Baritone Scott Bearden, who has sung in several Knoxville Opera productions, earned a well-deserved “Bravo!” for his multiple-characters role, performed as the chansonnier, in H. K. Gruber’s 1977 “Frankenstein!! A pan-demonium for baritone chansonnier and ensemble for children’s rhymes,” performed Sunday afternoon as part of the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra season-opening concert.
Picture this: Boris Badenov, Natasha, Rocky the squirrel, the Roadrunner, John Wayne, Gene Wilder and Joel Gray, with a head cold, are performing Viennese poet H. C. Artmann’s children’s rhymes, in a setting akin to a wristed version of something like Kurt Weill’s Cabaret. They impersonate Frankenstein and Dracula, who are playing the roles of Superman and Captain American and they are rubbing shoulders with James Bond and Goldfinger.
It’s all in a little boy’s dream, and every character is brilliantly played by Scott Bearden in a sensational performance.
The story is underpinned with whimsical music that touches to all of the areas of the text. There are pop music references, as well as Weill and Austrian composer Hans Eisler and folk tunes, mixed in with a combination of Stravinskian and Prokofievian classicism.
There’s a whole chest of toy instruments: kazoos, mouth pianos, slide whistles, along with simple things like popping air-filled paper bags and the mysterious “whur” of a dozen musicians slinging sections of plastic hoses around their heads.
In the middle of the piece, most of the orchestra rose to sing lines that sounded like a Greek chorus singing a Gregorian chant.
Not to be forgotten was a wonderful horn solo played by principal horn Jeffery Whaley.
The classical nature of the piece was set up by a crystal-clear performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major,” Op. 25, known as the “Classical Symphony,” superbly conducted by Aram Demirjian. It was crisp, clean and very precise
The concert opened with 18th century work that had its own sense of humor: Franz Joseph Haydn’s 1774 “Symphony No. in C Major, Hob. 1/60, known as “Il Distratto, The Distracted.”
It was bright and joyful, with clear conducting and responsive playing from the orchestra. Obviously, communication between conductor and musicians has taken several steps forward.
The second movement, marked “Andante,” was charming and graceful.
The familiar chatter of little phrases between the bassoons and the violins was especially appealing and exquisitely played.
Haydn originally wrote the music as incidental music for the revival of a play called “Der Zerstreute.”
In the sixth and final movement, the instruments suddenly start playing out of tune, requiring the playing to stop and the instruments re-tune. It was Haydn’s little joke and a way of getting the audience to stop their chitchat and pay attention because the music is coming to an end.
Haydn’s explorations in this piece were ahead of its time. There were moments that could be described as surrealism and other breaks from the conventional styles of the day.
Visually, not only was the “Frankenstein” interesting, there was physical engagement among the musicians.
When one sees musicians sway and move with the music, you know they are having fun.
The interaction between the conductor and the musicians is working.