Opera with a rock twist -- not everyone gets it

Best of Broadway review
By Kim Nowacki
Yakima Herald-Republic

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The East Village Opera Company's self-created niche is to reimagine opera arias as rock (and funk, hip-hop and folk, for that matter) tunes.

And, for the most part, it works.

At Friday's opening of the 2008-09 Best of Broadway series at Yakima's Capitol Theatre, cell phone lights were waving in the air (the 21st century version of cigarette lighter flames) and people were encouraged to clap along.

"We feel Wagner would have turned it up to 11 if he were alive today," multi-instrumentalist Peter Kiesewalter said to the crowd following the company's hit "The Ride," a piece full of great guitar riffs inspired by Wagner's "Die Walküre."

Initially created in 2004 as a one-off project by Kiesewalter and Tyley Ross -- the male singer -- the East Village Opera Company has continued to be critically and commercially popular.

Friday, the EVOC performed several tracks off its recently released third album, "Olde School" (Decca Records), in which arias by Verdi, Puccini, Bach, Mozart and, of course, Wagner get the pop treatment.

"Help Me (Jove, In Pity)," adapted from Handel's opera "Semele," takes on a '60s girl group pop feel, while the politically-charged "Soldiers," from Charles Gounod's "Faust," includes a spoken/rapped verse.

One of the evening's most beautiful pieces was "Gloria," an almost folky rendition of an aria from Giovanni Bononcini's "Griselda." And "La Donna é Moblie" from Verdi's "Rigoletto" received a huge round of applause.

Still, for most of the concert, the audience remained timid -- the women to my right slowly seemed to enjoy themselves while the women to my left did not care for the concert one bit.

However, a couple numbers such as the raucous "Nessun Dorma" (from Puccini's "Turandot") and the funky "Brindisi Libera (Pop the Cork)" (from Verdi's "La Traviata") -- which is complete with a wicked violin solo -- had folks at least bobbing their heads.

But it was when Ross encouraged the audience to sing along to one of the most popular arias from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," the crowd woke up and the song took on a spirited Looney Tunes tone. (I mean, who hasn't sang this, ala Bugs Bunny, at least once in the shower?)

And in the end, the crowd cheered the company back on stage for an encore.

The EVOC's performances this weekend were somewhat out of the ordinary for the Capitol's usual line-up of tried-and-true stage hits. But like last year's season opener of "STREB vs. Gravity," this was an attempt to bring a taste of more contemporary work to Yakima, Capitol CEO Steve Caffery explained prior to the concert.

 

* Kim Nowacki is the Yakima Herald-Republic's lead arts and entertainment writer. She can be reached at 577-7680 or knowacki@yakimaherald.com.

 

What's next?

* The next Best of Broadway series show is the musical comedy "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Capitol Theatre, 19 S. 3rd St. Tickets are available through TicketsWest, 800-325-7328, www.ticketswest.com, or the Capitol Theatre box office, 853-2787.

 

 

 



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