New ballet score for ‘Gatsby’ imitates silent film music
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby” in 1925, when American jazz was catching on in Paris nightclubs and the foxtrot, waltz and tango were taking America by storm. The novel features a symbolic green light, but in Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s new adaptation, many of the notes are blue.
As a classical music critic, I was there to hear composer Carl Davis’ new score. Mr. Davis, who also scored the TV movie version of “Gatsby,” has created a collage of styles for the new ballet production, linking dance tunes and Americana-style fanfares with a poignant motif (musical theme) for the title character.
Results are mixed. The “Gatsby tune,” as we’ll call it, was hauntingly lovely — lonely but surprisingly optimistic. Mr. Davis’ waltzes and foxtrots sparkled with long, winding melodies. His bluesier, jazz-inflected music, much of which featured a solo trumpet or saxophone, effectively anchored the “period” aspect of the production.
Still, much of the fanfare and transitional music felt like filler, generic when more nuance could have added depth. This new take on Mr. Fitzgerald’s classic bears strong resemblance to the film score, and indeed the ballet as a whole felt akin to a silent movie, unsurprising given Mr. Davis’ experience in scoring older silent films.
Pianists and organists who used to perform live in old-school silent movie houses would use canned sheet music written to emphasize certain feelings, emotions or actions as the movie was playing. There wasn’t much subtlety. This could explain some of the blandness in parts of the score.
A reduced Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Charles Barker, performed admirably, though I’m unconvinced they needed the electronic amplification used in the Benedum Center. Some outof-tune oboe playing and some shaky string articulation in some of the faster strains aside, this ensemble — which shares some of its musicians with Pittsburgh Opera — is underappreciated as a cultural force in Pittsburgh.