nlbarber

Nice concert: 2 pieces by Kapilow that are settings of books by Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham (a book I had thoroughly memorized as a child) and Gertrude McFuzz, which I had never heard of. The program was filled out by the Furioso Polka (Strauss) and a set of variations on "Pop Goes the Weasel". These concerts last about an hour with no intermission, and juice or milk and cookies are usually available in the lobbies before the shows.

The Kapilow pieces were not what I would have expected--quite modern, musically (especially Green Eggs), with a mezzo-soprano soloist role in both that seemed challenging. The other player in Green Eggs was an eighth-grade boy (playing Sam I Am) who had mostly spoken lines, with just a little singing at the end.

Gertrude McFuzz was fun, and not quite so modern in the harmonies. The mezzo had a narrator role, and the other player, a woman, was Gertrude McFuzz, a bird who is unhappy with her tail feather. The piece was a good demonstration of why this concert series does so well with its conductor, Jere Flint--when Gertrude goes to ask her uncle for help with the tail feather problem, Mr. Flint, conducting away, served as an uncle-prop, having his coattails tugged, his legs hugged, and so on. And it got worse--Gertrude is sent to find a pill-berry vine to eat a berry. The narrator picks up a cylinder about 18" high and adorned with leaves, and plops this on Mr. Flint's head--he's now the pill-berry vine. The kids love it, of course.