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Posted by Mel on 8/1/2008, 7:52 pm, in reply to "More praise for " Bach at Leipzig" and Stephen's performance"
66.82.9.80
The reviews have been wonderful for this play. There are also audience reviews by people who have attended the play here:
http://www.shakespearesantacruz.org/season/audience_reviews.php?category_id=5
Stephen is definitely an audience favorite. 
--Previous Message--
: WOW! The critics just LOVE this play!
:
:
: 07.30.08
:
: The meta brilliance of Shakespeare Santa
: Cruz's 'Bach at Leipzig'
:
: By Christina Waters
:
: A superb cast, sparkling script and handsome
: design--all collaborate to make Bach at
: Leipzig, by Itamar Moses, the surprise hit
: of this season's Shakespeare Santa Cruz
: festival. And it's so good, so startling, so
: vibrantly performed, that it's hard to know
: just where to start flinging praise.
:
: First off, brand-new artistic director Marco
: Barricelli has set his stamp on the festival
: with this inspired choice of contemporary
: work. Bach at Leipzig, a brisk comedy of
: ideas set near the end of the Baroque,
: explores the very same human concerns that
: consumed Shakespeare. Ambition, treachery,
: authenticity, freedom and death--all are
: interwoven in brilliant contrapuntal tones
: by playwright Moses. The play's clever theme
: is set immediately as we meet, one by one,
: six would-be concertmasters, gathered at
: Leipzig to audition for the recently vacated
: post of cathedral organist. Think of six
: Salieris attempting to outsmart each other
: in order to snare a key cultural position.
: Costumed to their very teeth in opulent wigs
: (kudos to Jakey Hicks) and sumptuous satin
: trappings (B. Modern at her best)--each
: distinctive and unique--the six hopefuls
: pitch their claim to the coveted post, then
: proceed to scheme, lie and sabotage their
: way toward the goal.
:
: As the play unfolds, its structure and
: wordplay echo those of the fugues each
: organist will perform at his audition. Each
: actor portrays a theme in a single voice,
: which is then taken up successively by every
: other actor until finally all the parts are
: developed, embroidered and ultimately
: resolved. It's dazzling and yet accessible,
: like an overture by Handel. The
: wordplay--including a continuous "Who's
: on First" riff about the names Johan
: and Georg--is juicily precise. Floating high
: above like a shimmering descant is a very
: smart dissection of religious hypocrisy
: pitting Lutherans against Calvinists and
: rooting around in the trenches of
: predestination, religious conservatism,
: even--shudder--intellectual freedom. No
: matter that the job they seek is housed in a
: cathedral; nothing is sacred in Bach at
: Leipzig. Ideological fascism, religious
: warfare and national pride are all targeted
: by Moses' 18th-century arrivistes.
:
: In other words, the play is utterly relevant
: to our sociopolitical climate, while
: inviting us to feast on the great issues of
: the Enlightenment. But if you're tempted to
: think that Bach is merely a brilliantly
: written political satire, you would be off
: the mark. It's also a study in the richness
: of human silliness, the varieties of hope
: and the rarity of artistic grace. Like the
: real-life and most famous organist of
: Leipzig, playwright Moses believes that
: great art--great music in this
: case--transcends the moral frailties of
: everyday life. And yet, Moses uses those
: very frailties, hilariously, to illustrate
: the heights of sublime artwork.
:
: The cast is so good that, while each man
: can, and does, steal this or that scene, the
: entire group works a fluid contrapuntal
: magic of its own. And that's because,
: without giving too much away, Moses has
: crafted his dramatic fugue so that the
: differences among the actors increase
: dramatic texture and depth throughout.
: Varying in age, size, voice and mannerism,
: the actors are as distinctive as the
: individual voices in the fugue, and
: repeating their various tours de force, they
: use the stage itself as the ultimate
: composition, joining their voices until at
: last the "recital" ends.
:
:
: We fall in love with each of them, and then
: with the whole lot of them. I must confess a
: special weakness for the silly-but-wise Paul
: Vincent O'Connor, so delicious in his cloud
: of white hair. Mike Ryan as the perennially
: second-greatest organist outdoes even his
: own past triumphs, and Stephen Caffrey
: starts up the production in a bravura
: soliloquy and keeps it wickedly intelligible
: from start to finish, with consummate
: counterpoint by Larry Paulsen. Kudos to
: director Art Manke, and especially to
: Barricelli, for trusting his dramatic
: instincts, and for gathering a company of
: seasoned professionals to articulate those
: instincts. Bach at Leipzig is everything
: that great, urgent, robust theater should
: be. And it is arguably the secret weapon of
: this year's festival.
:
: BACH AT LEIPZIG plays Tuesday-Thursday and
: Sunday, 7:30pm (no show July 22-24, 27,
: 30-31, Aug. 5, 10, 12, 20, 26, 28; 2pm only
: Aug. 7, 24), Friday, 8pm (no show Aug. 1,
: 15, 22), Saturday 2pm (8pm only Aug. 9, 23).
: Through Aug. 31. Tickets are $12-$44. UCSC
: Mainstage Theater, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz.
: (831.459.2159; www.shakespearesantacruz.org)
:
:
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