DEER VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL, “Opera Hits!,” Utah Symphony, Deer Valley Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater, July 20
The Friday classical outdoor concerts at the Deer Valley Music Festival are best suited for lighter fare and that’s exactly what was dished up last night. The audience who defied the weather forecast and showed up at the Snow Park amphitheater anyway were treated to a potpourri of top 40 opera tunes served up by the Utah Symphony under principal pops conductor Jerry Steichen. The Utah Opera Chorus also sang in a few numbers.
Jerry Steichen
Joining everyone onstage were several local singers: husband and wife duo soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge and baritone Darrell Babidge; soprano Celina Shafer; mezzo-soprano Sishel Claverie, a Utah Opera resident artist; baritone Tyler Oliphant; and tenor Ryan MacPherson. (MacPherson isn’t technically a Utah singer; his connection is his participation in Utah Opera’s May production of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men.)
After the overture to Verdi’s La forza del destino, the singers and chorus performed arias and ensembles by a wide range of composers, from Wolfgang Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte to Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, interspersed with Steichen’s witty comments.
The only real detriment to enjoying the evening completely (luckily, the weather held and there were no thunderstorms during the concert) was the horrendous sound system which had an awful reverberation and which made the singers and orchestra sound unnatural.
But if you didn’t mind the canned sound you were rewarded with a nearly two-hour-long set of popular pieces, including: “Recondita armonia” from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca; the Habanera from Georges Bizet’s Carmen; the Brindisi from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata; the Anvil Chorus from Verdi’s Il Trovatore (which will open Utah Opera’s 2012-13 season in October); and the trio from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier.
The evening ended with a hilarious “Glitter and be Gay” from Candide and a heartfelt “The Promise of Living” from Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land.