Germany Jeremy Bock and Sheldon Harnick, The Apple Tree: Soloists and refrain of Stadttheater Bremerhaven, Philharmonic Orchestra Bremerhaven / Davide Perniceni (conductor). Stadttheater Bremerhaven, 22.3.2024. (DMD)

Manufacturing:
Director – Rennik-Jan Neggers
Set and Costumes –     Alexander McCargar
Choreography – Nele Neugebauer
Lighting – Daniel Lang
Dramaturgy – Torben Selk
Refrain director – Mario El Fakih Hernández

Casts:

The Diary of Adam and Eve
Eve – Victoria Kunze
Adam – Andrew Irwin
Snake – Marcin Hutek
Voice of God – Ulrich Burdack

The Woman or the Tiger?
Princess Barbra – Boshana Milkov
Captain Sanjar – Marcin Hutek
King Aerik – Ulrich Burdack
Minstrel – Patrick Ruyters
Nadjira – Sydney Gabbard

Passionella: A Romance from the Sixties
Ella / Passionella – Victoria Kunze
Flipp / George Brown – Anrew Irwin
Narrator – Ulrich Burdack
Expensive Good Fairy – Katharina Diegritz

Many German opera firms pleasure themselves on together with no less than one rediscovery of a hidden gem of their annual season, the primary manufacturing of an opera or musical in Germany or a world premiere. The music theatre part of Stadttheater Bremerhaven isn’t any exception. This 12 months they offered the primary German language manufacturing of the musical The Apple Tree, subtitled Variations as regards to temptation. The German textual content is by Hartmut H. Forche. The musical comes from composer Jeremy Bock, of The Fiddler on the Roof fame, and lyricist Sheldon Harnick. Its inaugural manufacturing, directed by Mike Nichols, was on Broadway from 1966 for 463 performances. Dramaturg Torben Selk tells us within the programme notes that The Apple Tree was the primary musical to encompass three self-contained components, simply as Puccini’s opera Il trittico.

The primary, The Diary of Adam and Eve is predicated on a brief story by Mark Twain, wittily charting the lives of the title characters from their beginnings to Eve’s demise. It incorporates a soprano, a tenor (Adam and Eve), a baritone (the Snake) and the (spoken) voice of God. The Woman or the Tiger? is predicated on a textual content of the identical title by Frank A. Stockton. The plot is about in a kingdom with an uncommon system of justice: the male accused should select between two doorways – if he’s harmless, he’ll select the door with a good looking girl behind it, who he’ll then marry. Behind the opposite door, representing his guilt, waits a hungry tiger able to kill him. Within the musical, the captain has been found in a bootleg embrace with the princess and should now select between the 2 doorways. The princess has discovered behind which door the tiger will probably be on that event. She then realises that if the captain doesn’t select the door of demise, he should marry the lady behind the opposite door. The musical ends earlier than the princess has made her choice which door to level the captain to.

The third a part of the musical is entitled Passionella, primarily based on a textual content by Jules Feiffer. Ella works as a chimney sweep. She would quite be a wealthy and well-known movie actress. An excellent fairy (in reality the snake from paradise) makes her want come true, for a restricted time frame (as in Cinderella). Whereas wealthy and well-known, she falls in love with the person of her desires, however he initially rejects her for ‘not being actual’. Solely later does he realise that he loves her they usually plan to get married. When her time as a film star is up, she turns again into Ella, and her dream man turns from the well-known singer into an equally way more unusual man, George L. Brown. They get to know one another and can reside collectively fortunately ever after. Right here the primary characters are soprano, tenor and bass (narrator), supported by a refrain.

The manufacturing total instructed the tales convincingly, with a constant set and lighting, easy and useful in form, stunning in color and imaginatively lit. The recent and cheerful costumes contributed to the general feel-good impact. The design workforce consisting of Alexander McCargar, and Daniel Lang clearly labored properly collectively. The forged and refrain have been creatively choreographed by Nele Neugebauer. Davide Perniceni performed the music with appreciable consciousness of and feeling for the rhythms and arcs typical of the musical style and the core orchestra performed with dedication. The person roles have been forged from the opera firm, quite than with stage actors — definitely a luxurious for a musical. With out exception, the singers have been very properly in a position to alter their voices from having to venture, with out amplification, to the far ends of the theatre area, to projecting to the microphone simply inches away from their mouths. They have been equally comfy with and convincing within the lengthy passages of spoken dialogue in between the music numbers. This was altogether an pleasurable and entertaining night ensuing from the invention of just a little gem.

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe