Wednesday, May 11, 2005
MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC
When the man of the car likes country and the woman of the car likes classical, and they are going somewhere together, a compromise is essential. Andrea Rieu has been that compromise recently, and I've enjoyed his CDs. He was in Cleveland for one performance tonight at Playhouse Square. My husband is an even bigger fan, a veteran of PBS fundraisers featuring Andre Rieu at the Royal Albert Hall, and has been trying to get tickets for one of his concerts within driving distance for 6 months or more. We had seats in the nosebleed section.
The State Theater, an old renovated movie theater with interesting interior design, is part of a complex of three similar ventures, and is billed as the second largest performing arts complex in the U.S. The State certainly seats a lot of people, and the acoustics are the best I've heard so far. The seats are sufficiently banked and staggered that even up there in heaven you can get a good view of the stage. They are not, however, intended for any man with broad shoulders or long legs.
The concert was a cross between Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, and Lawrence Welk. That probably explains why there were more senior citizens in the theater than I have seen in one place in a long time.
It was sort of a strange concert--a dizzying eclectic jumble of waltz music, popular music from 1910, belly dancing music, an aria from Carmen (sung), and one from a German operetta that I can't remember the name of, some patriotic American songs, "The Last Rose of Ireland" played on a tin whistle, bagpipes, and more that I've forgotten. I went from curious to bored, to downright angry when they played and sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah which was so totally inappropriate for the setting and the time of year. (No one stood.) All of this was interspersed with Rieu's canned "extemporaneous" commentary intended to make the audience laugh. It has somewhat taken the pleasure out of listening to his CDs though I'll probably recover my enthusiasm the moment Allen Jackson sings his first note.
