“Chopin’s piano,” Musica Viva. At Llewellyn Hall, July 19. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

THIS “concert-play” was adapted from the book acted by Richard Pyros and the artistic director of Musica Viva Australia Paul Kildea from Kildea’s book “Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism.”

The adaptation led to an illustrated lecture, then to a “first person present tense” theatrical venture. Made for easy transportation into concert halls, it featured pianist Aura Go, Musica Viva’s 2018 “FutureMaker”, and actor Jennifer Vuletic, supported by designer Christina Smith, sound designer Kelly Ryall and lighting designers Richard Vabre and Marty Shlansky.

While the title “Chopin’s Piano” suggests that the piano itself is the central character, it was notable that the production did not involve an historical piano from Frédéric Chopin’s time such as the one held in the collection of the ANU School of Music, but rather a regular Steinway. This was, presumably, to show the virtuosic talents of Go and because of the impossibility of maintaining such a priceless instrument on tour.

Music lovers in the audience were amply rewarded by Go’s performance of 24 Préludes, ranging in feeling from agitato to lento, but her recital was wrapped up in a theatrical narrative involving acting of the very broadest kind.

Go took on the role of Chopin in Act I and other pianists and characters in Act II, while Vuletic took on all the other parts, notably in that of Chopin’s lover George Sand and late 20th century pianist Wanda Landowska, but also characters such as Franz Liszt, French artist Eugène Delacroix and the philanthropist, Peggy Guggenheim.

Vuletic, armed with often-jarring foreign accents coached by Geraldine Cook-Dafner, eschewed subtlety for an alienating pantomimic style of characterisation, though balanced by the exquisite playing of Go.

If you didn’t know that George Sand liked to dress in men’s clothing, her physical appearance might have been confusing as several people near me found it, but soon enough, we were following their 1838 arrival on the island of Majorca, where Chopin composed the Préludes. This dialogue was repeated in Act II when Landowska and her companion Henri Lew made the same journey.

In Majorca we are introduced to the consumptive Chopin, in a fever of composition, jumping up to write down notations, then leaping back to the piano.

After that, the pair return to Paris, where their 9-year relationship ends, but the change of location allows Kildea and Pyros to introduce a debate on about music and logic between Chopin and Delacroix (looking and sounding exactly just like Sand) and spectacularly, an encounter with Franz Liszt (looking and sounding exactly just like Sand) who is held spellbound as Chopin performs Prelude no 8. in F sharp minor and demands that he play it again. A high point.

The act concludes with Chopin’s death and a crocodile-tear revelation by Sand to the audience that she couldn’t bear to attend his funeral.

Act II begins with Landowska’s arrival on Majorca, where she purchases the piano, beginning a journey for her as a refugee to the US, where she was to enjoy a brilliant career and the piano’s into the collections of the Nazis.

Given that Vuletic is not a pianist, Go necessarily gets to play two pianists, sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, a Nazi officer, and a US immigration officer, not bad for an artist untrained in acting.

The whole performance was bookended by a beautifully-lit segment where the Majorcan piano craftsman Juan Bauza luxuriates in the joy of his creation as Go plays Prelude No. 24 in D Minor: Allegro appassionato.