WALTZ WITHOUT END Music by Frédérich Chopin adapted by Bernard Grün: Lyrics by Eric Maschwitz Cambridge Theatre 1942 (181 perfs) SYNOPSIS The show features the life and music of Chopin. Although the show ran for a respectable number of performances it was not universally accepted by the critics . Wanda Woicinski, the young Polish noblewoman of the story, did in fact exist, and the figure of Pleyel, the publisher, is, of course, historical. On the other hand, Chopin, though educated at the Lyceum of Music in Warsaw, was never a teacher there, nor was he ever poor enough to have had to eke out a living by giving private music lessons. James Agate in the Sunday Times said of the show: To alter a composer's rhythms, key and tempi is to murder that composer. To make voices sing words that are the acme of tawdry nonsense is to destroy an exquisite reputation. THE STORY The story opens in Warsaw, when the Conservatoire students are in boisterous end-of-term mood and Zoshia, the young and pretty cleaner, is seen to be an understanding champion of Chopin, a junior professor whose compositions have a habit of coming back from the publishers. When the Countess Wanda Woicinski arrives as a prospective pupil she hears that Chopin, her intended tutor, has been calling her a feather-headed dilettante. Haughty and fiery at the best of times, she reacts with pardonable annoyance, and it is undoubtedly fortunate that on her first meeting with Chopin she mistakes his identity. Intrigued, amused, and not unaware of her charms, Chopin becomes known to her as Joseph Fredericks and promises to give her music lessons at her country castle. At the end of Act I Chopin loses his job at the Conservatoire, but in Act II he has plenty on hand, for Wanda is a most refractory pupil and has to be bullied into taking a lesson. Firmness, however, is the right approach, and under the spell of music romance is added to technical progress. In the meantime Wanda’s father, Prince Anton, an important but impassioned old play-boy, constantly embarrassed by Pinkus, a debt collector, gives every encouragement to a rival suitor for Wanda – his old and affluent friend Vladimir Stokovski. Pinkus, comes with a writ, has agreed to assume a false name while staying at the castle. Zoshia, also in borrowed plumes, is another unwelcome guest of the helpless Prince, and it is she who, in a moment of jealousy at Wanda’s birthday party, reveals the true identity of the music teacher. Scandalised, Wanda will hear no explanation: she takes the arm of Vladimir. Closing scenes are in the Post Hotel, Warsaw (where Pinkus is landlord), on the eve of a great wedding. Repentant of her outburst, Zoshia would gladly restore the romance she has broken. She is near to success, and Wanda’s intended marriage to Vladimir hangs in the balance. But the last word of advice is with a stranger – the great publisher who has rushed from Paris to find Chopin and make him famous. He foretells that the young genius will travel further than any woman can follow him. It is Wanda who makes the decision. . . to keep our dream unbroken; our midsummer night’s dream, and the waltz that will go on for ever in our hearts.
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