By: Richard Norton

Richard Norton — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 20:10:59 +0000

London saw this as MOTHER OF PEARL with Alice DeLysia. Thematically similar to BALL IM SAVOY, it’s obsessed with love, betrayal and a happy resolution. Intendant Barrie Kosky radically re-thought the work as a two-person vaudeville, with two superstars, Dagmar Manzel and Max Hopp playing 21 different male and female parts in a series of quick-change costumes and scenes. Set was a plain door and pair of sconces, copied from the interior of the Komische Oper ground floor, all framed by a huge red curtain. However the full Komische Oper orchestra played the original orchestrations which were a joy to hear. The madcap tone was set at the outset with both stars as grumpy old men admirers of diva star Manon Cavallini, then instantly transforming the strapping 6-foot Hopp into a pink satin dress and blond wig, and the shorter Manzel into a Harpo Marx-like man’s tuxedo with mustache and cigar. At times each were left/right sides male/female, flipping character from side to side. I haven’t seen anything to match it since Charles Ludlam’s MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP. Thank God for the English translation on the back of the seat in front of me, and the plot synopsis in the program, or I’d have been lost. And the Straus score is a treasure to discover, be it the familiar “Every Woman Thinks She Wants to Wander” from MOTHER OF PEARL or other familiar tunes. The finale medley made me want to hear the score again and again, and the audience response was tremendous, another big success for Barrie Kosky and the Komische Oper. It will be repeated only 5 times this season; at the after-party Kosky announced that Hopp will star as Henry Higgins in next season’s MY FAIR LADY at the Komische Oper.

Comments on: Revisiting 1932 with Oscar Straus’ “Eine Frau, die weiß was sie will”

By: Richard Norton