Hershey Felder, as Claude Debussy, A Paris Love Story
By Deirdre
Donovan
Maestro Felder does triple duty as playwright, performer, and
pianist as he brilliantly brings to life the Impressionist composer.
One Performance Only, Sunday November 22nd, 2020
(Plus one
additional week of On-Demand viewing)
Anyone wishing to immerse themselves in the enchanting life and
music of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy should make it a point to
watch Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story this Sunday,
November 22nd , in a live broadcast from Florence (and available for viewing
the following week). Playwright-performer-pianist Hershey Felder, who
lives in Florence with his wife Kim Campbell (she’s the former prime minister
of Canada), has resurrected this confection just in time for the start of the
holiday season--when, with COVID-19 restrictions, it is even more to be
cherished.
Tickets and additional information are available at HersheyFelderLive.com.
It was my great good luck to have a chat with Felder via email
last Tuesday as he was leapfrogging through his show rehearsals in Florence. Here’s the text of our conversation.
How does it feel to be stepping once again
into the shoes of the great Impressionist composer Claude Debussy?
This story is a very personal one. It is the story of how I
came in contact with Claude Debussy’s ingenious, moving and world changing
color of sound, and why this music had such a deep effect on me. I don’t as
much “step into Debussy’s shoes” in this one as much as I use Debussy’s
characteristics to tell a story. The story is one of an artist searching for
peace – for means of expression. While I do play the character, how I arrive at
playing the character is part of the story.
Tell me about the stage life of A Paris Love
Story and if the text has changed at all for its new online
incarnation.
The world premiere of the stage play was at Theatreworks Silicon
Valley three months before it arrived at the Wallis [Wallis Annenberg
Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles]. It then went on to
Laguna Playhouse and after that, arrived at the Wallis. In works like these, I
am always looking for better and more succinct ways to tell the story. Has the
text changed in a grand manner? Not really – but it’s the details that count,
and the minute details are always shifting in an effort to be succinct and
clear, which leads to evoking the appropriate emotion in the listener/observer.
I read in a Los Angeles Times review of your Paris Love Story (2019) that you feel a true affinity with the composer
Debussy. Could you briefly explain why for our readers?
I was introduced to the music Debussy at a very sensitive time in
my life. My very young mother was extremely ill, in her early thirties at the
time, and the aural world of Debussy became an escape from the daily fear of
“what will happen next, and how bad is this going to be?” sense of imbalance.
You have a reputation as a tireless
researcher who sifts the wheat from the chaff when gathering material for your
artistic projects. How did you go about researching the radical and yet
popular composer Debussy?
As with all things, I begin, and generally end with source
material - the music itself of course, the context of creation, and in the case
of this composer, his own letters, his own writings, and the observations of
his friends.
While so many theater seasons have been
cancelled due to the pandemic, you have seized the day and launched your
year-round “Live from Florence” theater season. How did you come up
with this daring experiment in online theater programming?
In practical terms began as a lark for Mother’s day last May with
the Irving Berlin piece that seemed appropriate when everyone was in Draconian
lockdown mode. However the inspiration for the entire thing was to find a way
to keep the staff employed and help theatres and artists in some way who I
realized very quickly were headed for very difficult times. I had an option to
take two “sabbatical” years off so to speak, after twenty-seven years of being
on the road, living out of a suitcase (quite literally), being home for maybe
three or four weeks a year, and usually not all at once – OR – doing something
that might help a few people. I opted for the latter, and so was born LIVE
FROM FLORENCE – An Arts Broadcasting Company. While we have been
raising significant funds for theatres and artists, it is but a tiny drop in
the bucket of need, but if we all chip in to find a way to help one another
with a drop, perhaps the bucket will fill to overflowing.
Debussy was a firebrand in the musical world
and had strong opinions on the works of his contemporaries. Do you weave
any of his barbed or witty remarks into the fabric of your play?
Yes, and in fact, in one of scenes his book M. CROCHE (a funny
pseudonym, meaning Mr. “Eighth Note,” but also “Mr. Crotchety” perhaps) makes
an appearance. As well throughout the piece, I lace his sometimes pointed
rhetoric through stories. He is difficult and very funny.
I heard a rumor that your play has almost
wall-to-wall music gleaned from Debussy’s oeuvre. Was it difficult to
balance such crowd-pleasing works as La Mer, Prélude à
l'après-midi d'un faune and Clair de lune with
lesser-known pieces in his repertoire?
The good news about Debussy, is that a great deal is familiar,
even if just in our consciousness. After all, it is the beginning of film
music, and so much jazz has its roots in Debussy. With only two hours, I was
able to use the familiar, but also a couple of the less familiar (to the
general public) works. But because they have resonance within the story, they
serve, it seems, not to distract but enhance. At least I hope that to be the
case.
You have conjured up eight great musicians to
date—George Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin,
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and of course Debussy. So who’s next?
Actually nine – there was also Liszt (or if we count the second
character in that show) ten – with Wagner and Liszt coming to a head, while
playing both characters. This season, the new character will be Puccini. In
later years, while not huge, he did accomplish a bit of a doughy countenance.
It’ll be a nice month of pasta to prepare J
In what capacity do you truly see yourself in A Paris Love Story since you excel in all your personas as concert pianist, raconteur, playwright, and actor?
For this story I use all the elements of what I do - but this time, I do something that I don’t ever do from stage, and that is reveal a very personal side of myself, as my own growing up is very connected to discovering the music of Claude Debussy - it’s the story of what happens and it’s extremely personal, and dare I say human in that it is something that many of us go through. So, you get all of me this time.
How was your performance energy different as you adapted A Paris Love Story to the screened theatrical event?
The lens doesn’t allow for pretense. It absolutely keeps one honest. What sometimes flies by quickly in a theatre is magnified tenfold on the screen. It is intimate, personal and for these purposes, a one on one conversation with the person at the other end of the lens. One can be very nuanced in such a situation - and while different from the theatre, it still maintains the theatricality - it’s just up close and personal. For this kind of story and these characters, I rather enjoy the process.
One Performance Only, Sunday November 22nd, 2020
5 pm PST, 7 pm CST, 8 pm EST
(Plus one additional week of On-Demand viewing.)
Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story
Tickets and additional information are available at HersheyFelderLive.com.