John's music is theatrical in nature, or lends itself to theatricality, and his birthday wish was for the orchestra to stage his flute concerto "Pied Piper Fantasy," originally written for James Galway. So off the artistic memb
ers of the Brooklyn Philhamonic went, looking to stage the classic story of a piper who saves a town from rats, only to be snubbed, and then steals their children. Yay! We all love a friendly story! The piper for this would be Aussie Alexa Still, who was thrilled to death to participate in this and was willing to come in weeks in advance to meet with the director.
The director. Oh yes, a director. Someone had to actually come up with something. Enter David Herskovits, Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based Target Margin Theater. David was fairly gung-ho, and after meeting with John in his award-laden den (Oscar here, Grammys there, a Pulitzer, and bunches of stuff on the walls blah blah blah) was given the go ahead to be bold and creative. (An aside: where was Music Director Michael Christie in all of this? Ah yes. The Music Director was where he should be, learning the score. He left the staging entirely up to David and John.)
There needed to be lights! Enter Lenore Doxsee, production designer. There needed to be costumes! Enter Lenore, again. There needed to be rehearsals coordinated and production schedules created and, oh yes the Brooklyn Philharmonic and BAM decided to do 1 no scratch that 2 Joanna Newsom concerts during the same week (see below) but wait did I tell you that Pied Piper had a bridge that was built over a moat? So this bridge had to go in and out and there were also some seats that were taken out for the bridge but were on sale for Newsom, and they needed to go back in but also the orchestra needed to rehearse this music, which John insisted was one of his hardest scores, and then we had to coordinate the children.
Wait I didn't tell you about the children? Silly me. So the end of the Pied Piper Fantasy features children playing flutes who are lured by the Piper and then leave the hall. It is 7 minutes of extremely catchy marching music. John had told David that many children were needed. Many! 18! 21! Lots of kids! But make sure they can all actually play the flute! Rather older and able to play than young and cute and worthless!!!! So the Brooklyn Philharmonic Education Department found kids, from all over Brooklyn and Manhattan. Some dropped out; more were found.
And of course the rats. At least I remembered to mention the rats at the beginning. David thought that it would great to have...50 rats come up out of the moat, attacking Alexa the Pied Piper on her little bridge. And that would be great. But there was no money to pay the rats, and the rehearsals would be during the day....who would be willing to work for free and had too much time on their hands? College kids!!! Grad students!!! And...actors!!! A casting email went out. Head shots and resumes came back. More or less unnecessarily, as if you could make the rehearsals you were in. Many were called, all were chosen. A little over 30 in the end. Not the swarm of 50 David had asked for, but enough to annoy the New York Times reviewer.
So how did the lighting and the costumes and the rats and the kids come out in the end? Pretty damn well. The performance, with Maestro Christie onstage with Alexa, John, David, Lenore, 20 kids, and 31 rats, received one of the longest ovations in the history of the Philharmonic. An older usher next to me leaned in and whispered of John C., "He's a Brooklyn boy!" And continued applauding for one of his own.
(Don't believe all this? Check out Feast of Music, which has way better visuals of the night than I do, and Sequenza 21).
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