San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Deconstructing Debussy
San Diego Rep’s ‘Paris Love Story’ is the latest in playwright Hershey Felder’s composer series
Last May, playwright/ pianist/performer Hershey Felder was set to present the San Diego premiere of his solo play about composer Claude Debussy, “Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story,” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. But when the pandemic arrived in March, Rep officials postponed the run to November.
But as the pandemic wore on and Felder’s visit to the Rep became impossible, the theater and the playwright came up with a novel way to honor those ticket sales and sell some more this fall with a series of exclusive events for the San Diego Rep audience.
Viewers at theaters worldwide will be able to tune in for a livestreamed performance of “Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story” on Nov. 22. But only Rep ticket-buyers will be invited to three more live performances of “A Paris Love Story” Nov. 23, 24 and 25. The Rep audiences will also have the option to purchase a package that includes a one-hour live post-show question-andanswer session as well as a French pastry cooking class Felder is filming with a chef near his home in Florence, Italy.
In order to keep performing throughout the pandemic, Felder launched a global production company in July that is livestreaming performances of his Great Composer Series plays from his home in Florence to theater fans in the U.S. and Europe. In July, he streamed his Beethoven play from his home. And in September, he presented his George Gershwin play from Florence’s pandemic-shuttered Teatro Della Pergola. The Debussy play will mark the third livestreamed production in a just-announced full season of biographical plays that Felder has scheduled through next spring.
Still to come in the inaugural “Live From Florence” season are: “Tchaikovsky,” a holiday adaptation of his earlier solo play “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” on Dec. 20. Next up is the world premiere of Felder as Ukrainian author/playwright Sholem Aleichem in “Before Fiddler,” featuring the Klezmerata Fiorentina on Feb. 7. On March 14, Felder will star in the the world premiere of “Puccini,” a play with music from the Tuscan composer’s many famous operas. And on May 16, he will present the world premiere of “Anna & Sergei,” where he will play Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Felder is also planning to produce two shows later this season starring other performers: “The Boy From Philly: The Story of Mario Lanza,” starring an as-yet unnamed tenor, and the play “I Found My Horn,” featuring Jonathan Guy Lewis.
Felder recently answered several questions about his upcoming Debussy production via email. Here are excerpts of that conversation.
Q: “A Paris Love Story” is inspired by a visit you made as a young man to Debussy’s home in Paris, and how your mother, who died when you were 13, loved Debussy’s music. Does the play stand out to you because it’s so personal?
A: One of the interesting things about playing the characters that I play is that sometimes audience members, and even folks in the press, have mistaken the character that they are familiar with onstage as the real me. I am always flattered by the confusion. It feels then that I have done the job properly. But I am quite a loner.
With Debussy I decided to throw caution to the wind and reveal essentially the factors that make up who I am. The play is both the most natural and also the most difficult for me to do. The story that I tell happened to me, and it involves some heartbreaking times in my life. But music lifts us, and it is a raison d’être for me. So there is a point to sharing what is behind how I ended up the way I have.
Q: “A Paris Love Story” had its world premiere in January 2019 in the Bay Area. How has the piece changed since then?
A: What audiences in San Diego will see is a production after several years of development turned into live cinema, where one has, after a manner of speaking, a front-row seat.
Q: Initially you had planned to present the live performances of “A Paris Love Story” in Paris, where you have an apartment, but the resurgence of the pandemic has forced you to change your plans. Will you still get over to Paris this fall to film some segments for the live production?
A: We have curfew in Paris that begins at 9 p.m. and runs through 6 a.m. We have quite a few memory sequences that require nighttime outside. That means that everything we have to accomplish outside needs to happen between 7 and 8:30 p.m. when it is dark. It should be fun.
In the end, it is likely that the live playing and storytelling will come from Florence with the pre-filmed memory sequences coming from France.
Q: Can you explain why you have added some optional programming for the Rep engagement?
A: I thought it would be best to bring the whole experience right into audiences’ living rooms, exactly as they would have it in the theater, but with a few added benefits. Debussy was a big dessert fiend. He loved good food, even though he couldn’t afford it most of the time.
Well, here in Florence recently I have become well acquainted with a famous private chef who trained in Paris. He cooks and bakes for the likes of Zubin Mehta, Sting, Madonna and Sophia Loren. His name is Jeff Thickman, and I came to know him through my relationship with Cesare Mazzonis, who used to run La Scala (opera house) in Milan.
Then I had Jeff ’s white chocolate mango cheesecake. Heaven! On that spot, I said to him: ‘I am planning “extras” for my beloved San Diego Rep audiences. Let’s do a cooking show about Debussy’s favorite foods.’ He said yes. It so happens that Jeff also trained as pianist ... so he plays, too. We’re going to add some Debussy duetplaying into the mix.