Classy Finnish at the Bello Bar

       Lisa Dowdall John O Brien                                                                                    photo Juraj Jablonka

Kaleidoscope, the monthly classical music salon  has moved to a new base at The Bello Bar at Portobello, Dublin. There was a big Cork contingent in the line up last Wednesday for an evening with a strong Finnish flavour.

Marja Gaynor presided as well as playing violin and viola. We heard Lisa Dowdall play Sibelius' Valse Triste on viola accompanied by John O Brien. John played a charming waltz by Merikanto.  There were polskas from a viola duo and Baltic Folk inspired jazz from a quartet with Carolyn Goodwin and Franco Turrisi.

Most intriguing was a preview of a brand new opera by John O Brien based on Wilde's story, The Nightingale and the Rose with singers Camilla Griehsel and Mark Chambers. It is hoped that it will come to production in The Everyman in 2017.  I look forward to it.

Of Ladies Lost & Found: Karen Underwood and John O Brien

‘I want to feel something in the songs whether it be joy or pain’ said Karen Underwood during her show at Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford with pianist John O Brien. The Chicago native has built up quite a following with her tribute show to Nina Simone. She is currently on tour with a show titled, Of Ladies  Lost and Found, with a set list associated with singers who left the world stage too early .  There was volumes of  both emotions and a dollop of humour too  in the duo’s rendition of soulful  songs  made famous by the likes of  Judy Garland, Edith Piaf , Dinah Washington and Billie Holliday, to name but a few.
Opening on a devotional note with the spiritual,  Precious Lord   there was throughout  an unflinching and forthright approach  by singer and accompanist in the distinctive reworking of 20 songs. Underwood has a terrific contralto  voice but doesn’t trade on power and beauty of tone alone.  The long sustained notes sometimes have a rough edge , tempos swing freely and always the sense that the lines come straight from the heart.. The mood was darkest with her stark rendition of Strange Fruit. Her favourite song in the set she admitted was the rather more optimistic  Randy Newman song,  I Think it’s Gonna Rain Today
 She was wonderfully well supported by John O Brien on piano, whose sophisticated arrangements imbued familiar repertoire with a freshness making it sound newly minted.  There was an easy rapport between the two who are long time collaborators and  who clearly relish performing  this repertoire together.  O Brien is best known for his innovative work as musical director of Cork Operatic Society. In an era where electric keyboards have become the norm, it is worth noting that a proper grand piano was in place for the show and O Brien fully exploited the dynamic range of an excellent instrument . I warn you, I am going to go too far’, he declared  and indeed he did,  launching into a bravura version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Quite unlike any other version you are likely to hear.  It  was terrific!

Further dates : Dolan’s,   Limerick Weds  17^th , Kilkenny Watergate Theatre 20^th , Cork Everyman  Palace 21^st Sept
                                                                          

Set List 1. Precious Lord 2. What a Difference a Day Makes - Dinah 3. God Bless the Child - Billie 4. I Look to You - Whitney 5. Nature Boy - Sarah 6. I Loves You Porgy - Nina 7. Love is a Losing Game - Amy 8. And I Love Him - Esther 9. The Man That Got Away - Judy 10. If You Love Me - Esther/Edith 11. Je Ne Regrette Rien - Edith -------- 12. Kissing You 13. Mad About the Boy - Dinah 14. Over the Rainbow - Judy 15. Lilac Wine - Nina/Eartha 16. Ne Me Quitte Pas - Dusty/Edith 17. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today - Nina/Dusty/Peggy 18. Strange Fruit - Billie 19. Both Sides Now - Joni 20. Feeling Good - Nina 21. Somebody to Love - Freddie

Chat conversation end

Midsummer Memory Orchestra: Maria de Buenos Aires in Cork

Musical director, John  O Brien has been pivotal in spectacular and innovative opera productions in Cork in recent years. Pagliacci was a highlight of 2012 season and we also loved the heavy metal Dido and Aeneas for which, I gather, he also designed the sets. So we made a bee-line for Maria de Buenos Aires part of the Midsummer Festival programme at Cork Opera House for which he was part of the directorial team. On paper, the work subtitled 'A Tango Opera' by Argentinian composer Piazzolla seemed to have all the ingredients to  make it a hat trick of thrilling opera productions from this director.  And  there were indeed many enjoyable and  incredible aspects to this Maria that made it a very interesting evening  but it won't feature in my top picks of the year.  Why did the whole did not add up to the sum of the parts. Here is  my best and the rest of Maria de Buenos Aires at Cork Opera House.

The thrills:

The international ensemble of musicians performed the most amazing feats of memory and skill and as in the aforementioned productions, playing without the aid to memory of notes and moving around the stage as part of the action. Cork percussionist, Alex Petcu created the dream like mood on marimba. Ville Hiltula from  Finland added the hallmark bandoneon part. Niwel Tsumba was a lynchpin on  guitar. There were just two singing roles, both in the lower registers adding to the darkness of mood. Both were compelling, doing justice to Piazzolla's strange and beguiling score, combining traditional elements of the dance form with modern compositional techniques. Portuguese baritone, Nuno Silva had a beautiful and unusual voice and together with local girl, Una Palliser's sensuous violin lines, would have been worth the excursion alone.  The lighting  and set effectively transported us from the murky Leeside evening to a sleazy Latino waterfront bordello and the sound was perfect, amplification effective but not obtrusive. So far so sizzling. So why did it all fail to catch fire for me?

The spills

To misquote Emperor Franz Joseph-, there were just too many words.  The plot could be summed up in a few lines.  Maria, embodiment of the spirit of the tango is born in the slums, seduced by the dance, led astray by it, meets a bad end, dies and is reborn. Or something to that effect. To convey this flimsy plot we have seemingly endless declaimed monologues by actress, Olwen Fouere   in full Beckettian  mode in  the androgynous role of  El Duende, a mythical poet narrator figure. A case of too 'much a Duende  about' too little plot, for me, I fear. I did love her bar room soliloquy to Maurice Seezer's piano in the second half which reminded me a little of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is' but less of this aspect of the production  would  have been more.

The  choreography in an effort to blend contemporary, ballet  and traditional forms resulted in the tango ingredient being somewhat decaffeinated  and not quite the central element I might have anticipated given the subtitle of the work. 

 So to sum up -seductive singing , mesmerising musicianship but too much talking and not enough tango action  on the dance floor for me from this Latin Maria but  well worth seeing .

Promotional video for Maria de Buenos Aires  from Cork Opera House in the link here.

My review of Pagliacci at the Everyman here http://cathydesmond.blogspot.de/2012/06/pagliacci-for-everyman-cork-midsummer.html