A musical and literary journey through time and space | Arts & Entertainment

A unique production combining music, literature and theater will come to life in Carbondale this weekend.

“Kreutzer,” a genre-bending show, will be produced Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Thunder River Theatre. It combines two classical compositions — Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata”and Leoš Janáček’s “String Quartet No. 1” — with Leo Tolstoy’s novella “The Kreutzer Sonata” into a tale of jealousy, madness and ultimately redemption.

Performances are set for Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. The shows will mark the U.S. premiere of “Kreutzer,” first performed by BenFeng Music Productions in Taiwan in 2019. Tickets can be purchased online at thunderrivertheatre.com or by calling 970-963-8200. 

BenFeng, which means “running with free spirit” in Chinese, was founded in 2013 in Taiwan by violinist, writer and producer MinTze Wu, a resident of the Roaring Fork Valley since 2018.

BenFeng has produced several projects that blend music and literature. The company debuted its first work in the Roaring Fork Valley last year with a piece at the Barn Music Series, held at the Old Thompson Barn in River Valley Ranch. BenFeng also produced “Death of a Pugilist” at Thunder River late last year.

“‘Kreutzer’ brings together music and literature, arts and humanity, the known and uncharted,” Wu said. “I am so honored to be collaborating with Thunder River Theatre Company and bringing together two fiercely creative forces in Carbondale.”

Missy Moore, artistic director of Thunder River Theatre Company and co-artistic director of “Kreutzer,” echoed Wu’s excitement in a news release. “I am thrilled to see theater, classical music and literature collide into what will be a one-of-a-kind experience,” she said.

“Kreutzer” is directed by Mike Monroney, who has been a prominent member of the theater community in the Roaring Fork Valley for over three decades. The cast and ensemble include actor Micha Schoepe, pianist Chih-Long Hu, and a string quartet and ensemble featuring violinists MinTze Wu and Delaney Meyers, violist Chieh-Fan Yiu, cellist Michael Graham and others.

The artistic roots of “Kreutzer” date back 200 years. Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata” was composed in 1803. It then inspired Leo Tolstoy to write a novella of the same name in 1889. The novella in turn inspired Czech composer Leoš Janáček to write String Quartet No. 1, called “The Kreutzer Sonata,” in 1923. Ninety-five years later, Wu created her multi-genre play “Kreutzer” that combines elements from Beethoven, Tolstoy and Janáček’s work.

Michael Graham is a California-based violinist who performed in the 2019 version of “Kreutzer” in Taiwan. Graham is primarily a classical musician but he has toured the world with Van Morrison. He’s also played with The Who, and John Densmore, the drummer for The Doors. 

He’s a part of the chamber sextet for “Kreutzer.”.

“I feel like we’re crossing the border of time and space with ‘Kreutzer,’” Graham said, “[based on] the fact that we did it in Taiwan in 2019 and we’re doing it here now, the fact that the music that inspired the play spans several centuries, and that Tolstoy’s novel was written in the mid-19th century but feels like it could be a conversation people are having now about marriage, about gender and marital roles. 

“We’re exploring what’s universal and what’s common to people, no matter where they live or what time period.”

Basalt resident and valley theater mainstay Micha Schoepe plays the lead character, Pozdnyshev. The play is essentially a monologue with the musicians performing minor acting roles in addition to playing their instruments. 

“‘Kreutzer’ is an interweaving of absolutely astonishing music and my character’s reflections on life, and love and his disillusionment around love and a deep dive into jealousy and ultimately madness, but there’s redemption in the end,” Schoepe said. “I hope that people take away that even if things have gotten really really bad in your life, even where you don’t think it’s possible to get through it, you can come out on the other side and live your life changed.”

Chih-Long Hu grew up in Taiwan with Wu. They went to elementary school together and have collaborated on many projects as adults. Hu is the chair of the piano department at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He was the pianist in the 2019 performance of “Kreutzer” in Taiwan and will be performing this weekend.

Hu said that playing music and performing as an actor at the same time is a great but welcome challenge. 

“We have to memorize the music, which is quite a task but at the same time it allows us to free ourselves to actually explore the deeper meaning of the music,” Hu said. “I have played Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’s Sonata’ with many violinists in many places, but I never was able to play music like this production where we combine music and theater and literature, where we are giving our imagination to the music but actually acting to the music which makes it more intimate. It’s a whole new experience.” 

Monroney said he feels the production is circular in its nature. 

“It started with music, became literature, and then went back to music and now we’re combining all of it,” he said. “I love that it’s a journey through the different forms. If someone chose to come to see this just for the music, they would be totally justified. 

“But the words — which are essentially directly translated from Russian from Tolstoy and concern the journey of the lead character, Pozdnyshev — give it another level of meaning. I am confident that when people walk out of the theater, they will realize that we are all a part of each other’s story, a passenger on each other’s journey.”