Event Review: Mirena e Floro

Welcome back Armand O'Bryan, my pen-named pal, with yet another BVAF review!

Nagged, cajoled and wheedled by my colleague Maria into attending yet another event offered by the fledgling Baltimore Vocal Arts Foundation, I found myself in Brown Center's Falvy Hall watching yet another unusual performance, which seems to be this organization's calling card.  "Love Between Acts - A Program of Operatic Intermezzi" was supposed to have been a dual presentation of Mirena e Floro by Francesco Gasparini and Giovanni Battista Bononcini alongside Pergolesi's famous La Serva Padrona.  Being more familiar with the Pergolesi work, I was disappointed to learn that it had been canceled due to a singer's illness. The company forged ahead with the earlier intermezzi,  an unusual compositional sandwiching of three scenes, bound together thematically only by the title characters' battle for dominance in their dysfunctional relationship.

The operatic intermezzo, literally meaning "in between", is not meant to tell a complete story.  Presenting brief, comic scenes, these works were used as inconsequential dramatic relief between the acts of larger, opera seria productions from the late Baroque to mid Classic eras. "Inconsequential" probably best describes the flimsy plot of Mirena e Floro, in which two combative lovers try rather unsuccessfully to resolve deep-seated and unexplained trust issues. The difference in compositional style between the sections by Gasparini and those by Bononcini would not have been evident  when the works were presented as separate entities placed between acts, but when offered side by side, the disconnect is more obvious.  Bononcini proves more adept at setting musical comedy, while lyrical melodies flow more easily from Gasparini. The overall effect makes almost as much musical and dramatic sense as watching un-sequenced re-runs of "I Love Lucy". 

Baritone Andrew Sauvageau and soprano Laura Strickling were for the most part equal to the challenges presented by this trilogy, with Strickling playing straight-man to Sauvageau's incredibly nimble comic antics.  Sauvageau proved the consummate singing actor. Vocally and physically flexible, he was a delight to the eye and ear.  Ms. Strickling, while somewhat unsteady at the onset, grew stronger as the show progressed and delivered lush tone and impressive vocal pyrotechnics in the third intermezzi. Some clever staging and overt hamming made this non-sensical work bearable, but it is easy to see why Mirena e Floro has not endured in standard operatic repertoire.

If you want to see the La Serva Padrona, the show that was canceled, BVAF has a Youtube channel with the production from January at Baltimore Theater Project.

Trapped Backstage,
-Maria (& Armand!)

PS - And there was no cajoling or nagging involved. It was Artscape; everyone wants to go to Artscape.

Event Review: Journeys - A Cabaret About the Places Life Takes You

Please give a Meep-worthy welcome to Armand O'Bryan, a friend IRL who shares an appreciation with me for nom de plumes. Friday the 8th, we both attended Baltimore Vocal Arts Foundation's latest cabaret. Now, for a word from our guest blogger!

 

Cabarets and dinner theater are not usually the places I expect to find innovative programming, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Baltimore Vocal Arts Foundation July 8th at Germano's Trattoria in Little Italy. 

 

Titled "Journeys - A Cabaret About The Places Life Takes You", this mini-production, lightly staged in the compact confines of Germano's Cabaret room, featured a highly eclectic combination of song literature, thematically tracing aspects of the emotional journey from cradle to grave. At first glance I thought I might find the juxtaposition of art song and Broadway ballad or blues unsettling, but for the most part this was not the case. Some repertoire combinations worked better than others, the most successful being Laura Stuart's rather amazing stylistic metamorphosis as she moved from Massenet's challenging "Je suis encore" from Manon, to a full out Broadway belt rendition of "Here I Am" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'".   

 

All the artists exhibited a surprising degree of stylistic versatility, switching easily between classical and contemporary repertoire. Some stand out moments included baritone Michael J. Begley's rendition of "How Many Miles" from Kurt Weil's Lost In The Stars, soprano Adrienne Webster's bluesy, heart wrenching singing of Leslie Adam's "The Heart of A Woman", and Robyn Stevens' transcendent rendition of Rorem's "Ferry Me Across The Water".  While I found the placing of "For Good" at the end of the program a little too blatant an appeal for knee jerk water works, and the encore audience sing-along of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" tacky, I still have to applaud the tender and tasteful interpretation of Schwartz offered by Stuart and Webster, whose performance left me thinking: "how nice to hear this sung by real voices".

 

For a company that's only a year old, BVAF has done an impressive job, establishing presence and high performance quality. I've been lucky enough to attend and work for a number of their shows over the past year, and their latest show, Journey's, is just proof to me that they're going to keep getting better.

 

We Sing, We Dance, We Go Home Happy,

-Maria (and Armand!)

On My iPod 7/25/10 - Crash Kings

Brothers Tony and Mike Beliveau and Jason Morris make up the trio known as the Crash Kings, a high energy rock band...sans guitar. Keyboard, bass, and drums make up a kicky, aggressive, and potent sound. Their self-titled debut album was released over a year ago, but only started getting radio play in West Virginia* a few months ago. Which is why I'm talking about them now instead of sometime around May 2009 when it was more relevant.

From their website:

The Crash Kings’ radical new sound is huge to say the least. Of their vision, Tony is quick to point out, “We wanted to create a band that once and for all could be ‘The Big Rock Sound’ without guitar.” One might wonder…rock without guitar, how is that possible? Well, the Crash Kings have gotten a bit innovative in their quest to create rock with just keys, bass, and drums. With tube overdrive and multiple amps Mike’s bass brings heaviness to the band’s sound. On top of that Tony plays a clavinet (a keyboard with guitar strings), which has been customized with a large whammy bar allowing him to bend notes like a guitar producing an entirely new sound. Having these two very unique elements makes the Crash Kings’ music feel raw and full at the same time.

