What: “So in Love With Broadway,” Opera Omaha's celebration of Frank Loesser and other composers of the Great American Songbook.
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th St.
Tickets: $19 to $99; call 345-0606.
Opera Omaha delivered some of its best singing of the season on Friday night at the Orpheum Theater. Yet ironically, the company wasn't presenting an opera.
For its final weekend of the 2009-10 season, Opera Omaha is staging “So in Love With Broadway,” which is basically a pops concert featuring conductor Hal France, the Omaha Symphony and a roster of gifted guest singers.
Opera Omaha had originally planned to stage Stephen Sondheim's “A Little Night Music.” Due to last year's sour economy, John Wehrle, the opera's president, and Garnett Bruce, its artistic adviser, decided to substitute a concert of Broadway songs instead.
For the most part, that turned out to be a good decision, because the company was able to secure some of the best musical theater voices in the country. That's something it couldn't afford to do if it were staging an opera.
Friday's concert was divided into two parts. The first half was a general salute to Broadway, with selections from such musicals as “South Pacific,” “Carousel,” “Funny Girl” and “Oklahoma.” After intermission, the company presented a tribute to composer Frank Loesser, whose 100th anniversary is observed this year.
The hero of the evening was baritone Christopher Burchett, who substituted at the last minute for an ailing Ron Raines. Burchett arrived in Omaha late Tuesday night and learned the two-hour show in just two days. You would have thought he'd been living with it for months.
He sang “My Time of Day” from Loesser's “Guys and Dolls” with a burnished voice and unfailing sensitivity. His rendition of Loesser's “Luck Be a Lady” was intense and insistent.
Karen Ziemba, a Tony Award-winning soprano, was the star female vocalist of the evening, singing “Don't Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl” with equal parts passion and attitude.
The star male vocalist was John Bolton, whose large vocal range and equally large personality allowed him to dominate the stage all evening. His humor came to the fore in “She Loves Me,” a sweet little song about a girl who doesn't know she loves her guy yet. He showed his vast vocal range in “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle,” which he ended with a vaporous falsetto.
Emily Loesser, the composer's daughter, is also a fine singer and actress, and she performed “Baby, It's Cold Outside” and many of her father's other tunes with immediacy and deep feeling.
Opera Omaha's Voices In Residence apprentice singers –– Jennifer Berkebile, Ric Furman, Maria Lindsey and Jonathan Stinson –– all have beautiful voices and gave worthy performances.
The Opera Omaha Chorus sang with power and musicality. And France, for his part, proved to be both an able conductor and convincing cocktail pianist.
In all, it was a terrific night of singing. Still, at the end of the evening I left the Orpheum Theater feeling dissatisfied.
Half of opera is visual, and yet there is very little to see in “So in Love With Broadway.” Opera Omaha is going to have to do more than stage a glorified Omaha Symphony pops concert if it wants to thrive.
Contact the writer:
444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com
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