[Dixielandjazz] Last of the Red Hot Mama's . . . Nah!

[Steve barbone]

Remember Deborah Voight? She was the Opera star who was deemed to heavy to
sing an operatic role last year in the UK. Solution? OK, let's give the
American Songbook a try, it seems to be gaining popularity. Now that is
truly crossover. 

Perhaps she will try OKOM next as the last of the Red Hot Mama's with Debbie
Does, Dallas Blues? :-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve

An Opera Star's Grand Tour of Broadway Ports of Call

NY TIMES By STEPHEN HOLDEN - January 27, 2006

Every opera diva who wades into the choppy seas of pop must decide how far
out in the water it is safe to swim. Dawn Upshaw goes only waist deep, then
stands there, smiling and decorously splashing water on herself. Renée
Fleming boldly dives into the sea, and then depending on the waves, emerges
either grinning or fighting the surf.

Deborah Voigt, who sang a program of mostly show tunes at the Allen Room of
Frederick P. Rose Hall on Wednesday evening, is more reserved than both.
This Wagnerian soprano, accompanied by a chamber-pop quintet led by Ted
Sperling on piano, gave what might be described as a formal cabaret recital.

Like many cabaret shows, this one, conceived for Lincoln Center's American
Songbook series, had a theme: travel. The songs were stitched together by a
running monologue with mild jokes about an opera singer's travails on the
road. Is it glamorous shuttling between New York and various world capitals?
You bet it is, but it is also lonely. Are there problems with meals in
foreign countries? Exotic, sometimes inedible dishes are put before her that
are nothing like what she thought she ordered. Travel, she said, ultimately
eats up as much of her time as performing.

The songs in the show took Ms. Voigt on a journey from Paris (Arthur
Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "Paree," to China (Cole Porter's "Come to the
Supermarket in Old Peking,") to the South Seas (Rodgers and Hammerstein's
"Bali Ha'i) and back (Ricky Ian Gordon and Tina Landau's "Finding Home").
Two songs, "Blame It on a Summer Night" and "Children of the Wind," came
from the ill-fated Broadway musical "Rags"; two others were ballads by John
Bucchino. 

Ms. Voigt, who described the program as outside her comfort zone, maintained
the friendly but detached attitude of an opera diva bestowing her favor on
nonclassical material. Even adjusted in volume for a microphone, her
diamonds-set-in-silver voice was impressive. But her operatic vibrato
frequently pulled against the songs' relaxed phrasing and talky diction. The
Porter number, from the 1958 television musical "Aladdin," proved quite a
mouthful. When she had finished it, Ms. Voigt joked that it had "more words
than the second act of 'Tristan.' "

For a singer who kept her gaze steadily fixed on the shoreline, venturing
over her head was not an option.