Renowned scientists are often said to be aloof and austere.  By many accounts, perhaps the most famous and impactful modern scientist, Albert Einstein, had his flaws but was noted as being a mensch, with a great sense of humanity.  With their tenth collaboration, composer Allen Shearer and librettist Claudia Stevens have premiered a one-act chamber opera honoring the great physicist in a small but poignant way, demonstrating that profound matters can be distilled into small vessels. 

The overarching topic and the sub-themes seem teleologically selected by Stevens.  The opera is comprised of three scenes that appear to draw on the librettist’s reflections on her background as a daughter of refugees from Hitler’s Europe.  In a compact manner, it demonstrates the idealism of Einstein contrasted with the pragmatism of the women around him, while the story line covers political and social commentary; God and existence; the enormity of the creation of the atomic bomb; and more.

Einstein played the violin for pleasure.  Music was very important to him, perhaps as an escape, including his Wednesday night get-togethers with other amateur musicians.  In this context, Shearer gets to sprinkle his own delightful and accessible music with borrowings from other composers, namely excerpts from Haydn and Beethoven string quartets, in which members of the chamber orchestra go on stage to perform with Einstein.

The title character is performed admirably by warm-voiced baritone Nikolas Nackley who captures a part of Einstein’s character, his concerns, and his groundedness.  The opera opens in 1941, with Einstein, his secretary Helene, and his stepdaughter Margot – the women beautifully sung and played by sopranos Angela Cadelago and Julie Hathaway respectively.  Each one Jewish, the three characters have just become U.S. citizens and relish the freedom from oppression and fear for life under the Nazi Holocaust.  But perhaps in a nod to the current threat to democracy posed by the possibility of a second Trump administration, a cautionary alert is also raised along with their appreciation for new lives.

Tying into the notion that this country has always been a less-than-perfect union, a flashback to 1937 occurs.  A stoic Marian Anderson has just performed in Princeton but was denied a room at the local inn because she is Black.  Einstein welcomes her to stay in his home, with all asking how such a great country could allow such prejudice to persist.  The emotional highlight of the evening is when Anderson is asked to sing.  Mezzo Lori Willis, who plays the great singer, gives a wonderful a cappella rendition of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

A third solemn topic is the discussion of the nuclear bomb.  Einstein was instrumental in its theoretical conceptualization and influential in the decision to develop and deploy it.  But he suffered from remorse and raised existential questions about how a loving God could allow it to happen.

In composing the score, Shearer faced an extra challenge in orchestration.  He and Stevens proposed to Berkeley Chamber Performances inviting the touring group Strata, a trio of violin/viola, clarinet, and piano, to perform on the same bill before intermission, while they would be included in the opera’s chamber orchestra as well.  Trio Solano, a Bay Area group comprised of violin, viola, and cello, would fill out the opera’s orchestra.  Shearer worked adeptly within this self-imposed configuration to produce a sound suited to the libretto.  Jonathan Khuner deftly conducted the instrumental and voice ensembles, including the eccentric movement of musicians back and forth between pit and stage to perform as members of the amateur quartet.

The score would probably be categorized as postmodern, meaning that sweeping Romantic melodies are eschewed.  If not memorable, the score suits the nature of the interchange, which is conversation among friends and family, so vocal challenges of range and volume are limited.  Quotes from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven chamber music comprise a significant contribution to the score and its effect.  But the score also contains emotion and jocularity.  In one case, when Einstein says that he hopes the new cellist in their amateur group will play in tune, the cellist in the orchestra responds with a sad sounding downward glissando, which the audience responded to with laughter.

As weighty as some of the topics in the libretto are, the overall feeling is far from downcast.  Indeed, at the end, and after some distractions, Einstein returns to physics.  Separately, the women conclude that life is limited and appear to accept that what will be will be.

“Einstein at Princeton,” a world premiere opera, composed by Allen Shearer with libretto by Claudia Stevens is produced by Berkeley Chamber Performances and performed at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA, December 5, 2023.

