Sunday, June 15, 2008 N N H 3 ArtScene From Carnegie to ‘Candide’ Light Opera role tempts Brian Cheney back to a Tulsa stage

BY JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer Candide For Brian Cheney, having the title role WHEN: in Light Opera Oklahoma’s production of 8 p.m. Saturday “Candide” is a slightly bittersweet experi- ence. WHERE: It’s a role that Cheney has always wanted Williams Theater, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Second to do, and the main reason why the tenor Street and Cincinnati Avenue. has returned for his second season with LOOK. TICKETS: “I have a wife and two daughters, ages $25-$29, 596-7111 or www.tulsaworld.com/mytix 7 and 5, and working with this company means I’m going to be away from them for two months,” Cheney said. “And it’s always LOOK will be using the version created tough to be away for so long a time, so in 1973, the so-called “Chelsea” version, there’s got to be a good reason to do it. named for the theater where it debuted. “And that’s what ‘Candide’ is for me,” he The book is by Wheeler, who streamlined said. “Eric (Gibson, LOOK artistic director) the show into a single act that more closely and I started talking about this show before follows Voltaire’s original story. we finished last season’s productions. When “One of the great things about this ver- Eric said he was serious about doing ‘Can- sion is that it gives the audience a clearer dide,’ I said I was in, and I’d do whatever focus,” Cheney said. “Candide is the one else he wanted me to do for the season.” normal person moving through this rather But the real reason why playing Candide crazy world, and in this version, you can is at once positive and poignant is that it follow that journey more easily.” is the last role Cheney worked on with his It’s a journey that takes the innocent mentor, the late Jerry Hadley. Candide from comfortable surroundings Cheney has been forging an acclaimed in a noble home to being kidnapped by operatic and concert career of his own. In Bulgarians, in trouble with the Portuguese March, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall Inquisition, falsely accused of murder in in New York City, performing a wide-rang- Paris, pursued by pirates in North America, ing program accompanied by Tulsa native finding gold in South America and ending Cathy Venable on piano (the duo performed up penniless in Constantinople. in Tulsa a few weeks prior to the Carnegie In addition to Cheney, the cast includes Hall date). Diana McVey as Cunegunde, the girl of Hadley had been one of America’s most Candide’s dreams; James Rollins as her prominent tenors, singing leading roles for brother Maximilian; April Golliver as both New York City Opera and the Metro- Paquette; Andrea Leap as the Old Lady; politan Opera. He sang the title role in John and Patrick Jacobs in roles of the narra- Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby,” and was tor Voltaire and the philosopher Pangloss, Leonard Bernstein’s choice for the role of whose adage about “all things are for the “Candide” in a recording of this work that best in the best of all possible worlds” won a 1991 Grammy Award. Hadley com- guides Candide through his increasingly mitted suicide in July 2007. zany adventures. “We worked on this role right before I “It just zips along,” Cheney said. “It’s came to Tulsa last June,” Cheney said. “And crazy and hilarious.” Mr. Hadley had worked with Bernstein It also, Cheney said, gives performers the on the role, and shared with me a lot of chance to do something a little unusual. extraordinary things — he would say, ‘This “One thing Mr. Hadley said Bernstein is what Lenny wanted because of XYZ, always stressed was that you can’t sing this this was the reason he wrote this song in music with an obvious operatic thrust, or in this way, and this was how he wanted it to a musical theater style,” he said. “Bernstein sound.’ wanted people to sing his music in their “It was really humbling in a way — being own voices, without any sort of artifice. given this kind of gift,” he said. “It’s a little frightening at first, but it ends As a work of music, “Candide” has been up being liberating,” Cheney said. “You have popular since it first debuted in 1956. The no boundaries, once you allow your voice score is considered one of Leonard Ber- just to come out. It’s what makes Candide nstein’s greatest creations — some critics as a character so pure.” rank it as superior to “West Side Story.” The And makes Candide very di3erent from rambunctious Overture is a staple of the Cheney’s other major role this season orchestral pops repertoire, and songs such — that of Frederick, the apprentice in “The as “Glitter and Be Gay” and “Make Our Gar- Pirates of Penzance.” den Grow” have become standards. “I guess you could say both characters are The problem was the show’s book, based innocents, but stylistically these two roles on Voltaire’s satirical tale of a wide-eyed couldn’t be more di3erent,” Cheney said. optimist’s adventures in a cynical world. “Gilbert and Sullivan is all about artifice, Lillian Hellman wrote the original, and in which is why I’m glad there’s only one day subsequent years and revisions, writers this season where I’m doing these roles in a as diverse as the novelist James Agee, the single day.” poet Richard Wilbur, the playwright Hugh “You have no boundaries, once you allow your voice just to come out,” said Brian Cheney of his Wheeler and the composer-lyricist Stephen James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478 lead role. “It’s what makes Candide as a character so pure.” STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World Sondheim had a go at the thing. [email protected] Aimee Mann’s idea of eccentric covers the waterfront

BY JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer concert What courses through Aimee AIMEE MANN, WITH OPENER DAVID FORD Mann’s career is more than the “one-hit wonder” of former band When: ’Til Tuesday’s ’80s hit, “Voices Doors open at 7 p.m. Carry.” Where: Much, much more. Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St. “I’ve always been fascinated with eccentric personalities,” said the Tickets: Los Angeles singer-songwriter in a $27 in advance (Reasor’s, Starship Records, Cain’s); (866) 443-8849; www.tulsaworld. recent telephone interview. com/gettix. Show is all ages. From the punch-drunk charac- ters who haunt the twilight world Online: of a dusty inner-city boxing gym to www.tulsaworld.com/AimeeMann a one-time financial big shot who’s taken a tumble, Mann paints Spar- magical.” For her latest album, she re- tan, vivid portraits of people who And each album is an exploration placed electric guitars with dis- seem to always get the tiniest sliver of new aural territories. “I don’t torted Wurlitzers, Clavinets, analog of American pie. want to do anything the same way synthesizers, string and horn Her songs are soulful, empa- twice,” she said. arrangements. thetic and somehow ultimately For example, her last full album, “I didn’t miss the electric guitar hopeful and optimistic, especially “The Forgotten Arm,” was a at all,” she said. “All that other with her latest album, “@#%&! concept album that told a track-by- music takes up the space. It’s a Smilers.” The album has a rich track tale of a boxer. With “Smil- completely di3erent palate.” sense of spontaneity — because ers,” she decided to take a looser And her plainspoken, poetic lyr- she recorded each of the 13 tracks approach, opening her vision to the ics are about addicts, Anne Sex- in only one or two takes. She also everyday experiences around her. ton, relationships, insecurity and recorded them all live in the studio, Her songwriting — and music play- refuge. minimizing the urge to over-dub ing — has also evolved, she said. “When I write about them — the Aimee Mann performs at Cain’s Ballroom on Monday. Courtesy parts, she said. For her last album, she left her narcissists, performers, eccentrics, “Multitracking can be interest- comfortable guitar to discover a know-it-alls — it helps me recog- ing, but you don’t need to do it,” she new “voice” by writing on piano. nize some truths about the world smiling cartoon face, and we all glossy, pearly whites to decipher said. “If everyone’s recording each Before that, she worked with and about myself.” work with that one person who the deceptively powerful truths part separately then it’s all patched Jon Brion on the Grammy-award Even the album title gets to the smiles all the time,” she laughed. hidden behind those platitudes. together, then nobody’s listening to nominated “Magnolia” movie heart of Mann’s philosophy on life. “They always tell people to ‘Smile!’ each other in the moment. soundtrack. In 1999, she founded “I read somewhere that the one ” Jennifer Chancellor 581-8346 “Working as an entire unit is her own record label, SuperEgo. thing people respond to most is a Yet Mann goes deeper that those [email protected]