|
 |
| Avery
Fisher Hall |
CHURCH SHOWS WELSH OF TALENT
By DAN AQUILANTE
CHARLOTTE CHURCH has sung for her queen, our president and even the pope. So the biggest question left for the littlest soprano was: Is she ready to solo in New York City?
Last night at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, the answer was a resounding yes.
Backed by a 40-piece orchestra complete with everything from a harp to violins, Church was at her glass-breaking best.
Even so, early in her recital, the 15-year-old from Cardiff, Wales, was obviously nervous.
She opened with a couple of tunes from West Side Story: "Tonight" and "Somewhere." Although "Tonight" was certainly more of a favorite with the crowd, the simplicity of "Somewhere" and the fact that she was calmer for the second song made it the better of the two. The orchestra also sensed that, and gave her more room to work with the song.
If the show had a weakness, it was that the band didn't always respond to the singer's sense of dynamics. When she got soft, the band got brassy, and when she got loud, it got louder. Fortunately, that problem ended after the early portion of the show.
Although Church's voice is formidable and nearly impossible to overpower, in those first few songs, she allowed them to rough her up a little. That was especially true on the sap-heavy "Dream a Dream," the title track to her latest album.
After three costume changes, a traditional Welsh folk tune, an Irish lament and a peppy slice of Italian opera, the band and fans found religion in the power and glory of Church's voice.
Eggheads and classical purists might have found the program to be disjointed, but between the show tunes, the nod to her Welsh background and light opera, the show was musically fun, and fit the artist as a young girl.
While Church was splendid on "Bali Ha'i" from South Pacific, she unglued the audience from their seats and brought the house down with a whiz-bang finale of Paul Simon's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," George Gershwin's "Summertime" and "Danny Boy."
What the final three songs illustrated was that Church could do it all.
|
