"This is exactly the way I imagine Duke would have done it!"Betty McGettigan...enscribed on a poster from opening night of Oakland Opera's production.
"On opening night, the audience was transported to the glorious musical world of classic Ellingtonia" "..a playful but poignant mix of all things sophisticated and simple, modest and elegant." "The first few bars of the overture only whet the appetite for one enjoyable musical experience after the next, including the original tune "Another Uncharted Island" by arranger Marc Bolin.
Kwami Coleman, formerly of Jazz at Lincoln Center
"The evening's most reliable pleasures...which makes everything from a sultry overture to bluesy ballads to a calypso eruption in the second act sound confident and suave...When the score segues from the operetta-style ornaments of "Won't You Come Into My Boudoir?" to the softy caressing "On a Turquoise Cloud" late in the second act, you feel the seductive, unorthodox contours of "Queenie Pie" emerge."
Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
"...genre-bending African-American opera "buffa"...Oakland Opera production of QUEENIE PIE is not only a spectacular jazz-opera, but it restores an important American work to the world's opera repertoire."
Play Audio:
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie Excerpts
Overture
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
NY, NY and Second Line
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
Cafe O'Lay
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
Creole Love Call
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
Trio: Smile as You Go By
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
HEVL, Shipwreck
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
Queenie Pie on the Beach
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
On A Turquoise Cloud
Oakland Opera, Queenie Pie
* Please note, these are rehearsal or pre-view recordings NOT made for sale or distribution. The mixes are heavy on the instruments...not an ideal vocal balance. For that I am sorry. Thank you for listening.
'To read my blog with a partial transcription of the presentation I delivered at the "Echoes of Ellington" Conference in Austin Texas, click below:'
"Realizing the Duke"
