Moises Kaufman’s
lovely, but flawed, play about Beethoven and a present day musicologist is
called 33 VARIATIONS, named after Opus 120, where Beethoven transforms a waltz
composed by his publisher into a set of 33 glorious variations. Beethoven transfigures
the original, composing in entirely new musical directions, creating what the
eminent pianist Alfred Brendel has called “the greatest of piano works.” The
overpowering excitement in the Lyric Stage production (running through Feb. 2nd)
is provided by Catherine Stornetta, playing heroic snippets from Beethoven’s
work on a Yamaha Baby Grand, making it sound like a Bösendorfer.
Kaufman invents
a difficult parallel with Beethoven’s worsening deafness in the musicologist’s battle
with progressive ALS. Director Spiro Veloudos’ smart production has a stellar
cast to try and make the comparison work, especially in Paula Plum’s powerful performance
as the obsessed Beethoven scholar but the two stories really don’t match up. The
present day professor’s struggle with finishing her paper, fixing her
relationship with her daughter and coming to terms with her illness is compelling
stuff. It reminded me of WIT. But mixing WIT with AMADEUS? I don’t know.
I do know that
the Beethoven scenes are thrilling and the one scene, where Plum’s
character “hallucinates” so that they can touch across time, is immensely
moving. James Andreassi makes the rough, despairing genius both a titan and
pitiable, so that you understand his impatience with his secretary (a long
suffering Victor Shopov) and his publisher (a wry Will McGarrahan).
But it is
Stornetta who gives life to Beethoven’s unconscious. It’s as if the music flows
from Andreassi’s performance, the two are connected so viscerally. Stornetta’s
breakneck arpeggios up and down the keys, the weight of her fortissimo, the
playful ornaments: His very thoughts. If only she could play the complete
variations. (I know: Time constraints. What can I say? I am a Beethoven fanatic.)
Dramaturg Nora
Long tucked Beethoven’s last will and testament into our press kits. Thank you,
Nora. It’s a pity Kaufman didn’t work it somehow into the text. In it Beethoven
reveals that he knew painfully well how people misjudged his antisocial
behavior.
Another wish is that Kaufman had spent as much
time on Beethoven’s life apart from the music as he did with the musicologist’s
life apart from her monograph. Kaufman tells us nothing about Beethoven’s
“immortal beloved” but we learn a great deal about the scholar’s daughter (the
charming Dakota Shepard) and her almost too-good-to-be-true beau (the chipper
Kelby T. Aiken) and best of all, her, we get to witness a deep friendship
formed with the remarkable gatekeeper of Beethoven’s music and letters at the
Bonn Institute (played to perfection by Maureen Keiller).
P.S. If you’ve
never seen Gary Oldman’s monumental performance as Beethoven in Bernard Rose’s
IMMORTAL BELOVED, run to Netflix and rent it. It’s one of my favorite films.
The Moonlight Sonata section, with Oldman’s ear to the piano so he can feel the
vibrations of the hammers making sound, is one of the most exquisite and
heartbreaking scenes in cinema.
