Blotched Golden Age

Gold, blotched, may still glitter, and so does Terrence McNally’s Golden Age, a farce that portrays an impromptu opera behind the stage involving fictional Vincenzo Bellini, his star soprano Giulia Grisi and other singers between their stage appearance in his latest The Puritans (that is, I Puritani). The conceit holds a lot of promise.  McNally, who loves opera, was obviously having fun.  But the play as staged looked like a first draft, impromptu in that sense, too, prolix and poorly paced. The fault may be the director’s, though I expect better from Walter Bobbe.
Actors were awkward; Lee Pace playing Bellini, in particular was annoying with his mannerism on which he relied to capture the composer’s neurosis. Comedic lines drew titters from the audience; acting was not raw enough to excite guffaws, and it was not restrained enough to bring about pathos.  The different cast in the playa’s 2009 Philadelphia premiere, which had Marc Kudish as the baritone Tamburini, might have delivered a better performance to judge by the reviews.  Only when Bebe Neuwirth as Maria Gilbran occupied the stage the play was enlivened; when she was joined by George Morfogen as Rossini near the end of the play, was there finally a drama. I didn’t mind the historical inaccuracies that bothered some critics; the present-day conversational style in the delivery of lines may have worked if better articulated. The best thing in the production was Santo Loquasto’s set.  I enjoyed McNally’s Master Class (1995) with Tyne Daly as Maria Callas and The Stendhal Syndrome (2004); but of his plays I have seen I thought the top best was Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams (2005), no doubt brightened by the participation of Nathan Lane and given weight by great Marian Seldes.