A farewell by a ‘Most Happy Fella’
By Peter Jacobi
April 5, 2009
"He's a terrific artist and has a lot more to go. His voice sounds as fresh as ever." So says Constantine Kitsopoulous about Timothy Noble.
Kitsopoulos is the impressively credentialed guest conductor of the IU Opera Theater’s production of “The Most Happy Fella,” which opens a run at the Musical Arts Center on Friday evening. Noble is the distinguished professor of music and world-prominent baritone set to sing the lead in the opening and closing performances of that Frank Loesser show.
Despite Kitsopoulos’ analysis of his star, Noble says it’s time to say farewell to staged productions after 44 years in the operatic and Broadway musical limelight. “My voice still works, but it isn’t what it used to be. I’m 64. I’ve had a great run. I’ve done all I wanted and more. I’ve been in Bloomington serving my students for 10 years. I love that. I love them. I’m settled here. It’s so neat not to pack and unpack. I want to be home with my family, off the road and in my own bed. I’m done. It’s not a big deal. I’ve been very fortunate, and I just hope I’ve brought pleasure.”
One suspects that baritone Noble will still be heard for some time to come in less formal settings, consummate entertainer that he is. The young man who shares being “The Most Happy Fella” and sings the role at the other two performances, Aleksey Bogdanov, says, “Professor Noble is pretty amazing. Aside from being a great singer, he could have won an Oscar as actor. He’s got all the moves and all the inflections and all the in-between-the-lines stuff. I’ve learned so much from him.”
Noble says of Bogdanov: “He’s doing fabulously. This is his first musical theater attempt. He’s done a hell of a job, taking on and moving into the role.”
Stage director Vincent Liotta echoes that sentiment. “Aleksey is taking to it like fish to water. He’s going to be very good. His performance will stand up anywhere. As for Tim, what more can be said about him? He’s special, and working with him — just as a person — he’s so pleasant and so professional.”
Colleagues speak well of Liotta, too. “Vince is great,” says Tim Noble. “Vince is a terrific director and just right for this emotional piece,” says Constantine Kitsopoulos. “Vince has guided me so encouragingly,” says Aleksey Bogdanov.
What we obviously have here is a mutual admiration society, meaning that, as Noble puts it, “Rehearsals have been going great. We have two splendid casts. Constantine is a real singers’ conductor. The atmosphere of putting the show together has been fun, just terrific.”
The team has favorable impressions to share also about the show itself, an amalgam of operatic and Broadway styles introduced to the Great White Way in 1956. It won the Drama Critics Circle award as best musical of the year and had a run of 676 performances. Loesser called it a “musical play,” based on Sidney Howard’s 1925 Pulitzer Prize drama, “They Knew What They Wanted.”
“It’s a hybrid,” says Liotta, “part serious music drama and part Broadway show about a May-December romance. For Loesser and for us, it’s a balancing act, to make sure one doesn’t get in the way of the other. The piece is new for us and has been an interesting working experience.”
“The orchestral challenges,” adds Kitsopoulos, “center on that combination. There are pure operatic elements, arias and ensembles. There is dance and Dixieland. ‘Standing on the Corner’ is rhythm and swing and Tin Pan Alley. Getting the orchestra to sound right stylistically at all times: that’s been a workout. But the University Orchestra has been just great, and we’re getting it done.”
“The Most Happy Fella” tells the story of a maturing winegrower from the Napa Valley visiting San Francisco where, in a restaurant, he sees a young waitress, Rosabella. Back in Napa, he begins an exchange of letters. She sends him a picture and asks for one in return. Fearful that his own looks might disappoint her, he sends a photo of his young and handsome foreman Joe. Rosabella is convinced she wants to pursue a relationship, comes to Napa, ready to marry Tony.
When the deception is discovered, Rosabella decides to return to San Francisco, but when she hears that Tony has been disabled in an auto accident, she stays. They marry. Rosabella, however, is attracted to Joe. Young passion leads to pregnancy. Tony, discovering the truth about the child, is enraged, threatens to strike Rosabella and kill Joe. Recognizing how much he loves her, he relents, accepts the child, and settles in for a happy life after all.
Brooks Atkinson, in a review for the New York Times, said of Loesser’s music-laden work: “He has told everything of vital importance in terms of dramatic music ... . His music drama goes so much deeper into the souls of its leading characters than most Broadway shows, and it has such an abundant and virtuoso score.”
“The role of Tony has a lot of my own life experiences that I can bring to the table,” says Noble. “He is a Falstaffian character, which takes me right back to my opera days.” Bogdanov says he relates to the musical because, though born in the Soviet Union, he calls San Francisco home and has memories of growing up in Napa Valley. He rates the music as “absolutely beautiful” and the show as a “quality piece, not done often probably because it’s hard to sing and play. I’d call it an ‘improved opera’ that packs a punch.”
Conductor Kitsopoulos sums it up: “Loesser attempted to make an American opera. He was a fine musician who set about to combine the best of the operatic and Broadway worlds. Some of the roles require operatic voices; some do not. We’re striving to meld the forms. I think people who come to see it can be carried away emotionally, and I hope that’s what happens.”
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
