Word: sopranoes
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...fair lady of Chess is Paige, a petite blond in her 30s who was the first London-stage Evita. In Chess, Paige's Florence is the captive-nation emotional pawn of two superpower egotists; the numbers written for her investigate the dark, angry range where Paige's powerful soprano lives. The show's best song, Nobody's Side, has Florence offering words to the wounded ("Never stay too long in your bed,/ Never lose your heart, use your head"), and Paige taunts the lyric into an anthem of cold-steel defiance. Here she evokes the clarion brass of Ethel Merman...
...dark secret, hidden in the walls of the house permeates the very air. Its force seep, into the minds and the bodies of Miles and Flora, the two unfortunate children. With a clear, sweet soprano voice Flora (Lisa Zeidenberg) sings to her doll and prattles to her governess. Mile (Edmond John Donlon III) appears equally childish and pure. Although he sings rather shakily, not is as boisterous as a high-spirited little boy should be. But he is the center of the evil, and we soon learn that things have been done here that are not good...
...soloists are not nearly as strong. Soprano Grace Bumbry's shrill, edgy Bess fails to communicate either that lady's sultry eroticism or her ambiguous moral nature. Better is Bass-Baritone Simon Estes' dignified, sympathetic Porgy, though his voice is not as robust as it should be. (Injured during the dress rehearsal, he played the crippled hero on real crutches.) Individual honors go to Mezzo-Soprano Florence Quivar as the soulful Serena and the dashing Gregg Baker as the villainous Crown. The production, designed and directed by Robert O'Hearn and Nathaniel Merrill, is handsome, if not as spectacular...
...Riddle orchestra. The gala's tone of red-blooded glitz was set by Country Singer Mac Davis' show opener, God Bless the U.S.A., complete with marching band and back-up vocals. At the request of ! Nancy Reagan, organizers added a touch of highbrow to the program by scheduling Mezzo Soprano Frederica Von Stade, who sang an aria from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots...
...Rivera himself spends most of the tune in the upper register of his alto, getting a soprano-like sound from it. His raw and driving post-bop sound combines with Roditi's bright, powerful trumpet as well as Portinho's samba beat and bassist Lincoln Goines, who is another Tania Maria veteran, uses his instrument to duplicate the sound of the surdo drum, the heart and soul of the samba...