“Songspiel”
Where: Davis Performing Arts Center’s Gonda Theatre, Georgetown University, 37th and O streets NW
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 15-16
Info: $45 general admission, $35 faculty, staff, senior (65 and over), $10 students; performingarts.georgetown.edu
Celebrated soprano Sylvia McNair placed her 20 years as opera diva in a beautiful box, wrapped it up lovingly with ribbons of past triumphs, and reinvented herself for the new century. This week, Washington will meet the winner of two Grammy Awards as Jenny, the tragic protagonist and victim of Hurricane Katrina in “Songspiel.” This new work built upon 17 songs by Kurt Weill was created by Tim Nelson, artistic director of American Opera Theater. His initial plan was to stage the composer’s “Seven Deadly Sins” for McNair, but once she agreed to the proposal, the Kurt Weill Foundation insisted on a full orchestra, a minimum of 45 instrumentalists. The prohibitive cost demanded that Nelson turn to Plan B and convey the heart-wrenching story through another group of Weill’s songs. Proof of his success were the raves following the Baltimore premiere of “Songspiel” this past November.
“This is the story of a woman’s life in three acts,” McNair said from her studio at Indiana University in Bloomington where she is a member of her alma mater’s voice faculty. “I’d been wanting to do ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ for a long time. When the plans changed, the hardest part was learning 14 new and difficult songs within two months.
“I love acting and I wanted to tell the story of how Jenny became a homeless woman living in the bus station when Katrina hit. The events of her life could happen to anyone. Tim’s ideas are relevant and the older I get closing in on three decades of performing, I want my endeavors on stage to be relevant. Over the past year, I began to look at homeless people closely. Many choose to be there, but most, like Jenny, are in that situation because they were thrown too many hard balls by life.”
McNair understands, having emerged from a decade during which she has endured and recovered from cancer. Her vibrant outlook on life beams forth from her cover photo on a recent Coping With Cancer magazine. A model for women undergoing radiation, operations and chemotherapy, she regards her battle and survival as the greatest gift she ever received.
Armed with a fresh perspective on life filled with clarity and compassion for others, her joy reverberates in her speaking voice and on recordings with pianist/conductor Andre Previn of music by Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen. “Pick Yourself Up,” the title of one, aptly describes her philosophy.
Having turned her back on the glorious career and acclaim she reaped singing in the world’s great concert halls and opera houses, McNair has rediscovered and honed the Broadway star and jazz stylist lying dormant for many years. Now she alternates between guest engagements with symphonic pops orchestras, shows in intimate cabarets and leading roles in such musicals as “Camelot,” “The King and I” and “A Little Night Music.”
“‘Songspiel’ is an ideal vehicle for an opera veteran because of Weill’s music,” she said. “He’s a hybrid composer schooled in Germany before venturing into American musical theater. Because Weill hasn’t been as accessible to American audiences as Gershwin and other native composers, people know only a handful of his songs, like ‘Saga of Jenny,’ ‘My Ship,’ ‘Je Ne T’aime pas’ and ‘Liebeslied.’ Although his music might not yet fly in middle America, this is a story that needs to be told.”
