Hershey Felder (Photo: Hershey Felder Presents)

 

Monsieur Chopin

 

By Julia Polinsky

 

 

Monsieur Chopin, Hershey Felder's marvelous one-man presentation now at 59E59, is such a delightful combination of music and storytelling, that it would be a faux pas to miss a moment.

 

Felder has perfected the art of performing the lives of illustrious musicians from other times and places. His previous shows have focused on Beethoven, Gershwin, Liszt, Berlin, Tchaikovsky, and Bernstein, to name a few. For Monsieur Chopin, the musician in question is the beloved "poet of the piano" who lived and taught in Paris in the mid-19^th century.

 

The stage-Felder did his own scenic design for this production -- evokes Chopin's Paris salon. It's 1848; Chopin enters and invites "students" to their "piano lesson." A grand piano is at center; Felder moves across the stage, addressing the audience directly, revealing his life history and his deeply personal thinking about how to make music, then sits at the piano and plays. Magic happens, then.

Hershey Felder (Photo: Hershey Felder Presents)

 

Monsieur Chopin may evoke a lesson, but it is not a lecture; it's a revelation. It's story. It's heartbreaking as the music itself, which Felder plays with an evocative touch that ranges from feather-light to massively strong - never "banging" - as so much of Chopin's piano music was delicate, in contrast to that of his frenemy Franz Liszt, so famous, so loud, so much banging, as Chopin says.

 

Chopin speaks of his love for Poland, his homeland, his family; his preference for playing in small venues, private salons of the aristocracy. He talks of his life in Paris, and with Georges Sand, the writer famous for her many lovers and unconventional behavior. His joys, his sorrows, his love, his hurt: he speaks to the audience of his life, and then plays the glorious music that came from it.

 

All through Monsieur Chopin, he insists that students pay attention to what makes music important, what gives it meaning. Felder's considerable knowledge of Chopin's life, music, and teaching has been condensed into what he can offer in 2 engaging hours, so it's a delightful surprise when Chopin opens up the audience to question-and-answer. After all, students must ask questions of the maestro, or else how will they learn? He has the singular advantage, he says, of being dead, so he answers questions about key signatures and family history, as well as portrayals of him in movies, favorite recording artists, and other things that happened after his death.

 

Felder's charisma and deeply felt performance, as directed by Joel Zwick, are matched, if not surpassed, by his beautiful playing of the grand piano at the center of the stage. Felder was his own scenic designer for Monsieur Chopin; the spare set - a couple of small tables, a chair, a chaise, some mirrors, a carpet, a glorious chandelier - frames his storytelling amply while evoking time and place. Projections by Erik Carstensen splendidly evoke the Chopin's mid-19^th century milieu; Jeremy Artur Kalke's sound, as is so important in a show about music, is immaculate.

 

Hershey Felder (Photo: Hershey Felder Presents)

 

This is a don't-miss show, and please be on time. You don't want to be late for your lesson with Monsieur Chopin. You really, really don't.

 

Monsieur Chopin

At 59E59

59 East 59^th St, NY

2 hours, no intermission

Through Dec. 24

https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/monsieur-chopin/