Make PattayaMail.com your Homepage | Bookmark              SERVING THE EASTERN SEABOARD OF THAILAND             Pattaya Blatt | Chiang Mai Mail | Pattaya Mail TV
 
Pattaya Mail Web
 
Features
 

A Night on Broadway at the Royal Cliff

by Pattaya Mail’s renowned critic, Jay Patterson

‘A Night on Broadway’, which was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya, was a smashing success in garnering funds for the benevolent club’s various charity projects. The Grand Ballroom of the Royal Cliff Hotel was full and this showed that there are many in Pattaya who are interested in hearing good music by international-standard musicians.

Mario Bertolino, Bass Baritone, sings “If I were a rich man” from “Fiddler on the Roof”
This critic appreciates the generosity of the Royal Cliff in offering their ballroom for the concert. It is a beautiful ballroom and probably one of the only available venues for the concert, due to the benevolence of Mr. Alois X. Fassbind.
The problem was that it is not a concert hall. In this type of performance acoustics are all important. The ballroom was not designed for this.
Classical singers do not use microphones and rely on vocal resonance which makes air vibrate and carries the voice to all parts of the hall. The ideal hall must have a carefully designed shape and many hard surfaces to optimise the resonance of voices and instruments. This was the main disappointment of the evening. The ballroom is beautiful, but thickly carpeted with many hanging draperies and padded walls. These all deaden resonance and are a singer’s nightmare. If a singer must perform in such a hall, this leads to worries that the voice won’t be heard and a subconscious ‘pushing’ on the voice occurs and makes the sound lose higher acoustic partials and results in a rather hard vocal quality.

The Grand Finalé of A Night on Broadway.

This critic sympathised totally with the singers and pianist.
The only time that the group seemed really comfortable was in the ensembles as the numbers of voices made up for the acoustical shortcomings of the hall.
Lyric-coloratura Victoria Atwater’s voice is very clear and highly placed. I would like to hear her sing more serious music, though, as she doesn’t seem comfortable with the Broadway idiom. It would have been wonderful if there could have been a bit of a ‘crossover’ into operetta. If she had sung Mabel’s ‘Poor Wandering One’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance or the Vilja Lied from Lehar’s Merry Widow, it would have shown off her voice and vocal technique. One of my favourite songs, Can’t help Lovin’ that Man of Mine from Show Boat, was a disappointment, as it was sung by three characters and the lyrics were pasted and patched together. Ms. Atwater did not seem to catch the romantic ‘bluesy’ feel of the song.

A house full of Pattaya music lovers.

‘I feel Pretty’ from West Side Story was finely sung and the duet Make Believe from Show Boat was pretty. I sympathised with Ms. Atwater when she sang I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy from South Pacific. Written in a low Mezzo-Soprano range it lay at the bottom of her voice. It would have been much more enjoyable if a microphone had been used
Elena Heimur has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard recently. It has a luscious, rich, dark tone. Although she bills herself as a soprano, she sounds much more like a mezzo-soprano. The tessitura of all the songs seemed quite high for her voice. The high notes were well produced, but I wish she would have sung some of the beautiful Broadway songs written for Mezzo-soprano or Contralto. She would have done You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel or Happy Talk from South Pacific beautifully. For some reason she transposed Bali Hai from South Pacific ,which is a deep contralto solo, into a much higher key. This took the mystery and romance out of the song. I would enjoy hearing Ms. Heimer sing a Rossini role such as Cenerentola or Rosina. Her sexy voice would also be perfectly suited to the role of Delilah in Saint-Saens Samson et Dalilah. Voices with such an alluring quality are very rare.

Members of the Rotary Club Jomtien-Pattaya with the Broadway artists at the Thank you party held at Bruno’s Restaurant, the night after the concert.

Raymond Dobrovolsky’s tenor is a voice that we should be hearing much more of in the future. Totally secure, with endless high notes, it was the least affected by the poor acoustics.
Donald Boos, who bills himself as a music comedian, is a bit too modest. He has a beautiful high baritone voice and is a wonderful actor. Emotion radiated from his eyes in every solo and he was the only singer to actually sing to his partner in the duets. Bravo!
Mario Bertolino was the ‘Godfather’ of the evening. He wisely chose songs that suited his voice and was always in character. A consummate entertainer, he came into the audience and gave everyone a wonderful medley of Italian standards in his beautifully rich Bass-Baritone voice. He did this with a microphone and the effect was perfect. With the hall’s poor acoustics, he did not have to push his voice, and could colour his tone and give the songs just the right flavour.
This critic tried the piano after the concert. Eric Rosser, an excellent pianist, seemed to be beating the piano into submission throughout the concert. The piano was out of tune and the tone was clanky. This gave him little chance to play with dynamics and tone colour as the instrument was so unresponsive.
This critics hopes that these artists will return and do a night of opera, which would really show off their talents.
Despite these small problems, this was a totally enjoyable and productive evening. Music lovers were satisfied and the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya once again scored a coup in helping people in need.
From the number of people who attended, this critic thinks more musical evenings like this would be welcomed by the citizens of Pattaya.


 
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]]

A Night on Broadway at the Royal Cliff

Viva La Fiesta

Advertisement

  Property for Rent
  Condos & Apartments
  Bungalows - Houses - Villas

  Property for Sele
  Condos & Apartments
  Bungalows - Houses - Villas
  Articles for Sale/Rent
  Boats
  Business Opportunities
  Computers & Communications
  Pets
  Services Provided
  Staff Wanted
  Vehicles for Sale / Rent: Trucks & Cars
 

 



News
 Local News
  Features
  Business
  Travel & Tourism
  Our Community
  Our Children
  Sports
Blogs
 Auto Mania
  Dining Out
  Book Review
  Daily Horoscope
Archives
PM Mike Franklin
Classic Charity Golf
Tournament
PM Peter Cummins
Classic International
Regetta
Information
Current Movies
in Pattaya's Cinemas

 Sophon TV-Guide
 Clubs in Pattaya
News Access
Subscribe to Newspaper
About Us
Shopping
Skal
Had Yao News
Partners
Pattaya Mail TV
 Pattaya Blatt
 Chiang Mail Mail