(Photo: Jim Cox)
By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — “This isn’t a retirement home. It’s a madhouse!”
Walk into the Shiley Theatre at the Old Globe and you will find yourself inside a tasteful drawing room with a chaise, a baby grand piano, a harp, a bass and some music stands. This is an English home for performers of opera. The English home is fictitious, but it’s based on the Casa di Riposo per Musicati -better known as “Casa Verdi”- in Italy. Since its founding in 1902, Casa Verdi has housed over 1,000 singers, composers, conductors and musicians. Conceived and founded by Giuseppe Verdi, it was his way of giving back to the “poor, dear companions of my life” whose careers in show business did not lend themselves to a lucrative retirement.
There have been a few notable opera stars from the tribe such as Beverly Sills and Richard Tauber. Yet, for all of Opera’s shrying passion and pathos, one wonders why there isn’t more Jewish opera.
Casa Verdi hosts numerous concerts and performances by its residents and the renowned opera stars of the day. For many, it is the last stage before their final curtain.
Cissy, (Jill Tanner) is lost in Rigoletto playing on her headphones. So Wilfred (Roger Forbes) takes advantage by talking salaciously to her. That’s putting it delicately. Wilfred loves to think and talk about sex knowing that his days of action are well behind him. Randy but harmless, Forbes is very funny and instantly likable.
Cissy, flattered by the attention, scolds Wilfred but doesn’t really discourage him. However, Reg (Robert Foxworth) –who is a very proper and particular gentleman- is somewhere between scandalized and annoyed by Wilfred’s adolescent going on.
Cissy is going a bit daft, welcoming her friends back from Karachi and other exotic places they’ve never been to. Yet her exuberant sweetness makes her so precious you just want to give her a kiss.
Verdi always referred to the residents as his “guests,” but they refer to themselves as “inmates.” Yet they live by the motto: NSP (no self pity).
There’s buzz about “a new arrival,” Jean Horton (Elizabeth Franz) who was once the brightest star in the opera firmament. Reg happens to be “one” of her ex-husbands, making their re-union awkward, cold and cutting. But as with so many ex-lovers, their rancor belies deep affection still smoldering in the ashes.
As it is with old folks, their conversation revolves around reminiscence, forgetfulness and complaints about failing health. Yet Quartet requires a patient ear as it is rich in wit and erudite references to music and literature.
They celebrate Giuseppe Verdi’s birthday with a gala performance for which these four get roped into singing the famous quartet “Bella Figlia dell’Amore” from Rigoletto, a piece famous for its “harmony, dissonance and beautiful silence.” They had done it before in their day and the CD has just been re-released. But Jean is dead-set against it as she is not the singer she once was.
So they decide to lip-sync to themselves and this is where the ending disappoints. To recorded voices, the quartet makes grand gestures. But watching their lips, it is obvious that these actors have never sung this material and don’t really know the words. After two and half hours building up to this moment, the climax was a let down.
And yet, there is something endearing about watching four such seasoned actors playing with wit and charm well before their own final curtains in Quartet.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworlds.com