Violinist Máiréad Nesbitt of Celtic Woman was a blond whirling dervish last night at GM Place.
Photograph by: Jason Payne, PNG, Special To The Province
Celtic women either together or solo seem to get you every time
It was a decidedly sedate crowd lining up last night, many in their finery, for the Celtic Woman extravaganza at GM Place. There were some kids, yes, and the early middle-aged, but lots of white and balding pates and not a single burgundy stretch limo spewing the Young From the Valley, pumped with vim and "pre-drinks."
Also, no blaring radio-station SUV parked by Will Call and not a single scalper. No surprise there -- they sold maybe half the 8,000 available tickets. I saw one elderly gentleman suited up in his kilt. Evidently a keener.
No doubt many in the audience, had they not been here, would have been home watching something edifying on PBS, and its PBS -- and frequently Bravo in Canada --that gave this entire Celtic Woman production legs in the first place five years ago.
One Sharon Browne had an Irish record label called Celtic Collections that featured attractive young Irish women singing traditional and easy-listening music. Few in her home country bought this stuff. But after a chance encounter with an American PBS executive she joined with Riverdance's David Downes, put together a full-blown presentation of her girls and bingo, they hit the jackpot. Celtic Woman can't get arrested in Ireland but on this side of the pond they're gold.
At least that's what the crowd thought last night. Based on their current Songs From the Heart CD and DVD this was a fairly opulent production. The stage was swathed like a lace-curtained window, drum and percussion kits on either side, grand piano and the rest of the band below.
Featuring vocalists Lisa Kelly, Chloë Agnew, Lynn Hilary and Alex Sharpe, along with violinist Máiréad Nesbitt, they opened with a big splashy "Nil Se'n La" featuring all the soloists, the Aontas Choir and the six-piece band. Whew.
That segued into Sting's song "Fields of Gold," with Lisa taking a solo and swaying prettily to music director Downes' piano. Máiréad followed with the instrumental "The Coast of Galicia," fiddling dervishly around the stage, blond hair flying.
Soon enough, Chloë was up singing "Galway Bay," a grand yearning anthem for the moony-eyed Irish diaspora. I grew up on that song. It remains hopelessly saccharine, maudlin pap, but gets to me every time.
With a paucity of special effects and pyro there's a big reliance on fat percussion and constantly moving spotlights. The five Celtic women are ever shifting between solo and ensemble performances, the six-piece choir behind them applied judiciously. It's well-paced stuff.
The four lead singers and choir were on stage for "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears," a surprisingly moving and full-throated ode to Ellis Island in New York, where so many starving Irish came to a land of opportunity. Seventeen million, the song tells us. That's a lot of beat cops.
As might be expected, the a cappella "Danny Boy" was a big hit and so, later on, was "Amazing Grace." Jimmy Webb's "The Moon's a Harsh Mistress" was an interesting choice.
An evening of Celtic Woman makes for a lot of crescendos, dramatic modulations and emotive heaven-gazing, arms a'waving. Maybe it's the old Tipperary blood coursing through my veins but it all kinda works. The grandmotherly dears with Irish accents seated behind me certainly thought so.
By John P. McLaughlin,
Special To The Province
May 16, 2010
Vancouver BC
