Apr. 22nd, 2011

seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
In a brilliant example of the **UNLESS I REALLY WANT TO** clause in my Omer observance rule, last night the New York City Opera did a tribute to the music of Stephen Schwartz, with Raul Esparza, Mary Anne Calloway, Victor Garber, Lauren Flanagan, Todd Wilander, and KRISTIN CHENOWETH. I took my sister, since her birthday is this coming week, and since she loves musical theater much more than I do.

It was actually really poorly put together. Whoever directed the recital did a very bad job of thinking out simple things, it looked barely rehearsed, there was no intermission and the night ended fast. They repeatedly tried to transition from song to song without giving the audience time to applaud and let me tell you, this audience was there to applaud. The most egregious example was when the conductor started the music before Kristin Chenoweth had taken the stage for her first song, so that he had to stop the song to allow her the round of applause that they had to know was coming. And a lot of the songs from the early Schwartz shows, written for a tiny pit in an off-broadway setting, didn't translate that well to the full orchestra treatment.

But I didn't care too much about any of that. It was a fun night with pretty music. Kristin Chenoweth was amazing, singing "Lion Tamer" and "Popular" and duetting with Esparza on "Defying Gravity". Wilander was fabulous singing Schwartz's Gepetto faux-aria "Bravo Stromboli", and Flanagan was lovely if a little ungrounded in singing an aria from Schwartz's new opera, which I'm seeing next week. Garber's voice was a little rough but he brought energy like you wouldn't believe and Calloway did an excellent job with "Meadowlark", a song I always like when I hear it and then promptly push out of my head. And Esparza, a little iffy in the Godspell numbers, did fine on "Corner of the Sky" and rocked "Defying Gravity".

And the banter was entertaining, especially the obvious friendship Chenoweth and Esparza showed through their vicious teasing of each other- Esparza talked of coming to New York and not being able to find work and Chenoweth asked "What's that like?". (And then she said she couldn't wait to have the bloggers post about it in the morning, so here you go!)

And oh man, have I mentioned Chenoweth enough in this post? She only sang a few songs, but her starpower is incredible. She owned that stage, and I was thrilled to see her live for the first time. Wait, how have I never seen her live before? I should work on that.

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seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
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