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Stage
Hot Ticket
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 13, 2003
Opera star on Tampa stage
Opera star Denyce Graves' new album, The Lost Days: Music in the Latin Style (RCA), has the mezzo-soprano performing with four contemporary Latin American pianist/arrangers -- Chucho Valdes, Jose Maria Vitier, Pablo Ziegler and Elaine Elias -- in their music, plus works of legends such as Heitor Villa Lobos, Astor Piazolla and Carlos Guastavino. Graves, with pianist Martin Katz, will perform some of those songs in a recital Saturday in Tampa, as well as an English baroque set, spirituals and selections of Brahms, Saint-Saens, Donizetti and Duparc.
Graves is not a typical opera singer. She grew up in inner-city Washington, where she started out in a gospel group called the Inspirational Children of God. In her 20s, after studying at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory, she quit singing for six months and worked as a secretary because of a throat ailment (it turned out to be a treatable thyroid condition).
Today, she is renowned for her performance of the title roles in Bizet's Carmen (which she recently performed at the Metropolitan Opera) and Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila. She sang a deeply moving rendition of America the Beautiful in the service held at the National Cathedral after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Composer Richard Danielpour is writing an opera called Margaret, inspired by Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, for Graves.
Graves sings at 8 p.m. Saturday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $24.50-$59.50. (813) 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045.
Violin+ piano = romance
Violinist Janice Martin returns to Tarpon Springs for a Valentine's Day recital, with pianist Naomi Shinada Niskala. They'll play Clara Schumann's Romance in D-flat major, the Brahms Sonata No. 3 in D minor plus works of Mozart, Paganini, Beethoven and Sarasate, among others. Martin, raised in Racine, Wis., studied at Indiana University and the Juilliard School and then spent three years in the U.S. Army, playing gigs at the White House and elsewhere with the Army band. Her first recording, on the Sonoris label, includes a vivid performance of John Corigliano's Violin Sonata. The concert is at 8 p.m. Friday at Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $11, $13. (727) 942-5605.
Hear them play, then talk
The concert by violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, left, and pianist Jesse Chang is likely to be a highlight of the Encore chamber music series. On the agenda are works of Ravel, Beethoven and Gershwin, as well as Berceuse #1 by St. Petersburg composer Vernon Taranto Jr. Moretti is concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra, and Chang is married to the orchestra's music director laureate, Jahja Ling. John Wilson, news anchor at WTVT-Ch. 13, will moderate a talk-back session with the musicians. The performance is at 7:30 tonight at the Palladium, 253 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. Tickets: $5-$10. (727) 822-3590.
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