Also, since I'm quoting things I wrote elsewhere, there's some redundancy. Sorry about that. Not my best organized writing.
It should be remembered that this is an opera, with all dialogue in recitative. As with opera, one can't necessarily understand the whole thing on first listening -- though perhaps the genius, Josh Groban, did.
The staging is highly complex. With an ensemble of over 20 people running all over the theater, singing, dancing, and playing instruments simultaneously, it's hard to notice a lot of intricacies of the very complicated plot and music.
I found that the first time I went to the show I missed a lot of things. It was only in going a second time, and also listening to the sound track repeatedly that I developed a more sophisticated understanding.
The first thing is the ending. I really didn't get it the first time. I only got it later. I noticed that one of my friends on FB -- a woman educated at Yale, who is a professional level harp player, and trained musical theater performer -- also didn't get it, so I wrote up the following (feeling a bit better at having missed certain points the first time)
This is what I said to her
the first time I heard that last song I didn't get it at all and I also thought it fell flat. Then I went and read the Wikipedia synopsis of War and Peace and discovered that Pierre and Natasha do actually get married at the end of the novel.More about Pierre's letter to André, which reveals a lot about Pierre's character, which I didn't appreciate at first: I was amused at Pierre's numerology, for instance, but also struck at his referring to Dolokhov as a "good man." This is the guy who is fooling around with Pierre's wife and who Pierre just shot in a duel. Yet Pierre forgives him and is relieved that he is recovering.
Then I went to the show a second time and connected the last song with Dust and Ashes, where he says he wants to wake up by falling in love after being in a loveless marriage. Then it made sense.
Also, Wikipedia explained that Pierre really does think he's dying because he's had a series of strokes, which isn't mentioned in the musical.
Also, it took listening to the sound track several times to see what a sweet, loveable guy Pierre is. He feels terrible for having wounded Dolokhov. He feels remorse when he sees that he's frightening Anatole. He gives Anatole money to run away. Though he's angry that his wife is a slut, he seems bound and determined to forgive her, and doesn't divorce her, though surely he has grounds. He takes André's advice to forgive fallen women to heart, even though André himself does not. He also feels pity for Natasha when at first he was angry at her for hurting André. He loves everyone and gives them money, even though most of them don't deserve it, while dealing with his own depression and self loathing.
It's actually very subtle and complex, as opera is, and I missed most of the details the first time I saw it.
A lot of the music in the show is recitative, which is inherently musically dull. To me the interesting part of the final number is the evolution of Pierre's emotions as he finds a reason to live. To me, the great genius of Josh Groban is his ability to capture emotional subtlety in his singing.
Given the extreme complexity of the dancing in this show, it's hard to really feel the subtle emotions the first time. I hear it more when I just listen to the soundtrack.
So ultimately, the heroine, Natasha, goes through two bad relationships, before finding the right one. The first is to André who reveals himself to be a very nasty fellow in his unforgiving response to Natasha's youthful impulsiveness -- really only to be expected from a young teen -- despite her always being perfectly honest with him, and doing the right thing by him in breaking off as she becomes infatuated with Anatole. André's family also reveals itself to be cruel and dysfunctional, not at all a good place for the warm and sensitive Natasha. The second relationship is with Anatole, who is a sex addict who would go through all manner of deception to get his fix with the beautiful Natasha. Pierre is the right one. He's older and fat, but he's supremely kind and really loves her, despite her foibles. Wikipedia revealed that the perfidious Hélène will die of an overdose of abortifacient so that Pierre will become available -- to yield a happy ending. Ok -- granted this is the supreme fantasy of older, fat men, to win the affection of the most beautiful young woman over younger, healthier, and more handsome men.
Natasha's evolution is also intriguing. We see that she's emotional and impulsive, but also capable of real love in addition to being gorgeous -- unlike Hélène She learns a great deal from her bad relationships.
Also, my friend on FB was troubled by how the music sounds. Malloy makes very subtle use of discord. The first time I heard it I didn't understand what he was doing either. This is what I said about the discord and the benefit of listening to the soundtrack several times.
also listening to the soundtrack helped me see the musical meaning of the more discordant passages. For instance, the opera sounds ghastly because this is where Natasha is becoming intoxicated by the unfamiliar environment and falling under Anatole's spell.
Also, when Pierre confronts Anatole after the attempted abduction, there is a wonderful moment of discord when Anatole asks Pierre to take back his words, so that Anatole can leave Moscow with "honor." The discord symbolizes the anger in Pierre's mind as he thinks about what Anatole has done, but realizes the expediency of apologizing if it will get Anatole out of Moscow before André returns.
Listening to Pierre's letter to André several times gave me a lot of insight into Pierre's character.
Also listening several times gave me a lot more appreciation of who Natasha is. When you have someone ten years older playing a teen, I think it's hard to understand how impulsive and vulnerable she is. Denée was obviously selected for her beautiful, light voice, but, still, she's not 17 or whatever Natasha is at the time.
Listening several times really helped me hear the brilliance of several performers, especially those playing Sonya, Marya, and Hélène. The subtlety of those performances were amazing.
Also, listening several times makes me realize that André's father was right about Natasha. She is dumb.
Another friend on FB was claiming that Oak actually sings better than Josh. I don't think so, really, having listened to the bootleg recording on YouTube and comparing it to Josh's recording.
I realize, though, that Josh makes subtle use of tremulo to express extreme emotion -- when he's in fact on the verge of sobbing. I suppose that a person listening for the first time might not get that. They might think that he just has too much vibrato. It's only if you listen to more of his singing that you hear that he can sing without vibrato as well, or at least much less vibrato. It just depends on what emotion he is trying to convey.
When I listen to Oak, to my ear he conveys less range of emotions in his singing. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to see him perform. He may be more expressive in his physical acting than Josh. I don't know. Josh is physically awkward.
Of course, the real character of Pierre would also have been physically awkward as he has suffered a series of strokes, at least according to the wikipedia synopsis.
In any case, listening to the soundtrack made me again appreciate the multi-textured nature of Josh's singing -- something you don't necessarily hear the first time. This is particularly evident in the last song -- when he says "and your love" in such an emotional voice.
All in all this is a very intellectual production. It's not for the simple minded -- though I think anyone can appreciate the very complex staging and dancing.
P.S. I also think there are other aspects's of Josh's genius: in particular his skills with the piano and composing -- but when I talked about his genius above I was referring to the aspects with respect to his voice.
