Feature: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC at Dutch Tour: opening night this weekend!

English-language version to be performed from the 16th of March by the Nederlandse Reisopera

'Whipped cream with knives' in sensual game of musical chairs - A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim

From the 16th of March to the 9th of April 2019, the Nederlandse Reisopera (Dutch National Touring Opera) will be taking a new production of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music around the country. This is an English-language version produced by an American artistic team. In this staging, Director Zack Winokur looks back to the film that the musical was originally based on, Ingmar Bergman's Smile of a Summer Night: "What I found lacking in the musical, at least in the productions that I saw, was the bodily, sensual and erotic comedy which is at the heart of the film. Why are people continually trying to seduce each other and why are they continually failing? This work is about feelings that everyone deals with in daily life, which is comforting, alienating and disquieting at the same time."

Photo: Marco Borggreve © Nederlandse Reisopera

The cast consists of a mixture of opera singers and musical actors, including Paul Groot (Fredrik Egerman), Susan Rigvava-Dumas (Desirée Armfeldt), Laetitia Gerards (Anne Egerman), Job Greuter (Henrik Egerman), Sanne Franssen (Petra), and Guido Spek (Frid). They are accompanied by Het Gelders Orkest, conducted by Ryan Bancroft.

A Little Night Music will be performed in Enschede (16 March, premiere), Amstelveen (21 March, concert performance), Assen (24 March), Amsterdam (26 + 28 March), Arnhem (30 March), Heerlen (2 April), Zwolle (4 April), Maastricht (6 April), and Utrecht (9 April).

Championing high quality musicals

Following on from Sweeney Todd (2014), the Nederlandse Reisopera will once more perform a Stephen Sondheim musical, in the original language, in Dutch theatres. Reisopera Director Nicolas Mansfield explains: "I think that every now and again, our company should make a bold choice and show that the genre of musical theatre has an infinite variety of facets and that we acknowledge that. Sweeney Todd was the first famous work from the Sondheim repertoire performed by the Nederlandse Reisopera - A Little Night Music is the logical next step.

Photo: Marco Borggreve © Nederlandse Reisopera

But there is another reason why we are performing this work in particular and that is the theme this musical is based around, which is far from superficial. Sondheim sharply portrays people - young, middle-aged and old - who keep struggling with relationships. The way in which Sondheim reflects on life in this work is both confrontational and full of compassion. I have deliberately engaged an artistic team from the United States, as they have Sondheim in their blood like nobody else. The work will be sung and spoken in English and have both Dutch-language and English-language surtitles.

And finally, I fully endorse the proposal made by the Dutch Culture Council to support good musical theatre in the Netherlands. Their announcement was made fairly recently and is not connected to our decision to perform A Little Night Music, but the Nederlandse Reisopera is more than happy to contribute to the promotion of this type of musical theatre as a fully-fledged art form."

'Whipped cream with knives'

A Little Night Music is a funny and multi-layered musical comedy of manners about a game of sexual musical chairs played by four couples who become entangled in a series of triangular relationships and end up finding the right partner during a single sultry Midsummer Night. The musical was inspired by the film Smile of a Summer Night by Ingmar Bergman and is set in the Swedish upper classes around the year 1900.

Through the funny and often ironic lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this musical about the romantic mismatch of four couples gives a nod to Oscar Wilde, with clear echoes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

All characters are embroiled in one or more love triangles and swap sexual partners as if they were no more than dance partners. The situation becomes increasingly untenable, and at the end of the work we see the love triangles 'dissolving' into romantic couples.

Director Harold Prince once called the work 'whipped cream with knives'. The superficial drama involving the romantic couples is solved in the end, but the drama that is more deeply buried beneath the surface is not.

Plot

The story revolves around Desirée Armfeldt, a middle-aged actress who wants to exchange one lover (the pompous Count Carl-Magnus) for another, Fredrik Egerman, a respected if somewhat dull lawyer. Both men are married, Carl-Magnus to the eternally faithful Countess Charlotte and Fredrik to the 18-year old virginal Anne.

Fredrik's son Henrik is a seminary student driven by guilt, who is secretly in love with his young stepmother. Maidservant Petra in turn fancies Henrik.

During a weekend in the country house belonging to Madame Armfeldt(Desirée's mother), in which the Midsummer Night 'smiles' three times, the characters end up with the right partners.

Ingmar Bergman: Smiles of a Summer Night

Stephen Sondheim based A Little Night Music completely on the film Smile of a Summer Night by Ingmar Bergman. Director Zack Winokur has looked back to the film for his production:

'After I had seen the film, I understood the musical so much better. It made me think about sexuality and eroticism. Why are people always trying to seduce each other and why are they always failing? When an interpretation or an adaptation is made, some things will get lost and others elements come to the fore. What I missed in the musical - at least in the productions I have seen - was the bodily, sensual and erotic comedy of the film. We see Bergman at the height of his cinematographic powers. Everything is set in wonderful costumes and scenery from the end of the nineteenth century. Visually it almost looks like a ridiculously old-fashioned comedy of manners. But as soon as the people in the costumes open their mouths, everything is reduced to its naked essence. Through humour, the bitter truth seeps through the beautiful clothes.

We wanted to use period costumes in order to create a certain distance, so it almost seems as if we are looking at objectified emotions. When this system collapses, we are hit by a double whammy. Not just because you identify with a character and feel their pain when they are exposed. You also see that apparently, society refuses to learn from the past and keeps repeating the same patterns and the same mistakes. The work is about feelings that everyone deals with in daily life, which is comforting, alienating and disquieting at the same time.'

