The Song of the Lark

I really liked this story when it aired on TV because I really like this particular period of music, and there is quite a bit of music in this TV play. This is a story of a young girl from a small town who has a real gift for music and who has to decide between a normal life and an exceptional life.

This PBS/Mobile Exxon theatre production unfortunately suffers a bit from both the casting and the performance tone of many Hallmark theatre productions… the writing and many performances are on the sweet side, even if the story is not. This hits a perfect tone for a teen audience, , and makes for a special that is very family friendly (although the story line is more teen than pre-teen).

There is a subtle undercurrent of older men "helping" the lead a long in way that is neither entirely savory nor entirely honest for our leading lady – it is clear in the performances in of the men, but impassively ignored in the performance of the lead. That's a nuance that older audience members may find a bitter aftertaste.

The production in general feels a little studio bound. This makes it feel a bit less than some of the BBC adaptations from the same time period; but it does suit the story. The major message here is "be all that you can be." And with great production values, nice costuming, and uniformly nice performances, it is a nice family dessert. Churchy parents or musty grandparents will like this quite a bit, too. (Probably nothing here for Dead Head or hippie type parents.)

It is worth mentioning that Lori Stinson, who does the singing for Allison Elliott, does a marvelous job of singing for a role that grows from "a raw natural gift" to an enthralling trained voice. It's a difficult and subtle task and she does it beautifully, and that aspect alone takes the whole program up several notches.

All the elements are there but somehow they just don't go together.

The plot is simplistic and the dialogue is wooden.Is the story based on somebody in real life or is it complete fiction? Is it really that easy to break into the operatic big time? I mean there almost are (operatic) echoes of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Nevertheless there are some dramatic and musical moments. The film work is excellent. It should get an 8 but I couldn't muster more than a 5.

Since I like Willa Cather's writings very much, I was very pleased with this treatment of a portion of the novel. Of course I felt I already knew the main characters: Thea Kronberg, Dr. Archie, Spanish Johnny, etc. The film captured the story of Thea, a Swedish farm girl living in Colorado, who aspires to be a concert pianist but finds her talent really lies in singing. It is said that Willa Cather saw this story as a parallel to her own attempts to achieve success, and how this process finally robbed her of a coventionally normal life. If you like this film, you will love the book.

The Song of the Lark is both in the spirit and sense that Willa Cather had for all her major characters, particularly those who didn't fit into any generally recognisable mold. What Cather is indicating is that artists are most often misunderstood and if they are women, even more so. Perhaps this is not news to some, but it seems that it must be repeated to eventually be understood. This is hardly an unfocused work. It carries Thea Kronborg through her formative years, not her eventual success as a singer. But the film's success owes much to the presence of Alison Elliott whose gravity and sensitive performance anchors the production. For those who find Elliott a skilful actress may I suggest they rent The Wings of the Dove (1997)? Her work as the doomed Millie Theale goes way beyond the ordinary. And, if the story of yet another woman who wants to succeed as an artist, one could do no better than locating Gillian Armstrong's 1979 My Brilliant Career, which put Judy Davis on the map. (It was available at one time.) It is unlikely that Cather or Miles Franklin, the Australian author (actually a pseudonym) knew each other's work, but surely they would have appreciated that they were treating the same material with regard rather than scorn.

This TV movie rivals the best of the British renditions of 19th century novels. Cather's classic American story of hard-won success is beautifully transformed into a compelling visual drama with quality acting, top-notch cinematography, and an elegant sound track. Karen Arthur directs with a clarity and subtlety that one rarely finds in a television drama. Her attention to physical details of character and setting illuminate practically every scene. Alison Eliot's performance as Thea Kronborg could not have been better. Her portrayal rarely misses a beat as she embodies Thea's rise from naivete and innocence to worldliness and success. The triumph of this drama was facilitated by the superior acting of entire cast including Tony Goldwyn, Arliss Howard, Robert Floyd, Endre Hules, Linda Carlson, and Maximilian Schell. Strongly recommended.