“If this is
true, Maestro David Katz must have been to some very dark places.
The internationally renowned composer and conductor has talent coming
out of his fingertips. MUSE of FIRE (which he wrote and performs)
tells of his tutelage under the towering personality of legendary
conductor, Charles Bruck (1911-1995) and lays bare the black art
of the classical maestro. Katz studied under Bruck at the world-renowned
Pierre Monteux Conducting School in Maine. He not only survived
the experience but isn't afraid to relive it on stage.
“It's often
so easy to...forget the quality of the small and well-crafted endeavor
of the one-man play...One actor has to make the whole thing work
in a meaningful sense for an audience that has only a single individual
to focus on. Happily, MUSE of FIRE delivers the goods and then some.
“The play follows
Katz's relationship with Bruck from his student days to Bruck's
death and beyond. In the beginning Katz hates the impossible man.
Later he shows what he learned from the maestro. Finally he explains
why he came to love and respect him...But as the avuncular-looking
Katz wanders on stage and calmly sits down to pull on a pair of
red sneakers, it's easy to let doubt creep in. What is here that
can live up to the promise of searing passion and personal insight?
“Any such doubts
are soon blasted away. The red shoes, a symbol of the clownish way
that Bruck used to dress, the portrait of the little Hungarian who
never lost his accent and whose lisp encouraged unashamed spittle,
suddenly bursts into an eruption of unforgiving fury and fire. Katz
drags his audience into the first of several humiliating and intense
teaching sessions with Bruck where the spit and the vitriol fly
in equal amounts. A scene called "The Wagner and the Shouting" shows
how Bruck could tear someone apart until they had no sense of self.
Bruck mauls his pupils' raw emotions and hammers them into honesty
or tosses them aside. His uncompromising quest for the heart and
guts of his students is savage and exhausting. When Katz enacts
how his fellows huddled together during a brief interval in the
lesson, it's a welcome chance for the audience to also catch its
collective breath.
“Bruck was
a man who would never have fitted into today's cozy world where
treating students with respect or teaching through kindness and
positive affirmation is the expected norm. He is a compelling fury
of arrogant refusal to be mediocre, and we find ourselves sympathetic
to his passionate desire to create excellence. The force of his
character is staggering.
“Uncompromising
and frustrating personalities seem to carry drama around with them:
they are exhausting, frightening, intimidating - but they are intensely
attractive. This is what Katz draws out gradually, making the towering
personality of Bruck so compelling. He flips back and forth between
his own geniality and his alter-ego’s frustrated passion at a disquieting
pace. It's almost scary to see the juxtaposition of the amiable
Katz and the intolerable Bruck and it's brilliantly uncomfortable
to watch. As the performance continues he becomes more and more
Bruck and leaves himself behind. The actor/author is hugely entertaining
as Bruck and peppers his diabolic invective with real humor, so
that the audience giggles with a freedom presumably not enjoyed
by Bruck's students. One step removed from the original experience,
the maestro's bitchy comments are funny— horrifyingly, shockingly
funny.
"All of
Bruck’s fury, his refusal to accept anything less than what can
be dragged from within, the exquisite search for the conductor's
hands to be “the wing tips of the soul,” is bellowed at the audience:
“Feel something!” With these words, Katz and Bruck become one in
their exhortation to us. This is the culmination and the fire.
"Katz shows
a wonderful ability to use words in the play. Their sheer dynamism
is never more powerful than when used for Bruck's actions, intentions
and invective. Katz constructs a stunning verbal momentum throughout
the performance. His journey of initial revulsion to unyielding
veneration is most poignantly expressed by the students’ performance
of the French national anthem outside Bruck’s home as he lay dying.
Bruck, with his own sense of theater, had made a tradition out of
conducting it every Bastille Day. His students played it to honor
the life of their impossible and inspiring master.
"Although
he was obviously an incredibly tricky personality, Bruck is also
relatively easy to bring to life on stage. Katz's self-portrayal
is a little more complex. The aspiring conductor is not completely
sympathetic— he has his own ego, which is probably what drove him
on through the minefield of Bruck's invective. His ego is coupled
with fear and embarrassment. The portrait reminds us that this is
a play about real people, and that gives MUSE of FIRE even more
power...
"It's said
that the greatest show on earth is that which offers human emotion.
MUSE of FIRE is a great show. It's about many things, but at its
heart beats the need for emotional honesty in the core of every
true artist. The play has it all: humor, fear, ritual humiliation,
love, growth, redemption and an unforgettable powerhouse of a main
character. The emotions aren't simple, the relationships can't be
sorted out and boxed up neatly and the people portrayed are real
and imperfect and unfinished. In a world where the spectacle of
lavish musical productions from Broadway to American Idol is thrown
in our faces relentlessly, MUSE of FIRE is an intense and satisfying
study of the power of conviction. The play is about what great music
deserves, it's about respect and yes, it's about courage.
"MUSE of
FIRE will leave you feeling exhilarated, relieved that it didn't
happen to you, but wishing fervently that it had. Katz shows us
that to know such people as the mighty Bruck may seem horrible,
terrifying and exhausting, but above all it is a privilege.
"MUSE is
directed by Tony-Award winner Charles Nelson Reilly. Katz credits
him with making "theatrical sense" of his story and inspiring the
style of his performance. Known by many for his frequent television
appearances, Reilly is also a highly respected Broadway actor and
director. His one-man play, Save it for the Stage: The Life of Reilly,
is ranked by critics among the greatest single-actor evenings of
theater."
—Fiona Templar, Hats Off News,
The Newspaper of the Arts (CT)
