Imagine an intimate historical drama that sweeps you up with family, romance, music, suspense, betrayal, tyranny, escape and dreams.
Add live music to enhance the mood and propel the story.
Set it in a garden, and let the living and the dead converse like brothers.
And bring it to the cozy environment of the New Vic Theatre.
That’s author, actor and musician Hershey Felder’s “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar,” running now through April 20, courtesy of host Ensemble Theatre Company.
Woven together with excerpts from 14 Rachmaninoff works that Felder performs on a Steinway grand, and supported by evocative silent film and projected imagery, “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” depicts the composer’s life in imagined conversation with Russia’s last tzar, Nicholas II, played by Jonathan Silvestri.
Rachmaninoff enjoyed early accolades as a young musical star in his youth, creating his first concerto at age 18.
When his “First Symphony” was panned a few years later, he experienced a life-changing depression that halted his work.
But then came what is widely accepted as his masterpiece, the “Piano Concerto No. 2,” popularized on the soundtrack from the Hollywood romance film “Brief Encounter” from 1945.
Contemporary audiences (OK, Boomers and Gen Xers by way of their older siblings) will recognize it as the melody of Erik Carmen’s sad pop song “All by Myself” from the mid-’70s.
Rachmaninoff fled to the United States with his wife and daughters during the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and Red Terror, a trauma that would color the rest of his life, from New York to Los Angeles.
He became a U.S. citizen just months before he passed away in 1942.
Audiences get to hear samples of Rachmaninoff’s early work, works from the peak of his career in Russia, early adulthood summering in alpine Europe, the strife that drove him from his homeland forever, and the unpredictable bursts of creativity that marked his life in the United States.
Felder’s rendition of the composer’s arrangement of the “Star Spangled Banner,” in the context of Russian history, the World War underway when he died, and our fraught times, is particularly moving.
Integral to Felder’s theatrical work is his music-making as a Steinway Concert Artist. The depth of his skill as a pianist makes the music more than representative of Rachmaninoff’s times, compositions and national origins: the music is the main character. The story provides the context that brought it to life.
Following an illustrious career creating original theater that celebrates the work and lives of some of the western canon’s most beloved composers, Felder has recently been named artistic director of the historic Teatro della Signoria and Teatro Niccolini in Florence, Italy.
Felder and Silvestri generously welcome audience questions after the performance. Their passion for this project is deep and evident, and their collaboration is genuine, making our experience of the show that much richer.
“Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” runs through April 20, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m., with additional performances on Saturday, April 12 at 3 p.m., Wednesday, April 16 at 2 p.m. and Saturday, April 19 at 3 p.m.
Audience members can enjoy added fun and learning with the following special events: Cocktail Night at 7:15 p.m. Friday, April 11; a Tea Talk at 1:15 p.m. before the 2 p.m. matinee and a pre-show talk at 6:45 p.m. before the evening performance Wednesday. April 16; Pride Night pre-show celebration at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, April 17.
For tickets, visit etcsb.org or call 805.965.5400.