Word: chopines
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Piano Recital--Joyce Yu-Cheng Chung; work of Faure, Liszt, Chopin; Currier House...
ALTHOUGH the set and staging focus on the sweeping, impersonal forces that deprive the characters of happiness, Sellars does not neglect the dense psychology of the play. In a flash of inspiration, Sellars enlisted Roy Kogan '80, to play Chopin preludes and nocturnes throughout Three Sisters. Kogan's forceful and sensitive musical interpretation adds new emotional dimension. Kogan and Sellars have obviously collaborated to fuse the music with the staging to intensify or soothe the action. In the opening of Act III, as a huge fire rages throught the town and the family's restrained tensions burst into open conflict...
...force helps to uncover the structure of Chekhov's play, composed in part of a series of ceaseless competing refrains of leitmotifs. Irina sighs her frustrated desire to go to Moscow, Vershinin "philosophizes" and bewails his marital misfortunes, and Natasha inanely shrieks her mother love--all accompanied by recurring Chopin preludes...
...Three Sisters is long--it runs about three hours--and Sellars' habit of freezing the scene at key moments doesn't speed it up any. But the Chopin behind it all transports the audience into the contemplative melancholy of the play itself--leaving audience, actors and playwright running at the same speed. The tempo lags only in the final act. With bare stage, static blocking and house lights turned up, the staging is faithful to Chekhov's sense of desolation, but also somewhat trying to an audience at the end of a three-hour haul...
Other features of the production include the 30 genuine birch trees which line the stage courtesy of the Harvard Forest, Roy Kogan's performance of Chopin pieces to accompany the show, and the costumes--there won't be any; actors will wear their street clothes...