SAN DIEGO — The genius of Hershey Felder was again on display in his one-man show, Monsieur Chopin, now extended until October 6 in the Lyceum Space. This time, the actor-pianist not only portrayed Fryderyk Chopin conducting a masterclass in his Parisian salon, but also entertaining questions from his students, the audience, as an intrinsic part of the play.
In responding, he performed excerpts from works not scripted in the basic narrative. This displayed Felder’s great ability as an improvisational actor and the extensive repertoire he has at his fingertips.
One question, “Who was your favorite student?” elicited the story of the talented Carl Filtach, pianist and composer, who died at the tender age of 15. Felder proceeded to play an excerpt from Chopin’s E minor piano concerto. He performed the work with great poetic sensitivity. It was inspired by that untimely death.
Much of Chopin’s melancholic music was a reflection of his melancholia. Now, he would probably be diagnosed as bi-polar.
Two of the dramatic highlights of the show were when Chopin imagined the worst happening to his family at the hands of the Russian invaders of Poland. As it turned out, his family survived.
At another point, when, during his nine-year affair with George Sand, they were on holiday in Spain and she and her two children did not return on time during a frightening storm, he imagined that they had all died.
They returned safely.
As with many of the famous Jewish pianists, e.g. Arthur Rubenstein and Vladimir Horowitz, who were great exponents of Chopin’s music, Felder does not seem concerned with Chopin’s anti-Semitism. There were no references to it during the show.
And there is good reason to argue that the creative works of an artist should stand apart from the person who created them.
Prime examples are the Jewish conductors who have excelled at conducting Wagner’s works, such as Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim.
Yet, according to the most recent biography of Chopin by Alan Walker (2019), “he harbored a deep strain of anti-Semitism, even more than was common in his time and place.” An earlier biographer, Jeremy Stepmann, wrote, “However repellant, the casual, dismissive anti-Semitism evidenced in his correspondence was common among Poles of every class and political stripe.”
Chopin died at the age of 39, plagued by tuberculosis and bouts of melancholy. Anti-Semitism was perhaps his third malady.
His music, as played by Felder, was poetic, spirited and inspiring. Chopin continues to be considered the greatest “Poet of the Piano.”
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Eileen Wingard is a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra as well as a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com