Their lyrics are solid, but nothing to write home about. They switch from the standard hard rock fare to the sentimental and sweet. What holds my attention is the music. I love me some guitar, but never once did I miss it on any of the tracks. On "You Got Me," the bass pulls no punches, while the keyboard plays a haunting riff. On the other side of the spectrum is a song like "Come Away" which is reminiscent of The Fray minus the Emo. Musicality and lyricism have not been sacrificed for the sake of edginess, and the sound is stronger and more unique for the compromise.

Part of what appeals to me about the Crash Kings is that they allow themselves to branch out within the album. While many rock bands put out albums with essentially three songs replayed with modified lyrics in different keys, every track on "Crash Kings" is memorable, with structures and moods that are entirely individual. It's a smallish album with only 10 tracks, but the size works in the bands' favor. Listeners get a taste of what the group can do without running the risk of running out of ideas on the first album.

Final thoughts: If you like Ben Folds, Foo Fighters, and Keane, this is a band you should check out.
Two of their songs, "You Got Me" and "Mountain Man", are already on the Crash Kings Youtube channel.

Grade: B

Live Long, Rock Hard,
Maria D


*They were playing "Mountain Man." Some states should never be allowed a sense of humor.

On My iPod 6/17/10 - La Roux

A new feature here on the Meep. I've actually been wanting to do this for a while but haven't had the time/internet connection to explore new music. Let's hear it for NOT living in the god forsaken mountains of West Virgina anymore!

To Break in my new little featurette, I'm talking about my new nostalgia trip, La Roux.

La Roux is an electropop and synthpop duo out of England, made up of singer and co-producer Eleanor Jackson (pictured right) and co-producer Ben Langmaid. To learn more about the duo, check out their myspace page,  http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk, - wow, myspace pages, amazing that people still have those - or you could do what I did: Google them and randomly click links until you find something interesting.

The first song I heard was Bulletproof, catching a rare moment of radio play. On first listen, I wasn't entirely sure whether I liked it or not. But it was catchy and I wanted to hear it again so I could at least say definitively that I loved/hated it. On to the Youtube!

Bulletproof Video (oooh shiny!)

Where I found some of her other videos:

I'm Not Your Toy (Hurray for androgyny!)

In For The Kill (The 80's called; they want their car back)

Tigerlily (My new stalker theme song)

IMO: I love La Roux with the understanding that this is not music everyone will enjoy. Hell, I was surprised when I realized I liked it. But why do I like it?

La Roux is a complete nostalgia trip for me. It hearkens back to the days of my childhood, in those distant years of the early 90's, when my brother and I would watch awesome/terrible/hilarious movies from the even more distant years of the 80's and I'd rewind the credits over and over and over again to listen to the ending song. The music is bouncy with a bite and the lyrics are a little more clever than most of what I find from young female musicians - not good, but clever.

Eleanor Jackson's voice isn't my favorite, but it suits her songs, and in the meanwhile, she's crafted an image that's a refreshing change from the over sexed themes of sexy rocker chick, sexy R&B singer, sexy poptart, etc. that I see everywhere. Instead, she showcases an unconventional look, making androgyny more appealing than it's ever been since David Bowie started cross-dressing.*

Overall: I like the music, I like the front-woman, I get that it's not something the whole family may enjoy. Give it a shot and see how you feel. Honestly, you're bombarded with enough crappy music on the radio, in movie and TV soundtracks, in elevators: what are one or two more songs on Youtube in the grand scheme of things? And how knows, you might even find something you like.

*No, I don't count Marilyn Mason's woman suit as attractive androgyny. You do? That's very nice for you. I'm going to be sitting way over here now, kthxbai.

WAYR and Other News in No Particular Order

First, I am deeply chagrined that I have only NOW discovered Sigur Ros. How did I miss this awesomeness before? The mountains of West Virginia are currently alive with the sounds of Icelandic rock blaring out my open windows.

Packing up my room for the move yesterday progressed to that unhappy place where everything is chaos, the movement has stirred up so much dust that I can't stop sneezing, and I can't see my bed anymore. Today I made even more progress, so now my closet has added to the clutter. On the plus side, I can now see parts of my bed and most of my carpet. Sigur Ros has been kind in helping me deal with this.

And what do I have to thank for introducing me to Sigur Ros? How To Train Your Dragon! It's going to be my favorite animated movie for a while now. As I said before, dragons are my favorite mythical creatures. And not only does this movie have dragons, it has dragons that act like cats. Originally I wanted to see HTTYD because Toothless looked and acted a lot like a giant, winged version of my late cat Shadow. I was right. Imagine a smaller, scalier, de-winged version of Toothless and you have Shadow. Shadow was every bit at crazy, destructive, bad tempered and loyal as the dragon in that movie. God damn I miss that cat.

On to WAYR before I start crying.

So what am I reading? Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese! I'm nearly finished. I love this book. I'm actually going to have to cave in and buy it I love it that much. EoA is a collection of experiments so crazy and off the wall that you'd think they were made up. But no, all the experiments described within the contents of the pages were actually done. I hesitate to use any one word to encapsulate this book. It's hilarious - at times. At others, it's horrific and slightly nauseating. But if you're interested in mad science or psychology at all, this is a great book to pick up. It really makes you think about a lot of things.

Finally, update on Nevermore. Chapter 4 is at a standstill right now. It's an important chapter with lots of foreshadowing and planning for the finale, and I'm over-thinking it to the point where nothing is working. So to continue making some progress, I've moved on to other important scenes that WANT to be written. Having a LOT more success with those. So Nevermore is carrying on, just not in a way I can show you without major spoilers. Sorry!

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Baltimore we go!
Maria D