Middle School is the worst.  For many, it’s a most difficult time of life – puberty with raging hormones, pimples, fear of the opposite sex, growth spurts.  For some, it becomes an anti-social time of escape – into a private world of computers or video games or books – to be a geek.

In “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” we meet a diverse group of young teens bound by a common skill – spelling – and a common goal – winning.  Spelling excellence is a grinding and lonely pursuit.  All who compete in this Bee are nerds, but each in their own way, and each is motivated by a different set of circumstances.  The audience will recall kids they’ve known and enjoy a light-hearted and entertaining look at growing up.

At one extreme of the competitors, Marcy Park (played by Mai Abe) is stereotyped as the Asian overachiever.  Living on only three hours of sleep a night, she speaks six languages and excels in everything from playing multiple musical instruments to championship rugby and hockey.  At the other extreme, Leaf Coneybear (Blake Kevin Dwyer) is not without competence, making his own over-the-top gaudy clothes.  However, he came in only third in his school but was advanced to the county finals because the top two had a scheduling clash and are attending a bat mitsvah.  An instinctive speller who is the least serious of the competitors, he seems to rely on trances to guide him to the right spelling.

“…Spelling Bee” is a musical comedy that can be appreciated at different levels.  Superficially, it is what it is – funny characters in silly situations with low-brow humor, singing songs that disclose the ridiculousness around them.  But beneath the obvious, social commentary abounds.  Olive’s (Maia Campbell) absent mother is in an ashram in India, and her father doesn’t make time for her or have the $25 entry fee for the contest.  Logainne (Jenni Chapman) lisps, has two adoptive gay fathers, and a last name that is fodder for endless teasing.  William (Beau Bradshaw) is obsessive-compulsive, allergic to peanuts, and spells out letters with his “magic foot.”

The play has some striking characteristics, the most obvious being that young teens are played by adults.  Happily, the actors are young enough and adopt suitable personalities so that the conceit works.  A unique element is that four members from the audience are brought to the stage to act as additional competitors.  This does create spontaneity that works well and will vary from one performance to another.  After being given easy words to spell, like cow, the interlopers are flushed out with impossibly difficult words.

Meanwhile, the situations and songs begin to reveal hidden traits, perhaps the most pervasive concerning the desire to win.  Some might be fiercely competitive, others wanting to lose to escape drudgery or expectations, and a couple maybe consider a sacrifice to advance a romantic relationship.  And of course, there is the ultimate embarrassment that any male who has gone through pubescence can relate to.  Chip (Dave J. Abrams) gets an erection at a most inopportune time.

The adults in the room are at least as amusing as the kids.  The self-promoting, center-of-attention number one real estate agent Rona (Molly Bell – exuberant and with a penetrating soprano voice) is the moderator, while parolee Mitch (Anthone Jackson) is doing his community service by acting as an escort for the participants.

The juiciest role however is Doug (Christopher Reber), a vice-principal who was banned from the Bee several years before for undisclosed unacceptable behavior, though he says that he’s in “a better place” now.  Apart from his general goofiness, when asked by a contestant, he provides a sentence using the word to be spelled.  Most are hilarious.  For instance, the sentence he gives for the word apoop is told with a mock Italian accent – “Drunken sailor Luigi tells his mates ‘I’ma goin apoop’.”  Of course, apoop refers to the stern of a ship, not to a bowel movement.  There are also little ditties about hasenpfeffer made famous by “Laverne and Shirley” and multiple words that are the names of South American rodents.

“The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” will probably not appear on many people’s list of Best Ever Stage Musicals, but it brings guilty pleasure enjoyment with sustained humor from beginning to end.  The songs are fun if forgettable, with one exception.  The unchaperoned Olive, in response to the spelling word chimerical (highly unrealistic, wildly fanciful) appropriately reflects with the affecting lament, “The I Love You Song” (Mama, mama, mama) in which she imagines her parents as supportive.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has produced a winsome realization of the musical.  The ensemble of actors nail the personalities and inner lives of the kids, and the adult roles are played with equal authority.  All of the performers provide spot-on comic timing and singing voices to match.

“The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin is produced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and plays at Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA through December 24, 2023.