HERSHEY FELDER: A PARIS LOVE STORY by Carol Kaufman Segal

            

Hershey Felder is a dynamo.  He excels in many fields.  He is a pianist, composer, playwright, actor, and director.  And for his latest performance at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, he even did the stage design.  

           

In his prior storytelling of great composers, he has written and performed as the following, George Gershwin (George Gershwin Alone), Fryderyk Chopin (Monsieur Chopin), Ludwig von Beethoven and Gerhard von Beuning (Beethoven), Leonard Bernstein (Maestro Bernstein), Franz Liszt (Musik), Irving Berlin (Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin), Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Our Great Tchaikovsky), and the great American, Abraham Lincoln (An American Story). 

            

Hershey Felder:  A Paris Love Story is about Claude Debussy, a French composer born in 1862, known for his impressionist music, and most well-known composition,  Clare de Lune.  Felder begins on stage as himself to tell the audience what prompted him to recreate Debussy on the stage.  At the age of six, Debussy had mastered Clare de Lune (a protégé to be sure) and was his mother’s favorite.  During the time of her illness, it gave her comfort before she passed away.  Felder then transforms himself into Claude Debussy with a swift use of a wig, mustache and beard.

           

In relaying the life of Claude Debussy, Felder, as is his norm, intersperses his story with his outstanding piano performances of the beautiful music by the composer.   He brings the man to life as he walks through the streets of Paris.  And though Debussy married twice, he was a womanizer and his many liaisons had a profound effect on his music.  Though he began playing the piano as a young boy, he was not one to spend his time cultivating his piano prowess and ended up being famous as one of the most prominent composers of his era, and had an influence on future composers. 

            

Hershey Felder:  A Paris Love Story is directed by Trevor Hay, book and scenic design by Hershey Felder, costume design by Stacy Nezda, and lighting and projection design by Christopher Ash.  Performances are Thursday, June 13, and Friday June 14, 7:30 PM, Saturday, June 15, 2 PM and 7:30 PM, and Sunday, June 16, 2 PM at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills.  Tickets are available at TheWallis.org/Debussy, by calling (310) 746-4000,or online at TheWallis.org/Debussy.

           

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