Monsieur Chopin

Again, many apologies for the nearly month-long absence from the blog. Eighty hour workweeks make it a little challenging to write. Here's the quick synopsis of the last month: lots of work, surprise trip to New York, more piano, Oshkosh airshow (see the follow-on post), and seeing Monsieur Chopin at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge.

Chopin is one of my favorite composers for the piano (Beethoven and Schubert are the others), but I wouldn't have even heard about it if Sally, my piano teacher, hadn't mentioned it at a lesson the weeke before it ended. Monsieur Chopin is the second in a trilogy of one-man shows by Hershey Felder, the first being Gershwin Alone, and the third, I think, will be about Beethoven. The performance takes place as a piano lesson from Chopin to the audience in 1848, about a year before he died. Through the course of ther play, Chopin plays his own pieces, speaking and occasionally stopping, to illustrate his life story and the stories behind the songs themselves. It was absolutely magical. I highly recommend seeing it if it's in your area.