Word: schwarze
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...tend toward the heavy-handed; once made, the author's point is frequently pounded into the audience until the art form loses any claim to verisimilitude. In an effort to avoid this trap--and Stalin's censors, since The Dragon was written in the Soviet Union in 1943--Yevgeny Schwarz has turned to allegory, drawing on the Russian folk tradition to disguise a commentary on his country. Dragons, heroes, talking animals and flying carpets people his work, giving his play an outward simplicity that underlines his final statement...
...Schwarz proffers a foreshortened view of Soviet history. Lancelot, professional savior, arrives in a town that has been under the rule of a dragon for the past 400 years, a dragon that demands yearly tribute in the shape of a maiden. Undaunted by the townspeople's desire for peace and quiet ("So long as he's here," one says, no other dragon would dare to touch us"), Lancelot challenges and kills the dragon. But Lancelot is severely wounded in the fight, and while he leaves the town for a year to heal his injuries the opportunistic mayor...
...historical parallels are obvious. Lenin's overthrow of the 400-year-old tsardom was not enough, Schwarz seems to say; he must come back again to erase the habit of servility from his people's souls. Only a Lancelot, he implies, can end the Russian people's submission to dictators who promise them peace and quiet...
Fortunately Schwarz has camouflaged his theme behind humor and fantasy, so The Dragon remains lighthearted throughout. He pokes fun at the apathetic townsfolk who are unwilling to trade their dragon-induced peace for freedom, but it is a gentle sarcasm, tinged with an acceptance of human nature. As the mild-mannered gardener, who has trained his snapdragons to eulogize the successive dictators, says, "You know, when all is said and done, people need very careful treatment...
Judith Blegen and Frederica von Stade (Charles Wadsworth, piano and harpsichord; Gervase de Peyer, clarinet: Gerard Schwarz, trumpet; Columbia: $6.98). Two brilliant young American-born singers team up with a superior set of instrumentalists in a glowing recital of vocal music. The mood shifts in a varied repertory that encompasses Schumann's playful duet Das Glück as well as Chausson's haunting Chanson Perpetuelle, sung with grave beauty by Von Stade. Blegen's supple trills whirl with Gerard Schwarz's bright trumpet through Alessandro Scarlatti's aria Se geloso e il mio core...