Costume Design: Cynthia Talmadge

Act Two scenery by Charlap Hyman & Herrero

The music: triple time

When Sondheim was writing the music, he was inspired by Ravel, Rachmaninov, and Brahms. His unique approach to the musical resulted in musical monologues and longer musical scenes.

As the storyline is based on the entanglement of triangular relationships, Sondheim based his music on the number three. All the music in the score is in triple time or variations on triple time, such as waltzes (Soon, You Must Meet My Wife), mazurkas (Remember, The Glamorous Life), polonaises (In Praise of Women), sarabandes (Later, Liaisons), and gigues (A Weekend in the Country).

Stephen Sondheim himself says: "My favourite musical form has always been 'variations on a theme' and A Little Night Music, where there are several couples all struggling with love, seemed the perfect opportunity to work out such a structure both musically and theatrically. (Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini is the apotheosis of such a form for me. Maybe that is the reason there is so much of Rachmaninov in the score.) An evening with nothing but waltzes would soon become boring, but variations on a theme of triple time offers a great deal of choice: polonaises, mazurkas, sarabandes, gigues etc. which are all types of triple meter, preventing the music from becoming repetitive."

The triple time music reflects the triangular relationships looking for a 'solution' into romantic couples, which is what happens in the end.

Send in the Clowns: Sondheim's biggest hit

The clarinet announces the drama even as lawyer Fredrik is still declaring his love to her. His monologue ends with the statement that he is not going to opt for her after all. When actress Desirée realises this, the song begins in earnest: Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?, she sings/says. These are the first lines of Send in the Clowns, the biggest hit ever written by Stephen Sondheim.

The expression 'send in the clowns' is a showbiz metaphor: you send in the clowns as a diversionary tactic for the audience when something has gone wrong.

Desirée uses the expression to try and hide the fact that she does not know what to say, but by asking for it so specifically and by expressing everything that went wrong between her and Fredrik, she just draws more attention to her humiliation and emotions.

A Little Night Music

Music and libretto by Stephen Sondheim

Story by Hugh Wheeler, inspired by the film by Ingmar Bergman

Original Broadway production and direction by Harold Prince

Musical Director: Ryan Bancroft

Director: Zack Winokur

Set Design: Charlap Hyman & Herrero

Lighting Design: Thomas Hase

Costume Design: Cynthia Talmadge

Sound Design: Will-Jan Pielage

Dramaturgy: Willem Bruls

Cast (in order of appearance)

Mr Lindquist: Alexander de Jong

Mrs Nordstrom: Nikki Treurniet

Mrs Anderssen: Syrinx Jessen

Mr Erlanson: Peter Kirk

Mrs Segstrom: Esther Kuiper

Ferdrika Armfeldt: Bernadeta Astari

Madame Armfeldt: Inez Timmer

Frid, her butler: Guido Spek

Henrik Egerman: Job Greuter

Anne Egerman: Laetitia Gerards

Fredrik Egerman: Paul Groot

Petra: Sanne Franssen

Desirée Armfeldt: Susan Rigvava-Dumas

Malla, her maidservant: Joana Dinah Schwing

Bertrand, servant: Bart Peeters Weem

Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm: Hadleigh Adams

Countess Charlotte Malcolm: Jessica Aszodi

With the cooperation of Het Gelders Orkest

The performance lasts 3 hours including one interval, and is sung and spoken in English, with Dutch and English surtitling.

About Musical Director Ryan Bancroft

Ryan Bancroft was born in Los Angeles and started out studying the trumpet. During his course at the Royal Conservatory in Scotland he specialised in orchestral conducting and obtained his Master's degree with distinction. Even while he was still a student, he conducted a number of well-known Scottish orchestras.

In April 2018, Ryan won both the first prize and the audience award in the prestigious Malko Competition for young conductors in Copenhagen. As the winner, he will have the opportunity to conduct 24 orchestras in Scandinavia, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, and China and will then return to the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

He recently stepped in as a replacement and successfully conducted two performances of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Later this season he will also conduct the Scottish and Welsh BBC Orchestras.

About Director Zack Winokur

The American director, choreographer and dancer Zack Winokur was born in Boston and studied at the Juliard School. His productions include Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Matthew Aucoin's The Orphic Moment for the Lincoln Center in New York, Perle Noir: Meditations for Joséphine with Julia Bullock and music by Tyshawn Sorey and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Black Clown for the American Repertory Theater. He has also worked at The Dutch National Opera, the Aix en Provence Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Together with Matthew Aucoin, Zack Winokur is artistic director of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), which organises an annual festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Performance dates

Sat 16 March, 7.30 pm (premiere): Wilminktheater, Enschede; Thu 21 March, 7.30 pm (concert performance: Schouwburg Amstelveen, Sat 24 March, 7.30 pm: De Nieuwe Kolk, Assen; Tue 26 and 28 March, 7.30 pm: Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam; Sat 30 March, 7.30 pm: Stadstheater Arnhem; Tue 2 April, 7.30 pm: Theater Heerlen, Heerlen; Thu 4 April, 7.30 pm: Theater de Spiegel, Zwolle; Sat 6 April, 7.30 pm: Theater aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht; Tue 9 April, 7.30 pm: Stadsschouwburg Utrecht.

Tickets: https://reisopera.nl/tickets/?pr=2330

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