BY SYLVIE WOODS
The Bernstein Songbook
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney Opera House, 11 May
Downtown Abbey’s Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden) performed some of Bernstein’s best alongside a spectacular cast at the Sydney Opera House earlier this month. Fans will be pleased to hear that he is categorically a phenomenal tenor; and because of his rendition of Maria, everyone’s make-up in the concert hall was an indisputable mess by the last half.
I’m talking mascara everywhere.
If a throng of women, and perhaps some fabulous men, all came out onto Macquarie Street looking like the joker, I blame you, Julian Ovenden.
It is a dangerous thing indeed to attend even a middle-of-the-road musical with a few catchy songs. You’ll be humming the house down for days. It is a different and far more dangerous thing altogether to attend a concert that combines more than a dozen stage-five-clinger ear-worms by the tune king Leonard Bernstein, then sends you off home and expects you to behave like a dignified human being for the rest of the week.
I, for one, don’t expect that attendees’ easy listening repertoire over the last couple of weeks has been particularly varied after I, almost possessed, hijacked the music at a party after the concert, silenced Ariana Grande and replaced her with Andrea Bocelli singing West Side Story.
I’m telling you – this is addictive stuff.
The program was a fabulous success. The orchestra played mightily throughout, with particularly beauteous results from the brass section.
Mezzo-soprano Kim Criswell performed vivaciously in her Trouble In Tahiti number, wooing the audience with her characterisation despite the restraints of the stage. Her humour was infectious, and she left a true sense of merriment with the audience each time she walked offstage. Soprano Lorina Gore offered an equally exciting and generous portrayal in her performance of Cunegonde in Glitter and Be Gay from Berstein’s riotous Candide.
The effect of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs behind the soloists and instrumentalists in the concert hall was spellbinding. They performed with fantastic precision and tremendous contrast.
Director Mitchell Butel, conductor John Wilson, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra must be congratulated on a truly exciting, invigorating and celebratory series that has left me with unfinished business.
Where is West Side Story playing in Sydney at the moment? Book me two tickets!
Featured image of John Wilson credit Fred Olav Vatne/Oslo Philharmonic. Review trailer by Sylvie Woods.
