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Wow.  Native son David Parson's Parson Dance with members of the East Village Opera Company presented an amazing evening of music and dance at the Folly Theater last Friday as part of the Harriman Jewell Series. The performance is still seared into my brain days later.

Opening with Parsons Dance staple and Kansas City favorite, Caught from 1982, had solo dancer Miguel Quinones levitating (yes, levitating) across the stage with the assistance of strobe lights to Robert Fripp's music.  It is such a simple conceit - yet was rendered so effectively.  Quinones was "caught" in four positions across the stage within beams of light.  Breaking out of these grounded positions required him to levitate.  Cutting to black with quick bursts of strobe Quinones was caught in various forms that he would retain as he moved across the stage.  The most effective were the meditative, cross-legged seated positions that seemed to suspend four feet above the stage floor and the ending quick cuts where he "floated" across the stage.

The main work of the evening was the narrative (a rare occurrence in the Parson repertoire) Remember Me.  Created in memory and honor of Elizabeth Anne Prostic, a young mother and wife whose life was cut short by metastatic cancer, the piece was the story of two brothers who fall in love with the same girl.  The three leads-Abby Silva, Zac Hammer and Miguel Quinones-demonstrated a remarkable range of motion and emotion.  Their strong dancing and emotive expressions highlighted the drama and carried the story.

The music, provided by the two lead singers of the East Village Opera Company, Tyley Ross and AnnMarie Milazzo, was adapted from the most famous arias and duets of operatic repertory. "Popera" is nothing new and frequently produces a less-than-musical outcome (see OperaBabes, Aria, etc.).  Thankfully, the EVOC has an innate musical understanding and reconstructed the pieces so that they maintained enough of their original iconic status, but were presented in new, refreshing and engaging ways. Ross' high tenor often found him singing traditional female roles (Purcell's "When I am Laid in Earth" and Delibes' "Flower Duet").  Milazzo showcased a wide range of vocal affects from the sweet ingénue to a roaring sex goddess.  Both singers acted as a Greek chorus by providing commentary on the action.

Remember Me is an artistic spectacle and certain sections deserve special praise.  Bizet's "Habenera" found Silva controlling three different groups of dancers with her gestures while Milazzo provided the sultry vocals.  Silva sold this movement, playing up her magnetic persona. 

The "Flower Duet" from Lakmé had dancers Hammer and Silva portraying a joyous, naïve sexuality while manipulating an ecru piece of fabric.  The video work of entwined, flowering vines was gorgeous.  Conversely, Verdi's "La donna é mobile" was a hyper-sexualized jealous fête of women walking across a writhing Quinones.  The rape scene set to Schubert's "Ave Maria" played the down the violence, yet still contained all the rage and despair; it was grotesque, haunting and, yes,  beautiful.  Ross was poised above the dancers like Pietà-meets-avenging-angel.  Silva's most striking position was a modified backbreaker with her head on her ground and arms twisted akimbo.  The lighting of "When I am Laid in Earth" cast eerie shadows and the inverted women with crossed arms on the backs of men was creepy, befitting the underworld and death of all the characters.  The crowning achievement however was Silva's feature in the "Nessun dorma" movement.  The ensemble dancers with arms interlocked were prerecorded and mirrored in the video while they performed the same wave-like movements live behind Silva's heart-wrenching dance of grief.  There was a profound sadness in her movements; her lines were beautiful yet broken with at least one angle always being askew. 

An earlier version of Remember Me has been televised on PBS.  Try to catch it!

REVIEW:
Harriman Jewell Series
Parsons Dance and members of the East Village Opera Company
Tuesday, November 13, 2009
Folly Theater, Kansas City, MO
http://harriman-jewell.org/
For more information on the Companies - www.parsonsdance.org/ or www.eastvillageoperacompany.com/

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com