and Turina.

The Festival Quartet includes: Barbara Govatos, violin & DCMF Artistic Director; Hirono Oka, violin; Che-Hung Chen, viola and Clancy Newman, cello.  Guest artists this season were: Kristen Johnson, viola; Marcantonio Barone, Julie Nishimura & Natalie Zhu, pianists; Douglas Mapp, bass; Tina Betz, voice and Jonathan Whitney, arranger and director of Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency. 

Friday, June 23’s concert opened with a performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet in F major, Op.18, no. 1. The instrumental Brahms owes much to Beethoven, who brought many innovations to his musical genres, not the least of which was the systematic use of interlocking thematic devices to achieve intra- and inter-movement unity in long compositions.

The six quartets that make up the Op. 18 set were Beethoven’s way of announcing to the world that he was to be taken seriously as a composer. It was evident that the musicians viewed the work not as the apogee of 18th Century Viennese Classicism, but rather as a transitional work that looked forward to the composer’s middle period.

That approach was made plain in the slow movement, which was presented as a deeply felt lament. Here Beethoven goes far beyond Haydn, writing in an emotional intensity — the movement is his musical depiction of the tomb scene of “Romeo and Juliet” — that must have shocked his contemporaries. The finale was energetic and incisive, elegant and charming.

Guest artists Hirono Oka (violin) and Marcantonio Barone (piano) collaborated in a tour de force rendering of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, a 1930s work arranged from the ballet Pulcinella. Stravinsky based Pulcinella on music that had been attributed (probably erroneously) to the 18th Century Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi. The result is not an antiquarian piece but a seamless fusion of the old and the new. Stravinsky maintained the courtly character of the Baroque melodies but spiced up the music with pungent harmonies and updated rhythms.

Oka and Barone respected the 18th Century influences in a refined performance full of spongy Baroque rhythms. But they also played with ample color and expression, making the music sound decidedly contemporary. Oka’s tone was both sweet and luminous and decisive.

The lighthearted character of the Suite Italienne gave way to the symphonic grandeur of Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34. Brahms published the work when he was 32 years old, but by then it had gone through several transformations: it began as a string quintet in 1862 and was rescored as a work for two pianos until Brahms gave it its final form.

This is a work of surging passion, tempered only momentarily by the softer-edged Andante. Govatos, Oka, Chen, Newman and Barone conveyed the full-bodied Romanticism of the two outer movements and the driven Scherzo and a plaintive, soulful rendering of the slow movement. Yet as heated as the music got, the ensemble kept the texture remarkably transparent. Viola and cello lines were never buried yet the group produced a solid, powerful sound.

On Saturday, June 24, concertgoers headed to the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew in downtown Wilmington for a free concert, marking the first collaboration between the DCMF and the residents of the Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency. Six residents were given a week to compose a work that incorporated a classical string quartet — a first for these talented young artists.

Each composition was noteworthy but Sasquatch by vibraphonist Grady Tesch brought down the house. Tesch also excelled as a featured player in Mike Talento’s Half and Half and as lyricist and vocalist in Ike Spivak’s Plot Twist, which recounted the musical journeys of jazz luminaries.

Jazz vocalist Isabel Crespo gave a plaintive rendering of her composition Hide and Seek, while trombonist Kristin Monroe ably combined elements of jazz and classical in Coasting Equilibrium, her contribution in the tradition of Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango. Libby Larsen kept the musicians moving — especially pianist Julie Nishimura — with the kinetic energy of Four on the Floor.

Tina Betz, also executive director of the Light Up the Queen Foundation, applied her dramatic contralto to a powerful rendering of Strange Fruit, a song about lynching made famous by the late Billie Holiday. Douglas Mapp, associate principal bass with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, joined the string quartet to accompany. The song was arranged for this performance by Boysie Lowery director, Jonathan Whitney.

Sunday, June 25’s program opened with Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K. 136, the first of a group of works known collectively as the “Salzburg” symphonies. The work was performed at the request of DCMF Board President Carolyn Luttrell. Govatos, Oka, Chen and Newman played with a nimbleness and precision that underscored the decorous elegance of a work that can only be described as a masterpiece on the smallest possible scale.

Pianist Natalie Zhu joined Govatos, Chen and Newman in a seductive and sensitive performance of Joaquin Turina’s Piano Quarter in A minor, Op. 67. Composed in 1931, this gently melancholic work resonates with the vivid harmonies and impetuous rhythms of Spanish folk music yet at the same time bears the imprint of impressionists’ influence in its spacious, colorful textures.

The program — and season — concluded with a performance of Brahms’ breathtaking Quintet in G major, Op. 111. Orchestra in conception, this piece creates the effect of far more than five players. This was a passionate performance. Cellist Newman was more than equal to the full opening of the first movement. The Adagio was rapt intensity; the Allegretto wistful and the finale, robust.

See www.dcmf.org.