“Nothing is perfect in Nature.
Nature is perfect imperfection.” -PI Tchaikovsky
By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO–When Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky listened to birdsong, he noticed that they were just a little less than perfect, but these imperfections made them more beautiful. And so he threw some “wrong” notes into his arpeggios, making them more natural and thus, more interesting.
It is the imperfections of Tchaikovsky’s life –shrouded in secrecy for a hundred years- that make it compelling tale in a new performance by Hershey Felder.
Fans of Felder already know him for his magical portrayals of great composers. Speaking in first person, he draws us into their lives and surrounds us with their music. Like the host of a dybbuk, he channels the spirits of Leonard Bernstein, Beethoven, Chopin, Irving Berlin, George Gerschwin and now Tchaikovsky.
The set, also designed by Felder, captures the elegance and heaviness of Czarist Russia with ornately carved dark-wood furniture, rugs with deep, rich reds, delicate lace doilies and a shiny samovar.
Russians regard Tchaikovsky as their most belovèd composer. The Sochi Olympics of 2014 opened with the Bolshoi Ballet dancing Swan Lake. Even if you’re not a fan of classical music, you’d probably recognize the music of The Nutcracker, played by every ballet company everywhere every Christmas. Interestingly, in its day, critics said that Nutcracker was completely devoid of creativity. Critics: what do they know?
I learned something of Tchaikovsky’s life a few years ago when I interviewed Robert Salerno of the Vantage Theatre. While researching for a play, Salerno found that the dramatic parts of Tchaikovsky’s life “were dramatic in the darkest sense.” (http://vantagetheatre.com/VantageNews.html)
“There is an impossible gulf between myself and every other person.” -PIT
It was very dangerous to be gay in Czarist Russia. Such proclivities, if discovered, bought you a one-way ticket to a gulag in Siberia. Things aren’t much better in Putin’s Russia. In 2013, the Duma unanimously passed a law banning any propaganda promoting “non-traditional sexual relations to minors.” So, no Pride parades. No student groups. No safe places for a person to “come out.” https://mic.com/articles/58649/russia-s-anti-gay-law-spelled-out-in-plain-english#.R7Z8EdI8k
“My tears do not come down my face.|
My tears come out through my keyboard.” –PIT
Maybe this is why Tchaikovsky hurls us into such a maelstrom of passions. His music is a black sea of love and tears, beauty and despair, tenderness and maddening frustration. A master storyteller, as Felder paints the picture of Tchaikovsky’s dark and complicated life, we hear his music more clearly than we’ve ever heard it before.
The plot thickens: Because of his reputation, Felder has been invited by the Russian government to bring Our Great Tchaikovsky to their great nation. But the story he tells runs afoul of their laws. With his Canadian passport, he’s unlikely to be sent to a gulag. But the tour may be cut very short.
Come see Our Great Tchaikovsky and be hurled into a sea of passions. Open a book filled with dark secrets and climb in. Come see Our Great Tchaikovsky before someone tries to silence the imperfect song of Nature.
Hershey Felder’s Our Great Tchaikovsky is playing at the Rep through Feb 12, 2017.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com