San Francisco Opera, Show Boat
Music by Jerome Kern; book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on the novel by Edna Ferber. Stage director: Francesca Zambello; Screen director: Frank Zamacona; Conductor: John DeMain; SFO Orchestra; SFO Chorus (Ian Robertson, director); SFO Dance Corps (Michele Lynch, choreographer); Peter J. Davison, set designer; Paul Tazewell, costumes; Mark McCullough, lighting; Tod Nixon, sound. SFO co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera and Houston Grand Opera (EuroArts Music International)
The sixth DVD/Blu-Ray release in the San Francisco Opera's collaboration with EuroArts Music International and Naxos of America took only a year to produce, but for eager devotees of the American musical, it didn't come a moment too soon. Centerpiece of the SFO 2014 summer season, Francesca Zambello's and John DeMain's affectionate re-creation of Kern & Hammerstein II's groundbreaking Show Boat, enlarged for the opera house stage, proved a big hit with fans and critics, and also scored another one for SFO General Director David Gockley. Worries about the suitability of bringing Broadway and microphones (no matter how subtly employed) to the venerable War Memorial evaporated quickly as the seasoned conductor mounted the podium and launched into the thrilling overture, with the brilliant original orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett wonderfully intact. The cascade of songs and production numbers that followed (so many of them right out of the Great American Songbook) almost seemed like a history of popular music in America tracing itself all the way back to operatic roots in the Old World.
Working closely with her expert conductor, Zambello fashioned a new libretto based on Hammerstein's 1927 Broadway original, omitting redundancies, unnecessary exposition and re-ordering song selections in the second act to create a tighter show and a sense of time passing that would appeal to audiences today. The results were pretty darn remarkable. The long first act blazes along with dazzling energy as we are treated to such memorable standards as "Make Believe," "Can't Help Lovin' dat Man," "You Are Love," and of course, "Ol' Man River." The shorter second act sags dramatically, but we blame Edna Ferber for that.
Hammerstein originally did a brave thing, trying to cram virtually all of the novel's sprawling narrative into one night in a Broadway theatre. He managed to keep most of the controversial subtext of racial discrimination and the sad back-story of chanteuse Julie La Verne intact. And he still covered the travails of four married couples over the course of three decades. That's a lot of plot for a show that also had to entertain at the popular song-and-dance level.
Trying to tie up loose ends before the finale inevitably made the second act seem a bit trite. Detail and characterization are necessarily skimpy, but at least in this edition we get soprano Patricia Racette, in her role debut as Julie, singing the classic "Bill," and leading lady Heidi Stober as Magnolia Hawks and baritone Michael Todd Simpson as her errant husband Gaylord Ravenal sweetly performing "Why Do I Love You?" Bass Morris Robinson as Joe intermittently reprises "Ol' Man River" as a leitmotif that helps the melodrama cohere. It was bold stuff 88 years ago, and old racial biases still struggle towards resolution today. The famous miscegenation scene, in which Julie is revealed to be of mixed blood and therefore illegally married to a white man, retains a shocking power, and the model of a single mother raising her child while building a career still poses contemporary challenges.
There is plenty of humor and old-time physical comedy to leaven the mood, and the supporting roles of the good-hearted Cap'n Andy and his crabby wife Parthy are amusingly essayed here by Mr. Noodle himself, Bill Irwin, and the pitiless agent from television's Frasier, Harriet Harris.
Morris Robinson wins the crowd's heartfelt bravos with his seemingly effortless singing and acting, and Angela Renee Simpson, as his beleaguered spouse Queenie, also rules the stage whenever she appears. Her big number "Hey, Fellah!" helps energize that clumsy second act.
John Bolton is ingratiating as the Cotton Blossom's second banana Frank Schultz, and Kirsten Wyatt as the showboat's comic soubrette Ellie Mae Chipley (the object of Frank's affection) actually fares better in high-def than she did in person. Her performance seemed impossibly perky and over-the-top onstage, but we find more of her charm and personality in close-ups.
Which brings us to the upside and downside of the technically superb recording. Flaws found in the theatre are often improved and even repaired by the excellent camerawork, but moments that played well in the big auditorium prove distracting when seen under closer scrutiny. You can see every trembling tonsil and drop of sweat. Heidi Stober's well-sung but rather generic Magnolia appears downright miscast when she is up-close-and-personal with Michael Todd Simpson's more age-appropriate Gaylord, but Patricia Racette's rendition of "Bill" has deeper impact when we see every careworn line in her expressive face.
The colorful sets and costumes have fantastic detail, and the sound, especially when played back in DTS HD Master 5.1, is stunningly accurate. It all adds up to a must-have for lovers of the American musical and the genius of Oscar Hammerstein II, and faithful followers of the San Francisco Opera.