um compositor brasileiro na broadway - Biblioteca Digital de Teses ...

had had a play about people living in a credible world is something that can only be guessed at. For
Villa-Lobos who has something like 1500 works to his credit, another try is not too much to expect.
Some day he will hitch his music to a story of character, and the theatre will have something."
c) Barnes, Howard: "Colombia – No Gem", The New York Herald-Tribune, New
York, 21 Sept. 1948.
Although it is called a "musical adventure", with a "pattern" as well as the book and lyrics, Magdalena
is nothing more or less than a conventional light opera with a South American setting. At the Ziegfeld
Theater, where it has arrived after showings in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it is a melodious and
gaudy pageant. The Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, has written a bountiful and varied score
for the show which is interpreted with vocal enthusiasm by Irra Petina, John Raitt, Dorothy Sarnoff and
Hugo Haas. Sharaff has clothed numbers spectacularly against Howard Bay's rococo-primitive
settings and Jack Cole has devised undulant dance routines to punctuate the arias and duets. It is a
zealous and painstaking production, but one that has a tendency to be top-heavy.
The title refers to a river in Colombia, where Indian emerald miners rise against their presiding general
and accept Christianity. The theme has given Villa-Lobos full scope for his particular method of
composing. He has taken native songs and rituals and translated them to a contemporary idiom. On
the whole he has been rather successful in "Magdalena", tempering monotonous jungle rhythms with
singing phrases. "My Bus and I", "The Emerald", The Chivor dance or "Freedom" are the sort of songs
you might expect to find in an operetta about a mythical European kingdom as well as Colombia. The
"pattern", lyrics and book by Robert Wright, George Forrest, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan and Homer
Curran do not aid much in keeping the proceedings buoyant.
As a matter of fact, the principals have a hard time with the rambling plot. For a brief interlude the
action shifts from the jungle to a Paris bistro in 1912, where the general is demonstrating his gustatory
prowess. Throughout "Magdalena" a great deal of fake food is dragged on and off stage, even to the
point of inspiring a song called "Piece de Resistance". The offering is on surer ground when it is
concerned with the Muzos and the Chivors; their tribal ceremonials and their tentative acceptance of
Christianity. There are striking dancing and choral ensembles and some effective interludes as Miss
Sarnoff, a convert, tries to win over Raitt to her faith. They both sing with all the stops out and succeed
in building up a somewhat strenuous romance.
Miss Petina is an arch and accomplished comedian as well as an engaging singer. She almost makes
the culinary passages in "Magdalena" tasty, as she slings seasoning around while hitting a high note.
Haas has the thankless assignment of the gourmet dictator and plays and sings it as straight as any
role has ever been performed in a musical adventure.
Mary Groscup and Matt Mattox are the chief dancers in the "Valse de Espana" number. They are agile
and stylish. Melva Niles, Henry Reese and Gene Curtsinger are some of the others who labor to
sustain the sprawling continuity of the work.
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