Stage notes: Les Delices offers holiday balm with virtual concert of poetry, European carols - Akron Beacon Journal
When Artistic Director Debra Nagy set out to create Les Délices' virtual concert "Noel, Noel," her goal was to create an intimate musical experience as a balm for a holiday season mired in a global pandemic.
“ 'Noel, Noel' is really the opposite of a big holiday concert with choir and orchestra. We’re offering a deeply personal shared experience. My hope is that audiences will not only find beauty and comfort in this program, but that they will also be moved and inspired by the combination of beloved song and reflective spoken word,” she said of the program, which will blend carols with classic and contemporary poetry.
The show, an alternative to the traditional Lessons and Carols experience, will feature longtime Cleveland radio and TV host Dee Perry reading the poetry. It will premiere at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 on Vimeo and will be available to stream on demand through Dec. 23.
The premiere will include a pre-concert Q&A session with the program's three local poets.
Les Délices’ original arrangements of carols from French, English, and German traditions will be interleaved with poems by Christina Rossetti, ee cummings and Thomas Campion, plus recent work by Northeast Ohio poets Dave Lucas of Cleveland Heights, Diane Kendig of Canton and Julie Warther of Dover.
The Northeast Ohio poets were selected from an open call. Lucas, former Ohio Poet Laureate, teaches at Case Western Reserve University and founded a popular poetry reading event called Brews & Prose. Kendig's decades of teaching and writing have been marked by a passion for working with prison inmates and asylum seekers. Warther, a proponent of the art of haiku. has established several haiku trail public art installations.
Audiences will hear French Noels (carols), beloved German hymns and Old English carols from the 17th and 18th centuries amid the early music part of the program. The first carol soprano Elena Mullins will sing is the French "Or nous dites Marie" ("And Mary Told Us").
A much older one, the English "Coventry Carol," goes back to the 15th century. Amid the more contemporary works on the program will be intimate renditions of Holst’s "In the Bleak Midwinter" and Gruber’s "Silent Night."
“I wanted the poetry to flow seamlessly and naturally with the music, so I’ve chosen
texts that resonate with the song lyrics, or even directly reference them," said Nagy, a baroque oboist who performs with the Cleveland-based ensemble.
Examples include Warther’s extended haiku “one child’s candle” that quotes "Silent Night," which closes the program. And Lucas' poem "Three Kings," which cites the star that the kings follow to Bethlehem, precedes "Wie shön leuchtet der Morgenstern" ("How Brightly Shines the Morning Star"), a German carol from the 17th century.
Lucas' beautiful poem asks readers or listeners to imaging "this journey where you don't know what you're going to find at the other end of it," Nagy said.
For another pairing, the 17th century English carol "Drive the Cold Winter Away" is like a musical expression of Campion's poem "Now Winter Nights Enlarge."
"The message there is really about kind of staying warm and cozy and celebrating community," the artistic director said of the complementary works.
Les Délices recorded the "Noel, Noel" concert in October with an all-local, six-person instrumental ensemble, the most artists the group has worked with since the pandemic began. All were COVID-tested.
The recording was done in Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, where the group is Artist in Residence.
"I feel glad for various reasons, not only that we recorded this material weeks ago but also that we have something really beautiful to share at a time when it's actually quite difficult to assemble artists," Nagy said.
Cost for "Noel, Noel" is $20, $8 for students. See www.lesdelices.org.
Collaborator Perry, who has done thousands of interviews about arts and culture for radio, TV and online, began her broadcasting career in 1976 and in 1989 became the morning host for WCPN (90.3-FM), which later merged with WVIZ/PBS to become Ideastream. She is now retired from full-time broadcasting.
Les Délices (The Delights), founded by Nagy in 2009, explores the dramatic potential and emotional resonance of long-forgotten music. The group made its New York debut at a sold-out performance at the Frick Collection in 2010.
'Committed' extended
Beck Center for the Arts has gotten such a big response to its on-demand one-man show "Fully Committed," the comedy has been extended through Sunday. The ultra-talented Nick Koesters stars as out-of-work actor Sam, who runs the reservation line at New York's hottest restaurant and must deal with a barrage of desperate callers.
Directed by Scott Spence, the show by Becky Mode is Beck's first foray into virtual theater. Cost is $20-$40. See https://bit.ly/33gCk1N for tickets.
Weathervane cabaret
Weathervane Playhouse dropped the first episode of its new digital cabaret project Nov. 23, exploring the lesser-known Broadway musical "Leap of Faith."
Through performances of three of Alan Menken's tunes from the show plus a key interview with Kent State graduate Michelle Duffy, an original 2012 Broadway cast member, the cabaret definitely whet my appetite to one day see the musical.
It's a production Weathervane is interested in one day producing, with a story about con man/traveling minister Jonas Nightingale, who descends on a small Kansas town. Struggles ensue, particularly with the town's mayor.
Duffy, who traveled from her hometown of Wheeling, W.Va., to Akron to record the country-tinged song "Long Past Dreamin' " and interview with Weathervane host Joshua Larking, said this show is about faith, "the struggle of what it costs to have it, what it costs to not have it, how you arrive at it and keep it. All that is incredibly relevant now."
The actress, who built a career in Chicago and Los Angeles before making her Broadway debut in "Leap of Faith" after appearing in its world premiere in Los Angeles, talked about Broadway debut rituals. She also played Veronica's mom/Ms. Fleming in the original Off-Broadway production of "Heathers: The Musical" in 2014 and has worked extensively in regional theater and TV over a career spanning more than three decades.
The cabaret runs 16 minutes but I recommend clicking on the links to watch the longer, full interviews with Duffy and Akron native Michael Swain-Smith, who talked about his development as an artist. He sang the tender "Walking Like Daddy" and local actress Bonita Jenkins sang the gospel-style "Lost" from the musical.
Watch the cabaret for free on YouTube through the link on Weathervane's Facebook page.
'The Prom'
In these quarantine days, Netflix has been one of my closest companions. Considering we can't see live musicals now and trips to Broadway seem like a distant dream, I'm really looking forward to the Netflix release of the musical "The Prom" Dec. 11.
The film adaptation directed by Ryan Murphy stars Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells, Joe Ellen Pellman, Ariana DeBose, Keegan-Michael Key and Kerry Washington. In this story, Broadway has-beens Dee Dee Allen (Streep) and Barry Glickman (Corden) team up with Broadway babies Angie Dickinson (Kidman) and Trent Oliver (Rannells) in a misguided attempt to resurrect their careers by helping small-town Indiana girl Emma Nolan (Pellman), who is banned from attending the prom with her girlfriend, Alyssa Greene (DeBose).
Listen to the film's new female empowerment anthem "Wear Your Crown," with vocals by Kidman, Streep, Pellman, DeBose and Washington, at https://bit.ly/3nTsue8/. "The Prom's" Broadway run was 2018-2019.
BW men
The Baldwin Wallace University Men's Chorus will offer the virtual holiday review "And the World Will Be at Peace" at 4 p.m. Saturday. The program will include past concert highlights, behind-the-scenes interviews with director Frank Bianchi, poetry, art, narration, special guest appearances and a new virtual performance by chorus members past and present.
Tickets are free but reservations are required at bw.edu/tickets to access the virtual performance. An optional donation is requested.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
2020-12-01 11:25:30Z
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/entertainment/arts/2020/12/01/le-delices-virtual-show-offers-holiday-balm-poems-european-carols/6406544002/
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