Stanislavski on Opera by Constantin Stanislavski, Pavel Rumyantsev (review)

of valuable information compiled from widely divergent sources, many until now untranslated. The usefulness of the three works discussed here is undeniable: no doubt they will broaden the American perspective on Brecht. Bertolt Brecht's Berlinis a good starting point for anyone interested in the Berlin of the twenties, regardless of whether or not the specific focus is on Brecht. Anyone studying Brecht should welcome Brecht Chronicleand BrechtAs They Knew Him. Both take the man out of the library and put him in his rightful place-at his work table or his director's desk. It is only in this context that his great contribution will remain alive and potent. * ** ** Stanislavski on Opera. Constantin Stanislavski and Pavel Rumyantsev. Trans. & ed. by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood. Theatre Arts Books, 373 pp., $18.25 (cloth); $8.45 (paperback). Glenn Loney Stanislavski's gift to actors and directors is so well known by now that it has almost become an object of parody, either by comics who wish to mock "The Method" or by well-meaning but misguided teachers and interpreters who want to make the great Soviet actor-director-teacher's system of training and role development accessible to others. In An ActorPrepares ,Building a Character, and My Life in Art, the master shares his secrets and insights through autobiographical and thinly disguised fictional accounts of his work with students, professional performers, and playwrights. The results are today almost everywhere to be seen. Stanislavski's methods have conquered, especially in the theatre of realism. But while the legitimate theatre has been transformed in its acting truth, thanks to Stanislavski, the opera and operetta theatre seem virtually untouched by any of his precepts or experiments. Perhaps that is why many theatre people profess an ignorance of opera, or even a militant lack of interest. The libretti are ridiculous 19th century melodramas--so runs the argument -which no self-respecting repertory theatre would produce except 98 as historical curiosities. Yet, nightly at the opera house, Aida, Boheme, Butterfly, Forza, and Traviataare trotted out for the besotted adoration of opera fans, a breed of theatre-goers who worship voices, not creation of characters. Only the glories of the music can make one forget the banalities of the story-lines, say opera's critics. And, truly, for people who love powerful musical expression in such scores, and who admire excellently trained voices, this can be enough. They do not ask for scenic marvels-not if the music is their major interest-nor do they ask for effective stage movement or dramatic truth in acting. When they get it, they are sometimes very upset. For dedicated theatre people, however, that old quarrel of which comes first-the music or the words-is easily decided in favor of the words, including sub-texts. So music-theatre, which is all fine singing and no truthful characterization, is usually not acceptable to them. Nor was it admired by Stanslavski. In fact, after his successes at the Moscow Art Theatre, he determined to apply his training methods and analytical approaches to young opera singers-and even to ballet dancers. Stanislavski On Opera is a wonderfully rich, fascinating source book for singers and directors who want to bring to opera and operetta-not to mention concertizing-the skills and insights the master brought to the theatre. Appearing so recently, it is a belated legacy, as well as a memorial to its translator, the late E.R. Hapgood, and its publisher, the late Robert MacGregor. Pavel Rumyantsev, the co-author, was a young baritone who joined the Bolshoi Theatre's Opera Studio in 1920. As a student, an actorsinger , and a director in the Studio, he took careful notes on Stanislavski's comments and analyses. His final text was also supplemented with notes made by colleagues, as well as with documents from Stanislavski. The result, in the reading, is much more immediate, more vivid than the accounts offered in An Actor Prepares.Instead of a mythical Stanislavski under another name, the opera text gives readers direct access to the man, to the teacher. The Studio was founded in 1918, in the middle of the postrevolutionary chaos. Stanislavski was placed in charge so that he could...