Some love for "Piazza" in Opera News

[Barihunk]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:11am

Opera News has a nice shout-out to "Piazza" in the July issue. Opera News has been covering musicals more and more in the past few years. I thought fans of the show might be interested...
Opera News review of Light in the Piazza

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:18am

Updated On: 7/22/05 at 10:18 AM

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:21am

Such observations make me wonder whether Brantley really has an interest in serious theater or just wishes that it could all be more like something from Turner Classic Movies.

Huzzah!

[Aigoo]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:23am

Great review! I sort of agree with the comment about Kelli..but I could sort of tell something was up.

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:37am

"...the virus of anti-intellectualism has been eating away at the arts for some time". wow. I like that. (then again I like Hairspray and Ave Q too, so I guess I'm fullfilled from both directions)

yeah, I agree on the Kelli comment too. If I hadn't known in advance (much as I tried *not* to know such details), it would have taken a little while to catch on fully.

[WickedCatsontheRoof]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:47am

Possible SPOILER:

That's interesting that you agree with the Kelli comment. I didn't know in advance, but I knew right away after the first song that she definitely acted young and something wasn't quite right. Maybe this is because I have spent time with children with mental disabilities such as Downs Syndrome where the maturity level is lower than their true age.

[Aigoo]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:49am

Perhaps. I partially agree because she acted it enough to the point where I could tell that something was wrong with her, but not enough to that I could just specifically point out her problem. I could tell she was a bit immature for her age though.

[broadway betty]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:07am

Hahaha! Take that Brantley!

I love that there's so much Piazza love out there.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:28am

aigoo, that's the point! if you were able to figure it out specifically right away, what's the point of margaret telling you later?

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:28am

***continuing spoiler alert, responding to WickedCatsontheRoof***

I perhaps missed a reference early on, but I didn't know how old Clara was supposed to be. Older actors are always playing high-school age kids (Wicked, Hairspray, Footloose, etc), so I wasn't sure if she was really just supposed to be 16. I comfortable take that leap all the time in the theatre. She would be admittedly a little naive, but it was the 50s and her mother was obviously protective, so I just wouldn't have necessarily made the same leap.

Similarly, once I figured out that she was 26, I found Matt's frenetic running around to be a little exhausting and over dramatic....then I learned that he was supposed to be 20 and it made a tad more sense. If he'd been a bit more calm, I couldn't taken him for up to 35 years old, believably.

Bottom line: with actors often not playing their characters their age, I was confused what I was supposed to understand especially from Clara.

[WickedCatsontheRoof]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:47am

***continuing spoiler alert

Ok that makes sense. I see what you mean about maybe not being able to "make that leap". Kelli made it clear at least to me. When Clara was running around in the first scene going up to strangers and singing we're on vacation she reminded me a lot of the little children who walk right up to you and show you their doll and say "Hi, this is my baby".

Updated On: 7/13/05 at 11:47 AM

[Aigoo]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:48am

Yeah..sort of the "invading personal space" thing.

The thing I never figured out was the mental age of Clara? Did she just stop developing at that age or did she continue to grow mentally? ugh. I think she did..somehow, right? Through the power of luv and all that jazz.

[WickedCatsontheRoof]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 12:05pm

Well in this plot synopsis of the movie from the site below it says the mental capacity of a 10 year old. I've never seen the movie but I thought I heard after I saw the musical that in the movie Fabrizio also had a mental disability. I can't find anything that supports this. Does anyone else know?

http://www.vh1.com/movies/movie/64976/plot.jhtml

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 12:09pm

Aigoo -- right :) I think the doctors thought she stopped at 12, but Margaret sees this change in her during the Italy stay. ...so we're left to wonder...was it "luv" or was her mental capacity growing little by little all these years and Margaret was too protective to let that be explored...? Probably some of both actually. Seeing Clara loved by someone else allows her to loosen the reins a bit.

Such real and honest questions for a mother. It begs the listener to jump into Margaret's shoes and think about they would have done.

WickedCatsontheRoof -- the "this is my baby" example is a good one. I guess it just wasn't obvious to me: Haven't you ever been on a vacation or in love or whatever and just wanted to scream from the rooftops? Songs in musicals so often let the characters sing what they'd never say (which is one of my favourite things about musicals)....so again the suspension of disbelief when I heard her sing "we're on vacation". I thought, oh she's just sharing her excitement with us, how nice. (This is actually a family joke as my mom says that all the time when we're on vacation, though admittedly not to strangers )

Though the realization was earlier, I found "it" *very* obvious though when Clara gets lost and keeps saying her name and street address - probably because she was speaking and not singing, which to me is grounded in the narrative, not just internal thoughts. These conventions of musical theatre can backfire on me

[Sluggy]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 1:05pm

Spoiler Continued -

I kinda like the fact that Clara keeps you guessing - sometimes mature, sometimes childlike - seems like there's more potential for development there.

Nice review, although I wish he'd liked the WT revival better!

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 8:02pm

do you think that portrayal is accurate? or is this where a touch of suspension of disbelief enters? (I think this is what Kelli was alluding to in that now famous article...)