Word: basses
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...real entertainment began when baritone Earle Patriarco's Sergeant Belcore took the stage. A classic miles gloriosus, this Belcore had a vapidity no strutting could conceal. Equally but independently ridiculous was bass Dale Travis' Doctor Dulcamara, a hobo-quack who bore an eerie resemblance to the poet Donald Hall. Dulcamara's vendor antics completely undercut his dramatic entrance and resonant "udite" ("listen!"), and his abracadabra, Darkwing Duck gesturings made one laugh out loud. If it hadn't been for the skillful comic acting of these two, the farcical plot would have been in awkward tension with the gorgeous music. Though...
...result sounds a bit like a Broadway show, but one composed by a pop-culture channel surfer on uppers. Jackie is a sweet-toned lyric soprano; Ari, a bass-baritone, is a smarmy lounge lizard (one of his big arias is marked in the score, "Freely sung, a la Dean Martin"). The music they sing jumps joltingly from folk rock to Motown to big-band jazz, all kaleidoscopically orchestrated for a 19-piece pit band with two percussionists. And although the tone is mostly light and lively, an unexpectedly affecting streak of melancholy surfaces whenever Jackie sings of her lost...
...soloists--Ellen Hargis, soprano, Laurie Monahan, mezzo soprano, William Hite, Frank Kelley and Arthur Rishi, tenors, and Paul Guttry and David Ripley, bass--were superb as well. Hargis was particularly impressive; she is a specialist in pre-Baroque music, and it shows. She captured the Renaissance style perfectly, demonstrating complete control over her voice so that there was no excessive vibrato, yet no shrill tone. Also greatly enjoyable was the tenor dialogue in the Audi coelum (IX), in which Hite sang his responses to Kelley from the balcony...
...liberal leaders, and with Newt Gingrich's angry band of G.O.P. radicals, who paid their party's elders as much deference as would Hell's Angels swaggering into a bar full of Shriners. Lott won the trust of both sides and remained the Happy Warrior: backslapping and optimistic, the bass of the Capitol's barbershop quartet...
...Prodigy are giving what has largely been instrumental music a voice, fresh faces and heart; and rock vets like Eric Clapton (with his new band T.D.F.) and David Bowie are tapping into it for inspiration. Now, this week, U2 releases its electro-tinged CD Pop, which features drum-and-bass-driven songs like Mofo and dance-rock numbers like Discotheque. Pop is passionate, futuristic and completely engaging. Lead singer Bono, on the phone from Dublin, talked about his band's bold new direction...