Boston Pops, conductor Keith Lockhart has done a wonderful job making the Pops enjoyable to a wider audience. Tonight, devoted to Cole Porter, Michael Scarola, stage director, he used eight voices: four women, four men, and two dancers.
Writing down the people who performed, unless you've seen them before, tells you little. This really was a 'You had to be there' evening. While I do not recall many Pops concerts where a piano was heard throughout but not as a solo instrument, Christopher O'Reilly was significant in his filling in to make the orchestra believable in Cole Porter interpretations. He has traveled a long way from his days with Russell Sherman at the N. E, Conservatory of Music. Kelli O'Hara was sensational, stunning in her vocal range and the versatility she produced responding to demands placed on her Jason Daniely, her co-star, a Broadway actor, singer, concert performer and recording artist, was good though his parts did not produce the projection and charisma that Kelli gave out.
The other singers were: tenor, Matthew Anderson, soprano, Danya Katok, mezzo-soprano, Laura Mercado-Wright, baritone, David McFerrin. The stars and singers' CV's are awesome. The two dancers were Caley Crawford and Eric Johnson, both still students at the Boston Conservatory. So much for the people who were so entertaining, such consummate performers, and who gave the audience far more than most of us bargained for.
Not surprisingly, there was a gum chewing lady next to my friend who was displeased because she claimed there were not enough' visuals'. She had been to Pops twice last year, she informed us, and it was much better because they had 'visuals'. Fortunately the person between us spared my telling her she should have gone to the movies if she wanted 'visuals'. The producer, however, came through when I Love Paris was sung and they dropped down screens with shots of Paris. I so badly wanted to tell her this was a musical concert not a movie. It was beyond me to think that she needed 'visuals' to understand the extraordinary lyrics and signature music of Porter. I left her to her gum chewing.
Before the performance started, we were treated to the lecture about locating the exits and filing out calmly in case of emergency. I couldn't resist leaning over to the stranger next to me and telling her he forgot to mention that, if necessary, the cushion under her seat could be used as a flotation device. Since we were in the first balcony, she looked at me like any New Englander would, to see if I showed any other psychotic signs, the seemed to take me seriously just before she broke up laughing, telling me how funny that was. Like a Boy Scout, to see someone laugh heartily, I considered that my good deed for the day,
With much pleasure, I noted there are still lots of Pops evening left this summer..
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