Schickele is a composer and musical comedian, most famous for his jokey fictional composer "P.D.Q. Bach" (P.D.Q. allegedly stands for "pretty damn quick," but that seems to have lost whatever cultural cachet it had--I don't think I've ever heard it in any other context). My dad actually took me to see him in concert when I was small (late eighties, probably). The only thing I remember is that the second half was an opera-type thingie of some sort--a broad Wagner parody if I remember correctly, but it also featured Greek gods, so who knows. Funny how memory works: I actually remember one line from one aria sung by...some dwarf or something: "Zeus has a knack for changing things, especially things I don't want changed." Referring to women, although I don't think it was Zeus himself who typically changed them. Weird, and I can't find the line online so I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. If there's a recording of whatever that show was, I'd love to revisit it--see how it holds up. I remember liking it at the time, though no doubt a lot of it was over my head.
Anyway, whatever that was, it definitely had nothing to do with this, which is--obviously--a Mozart parody, taking, as the title suggests, DNA from Figaro and Die Entführung, as well as Giovanni. The plot is really too silly and flimsy to even try to go over, but basically, this pirate captures Figaro and sails off, and the other characters go after him. The main thing about this is the humor, obviously. Your mileage may vary, it's fair to say. Characters' names have real Mad Magazine vibes to them: Giovanni and Leporello are "Donald Giovanni" and, er, "Schlepporello;" Susanna from Figaro is "Susanna Susannadanna," a reference to Roseanne Roseannadanna, Gilda Radner's recurring character from early Saturday Night Live, one of actually quite a number of things that very firmly date the show (there's also a reference to the weirdly-common-at-the-time practice of hijackers forcing planes to reroute to Cuba). Hey, I'm not going to sit here and claim that there aren't a few smile-out-loud moments, but the Washington Post's verdict of "screamingly funny" seems excessive to me.
Let's not forget the music, unless we want to. It's largely sort of vaguely classical-sounding (gotta give Schickele credit for trying, anyway--trying to match Mozart is a tall order), with numerous quotes from popular songs: public-domain stuff like "Found a Peanut" and "O Susanna," but also recent pop songs like "Macho Man" and "Stay (just a little bit longer)." The incongruity of these is slightly funny for precisely two seconds each, and the original music...it's just not memorable. Arias go on and on, and you frequently wonder, why? Even if this is, on occasion, a little funny at first, does anyone think it benefits from being flogged thus? Yeesh. The singers are bona fide opera singers, and they do their best, but the music IS kinda fundamental to an opera, and there's not really anything to latch onto here.
I don't know; this certainly isn't a horribly unpleasant experience or anything like that, and it feels ungracious to be attacking such a harmless, good-natured piece of work. But it's definitely a bit toothless, and I don't think it's going to enter the standard repertoire anytime soon.
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