Review: New Music Ensemble really cooking
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A bold concoction would describe any concert by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. The ingredients are always varied, and the mix is usually delectable.
But never has the ensemble actually baked a cake on stage. That is, until Friday night.
Opening its season in City Theatre's upstairs space, artistic director Kevin Noe programmed "Bon Appetit!" a monodrama for chamber musicians and mezzo-soprano portraying Julia Child on the set of "The French Chef." It's a sendup of the TV personality who cooked her way into kitchens all across the U.S. in an inimitable way.
The hilarious work by American composer Lee Hoiby takes her exact words from two episodes and splices them for a "show" about baking a chocolate cake, which the mezzo does while singing. That's a tall order, to say the least. The composition premiered in 1989, but Mr. Noe always has a twist ready, and instead of a mezzo he cast countertenor Peter Garrett Thoreson in the famous foodie role.
That was such a brilliant move, it seemed the work was meant to be heard that way, with the caveat that not many countertenors could do what Mr. Thoreson did. After being "introduced" by WQED's Jim Cunningham, he brought out the odd and even erotic undertone to Child's bustling on-air kitchen. The mannerisms were there -- finger licking and bowl-dropping. But in his characterization, she was somehow unhinged, the sexual oppression pervasive in America of the '50s and early '60s bubbling over at times like one of her many pots. This was not due to Mr. Thoreson being in drag, it was because of his ability to drop from a uppity head-voice to a visceral chest voice quickly. He treated the earnest text with a wink and a nudge and a subtle sexual undertone. Think vigorously beating eggs and lusting over chocolate.
First Published July 9, 2011 12:18 am
