The Marquee

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The 07-08 World Stage Series went out with a bang on friday night- Lila Downs, the star of the 2005 Madison World Music Festival, returned to the Union and delivered one heck of a performance. She sang about mole. She sang about iguanas. She sang about minimum wage. Bottom line - MAN did she ever sing.
  Special attention must also be paid to the harpist in Lila’s band… as our trusty Concert Series Associate Director Shelly put it, “take that, Yolanda!”  - (in reference, of course, to the Yolanda Kondonassis’s harp concert earlier in the season)
  At the risk of sounding subjective (then again, isn’t that the purpose of blogs?), I absolutely loved the concert - for the last four years I’ve heard the most amazing world stage performers…from Mariza’s bluesy fados, to dancing the hora with the Klezmatics, to being completely baffled by the sounds of Chirgilchin, to all out rocking out to the likes of Youssou or Seun Kuti or Ismael Luminovski - Lila Downs was a great performance to end on…icing on the cake.
- courtney
 
 

To be honest, I was really not sure what to expect from the Anonymous 4 (according to wikipedia, named for a pun on the name used to refer to an anonymous english music theorist of the late 13th century, Anonymous IV, who is the principal source on the two famous composers of the Notre Dame school, Leonin and Perotin…read: classical music nerd joke). They began their concert explaining that they got their start on Garrison Keillor’s radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion” - which immediately rang bells in my head. As the roommate of several good Minnesotans, Prairie Home Companion was actually something I was familiar with.
   From that point on, the concert made a lot more sense to me. The Anonymous 4 and co-starring musicians Darol Anger and Scott Nygaard really did their thing well. The Americana music was totally catchy, and the way their unamplified voices blended (especially in the balcony!) sounded amazing.  At one point, one of the group (regrettably I don’t remember her name) did a solo song…just her singing…in the giant theater. Her voice powerfully filled the whole theater, and then some. I remember back in good ol mrs. johnson’s middle school choir class, we all had to do unaccompanied solos - that day will forever be remembered by me as one of the most terrifying of my whole life. To watch that woman do her solo, seemingly fearless, in front of an entire house full of people was totally remarkable.
   It was the perfect music to complement the rainy Madison night.
-courtney

Apologies for lack of blogging of late. Things have been rather busy down here in the Union Theater - last week we OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED the 08-09 Union Theater Season! Highlights (for me at least) Include Mariza, SAVION GLOVER(!!!), and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra!   You can see all of our new season on our website (http://www.uniontheater.wisc.edu) 

Last weekend was Frederica Von Stade, Mezzo-Soprano extrordinaire. Reviews of her performance here were, quite honestly, rather mixed.  It seems people either loved or hated her singing. Frankly, I was rather surprised that she sang so many things that were more broadway-esque, rather than arias…or what have you. Overall though, it’s hard not to enjoy a good rendition of “La Vie En Rose” or “Habanera” I’m fairly certain Edith Piaf  would have approved of her rendition.  The one part of her performance that I found to be rather unsettling was the song “I Can’t Say No” from Oklahoma!  I found it to be an unfortunate choice of song. The lyrics:
“When a person tries to kiss a girl,/
I know she orta give his face a smack.
But as soon as someone kisses me,
I somehow, sorta, wanta kiss him back!”

I’m fairly certain that any Sex Out Loud types in the audiences would really not have approved of the message.

In addition, her accent seemed to me to be rather strange for someone born in New Jersey. Perhaps thats the opera training though.

- Courtney