biggest success was Camille.
He was so fiinny and dramatic
and incredibly faithful to the
Dumas play. At the same time,
he paid tribute in his performing
style to Garbo’s films, to
Tallulah Bankhead, to great
stage actresses; his own style,
on top of it, was hilarious but
compelling. He could get you to
laugh and cry almost simultane-
ously.

strange to me, because it’s a
very funny scene about some-
body who wastes away; it has a
very real double edge even now.
Do you feel like your show
has something for everyone?
It is completely accessible
for everyone. The show is host-
ed and narrated by a guy play-
ing a retired diva —— very specif-
ically parodying The Lives of
Lincoln Center fundraisers you

This was a time before

the now ubiquitous and
extremely meaningless t
standing ovation that greets
any nertormanee penned liy 
Andrew Lloyd Welter.

This became my goal. I
decided that I would try tolwork
up my falsetto — which my
voice teachers had told me was

' an incredibly dangerous thing to

do. I was going to try to do this
last act of La Traviata, the death
scene, with another fellow who
was a fan of my cabaret work.
We decided to‘ form this little
company to do late night perfor-
mances for cult audiences in
NewlYork City.

We were reviewed in the
New York Times rather favor-
ably. Suddenly, people were
coming down from the Met with
paper bags over their head. It
became a secret, cult thing. The
people who weren’t secretive
about it were the opera queens,
who came quite gleefully. They
were our first and most beloved
and loyal audience, untila great
number of them died. So La
Traviata for me has a real con-
nection to our beginning and
also to our lost.audience. It’.s

get on PBS with Beverly Sills
sitting in the corner doing
tedious and endless narration,
dropping names, ‘telling funny
anecdotes about herself. Our
Sylvia Bills is thatprototype
taken to a more comic level. In
fact, Sills came to see Bills in
Lincoln Center and loved her.
That hook ofthe narration is
like being spoon-fed what you
should look for before you see
it. It makes the scene complete-
ly accessible. There are certain-
ly going to be opera people who
will get stuff in the text and
puns on the libretto that the
basic audience won’t get, but
there’ is roaring from the entire
audience" all night on" various
levels forvarious-things. Some
of it is vocal comedy, some
physical, some slapstick; a lot
of it is Sylvia’s narration. ‘
It’s'Vnot, just having people
come out and sing in falsett0;_
the lpersonalities of the singers
are put beforeyou and available

during the course of the
evening. The_audience can see
them develop through the way
they play their opera and their
rivalry. It’s inherent in opera,
but in the regular opera, you’re
just not suppose to play it.

Where do you see yourself
going? Do you think you’ll be
doing this forever?

I’m thinking that I’d person-
ally like to segue into directing
straight opera and bringing
some life to that. I’ve also
begun to write, and I have a
weekly public radio spot in New
York; I make a guest appear-
ance as Vera during a classical
music program every Sunday
and advance opinions about
anything.

The singing is also limited
by time. My voice ‘is not as
capable of what it used to be in
terms of pure height and flexi-
bility; it’s richer and darker. All
the things that happen to a regu-
lar soprano when they reach 50
are happening to me.

I don’t see myself out there
when I no longer have some-
thing to offer in terms of operat-
ic singing. It’s 'a transitional
time for me. If the company
continues to get more work, I
would like tocontinue with it
and" teach‘ ' younger singers,
direct more. If the company
winds down, I also see myself
directing. I also have a career as
a teacher and a coach; I enjoy
that very much.

If you were to do straight
opera"what would be your
number one choice?

To direct? Hmmm. For me,
the more dramatic the opera, the
more I feel I would like to direct
it. What I would love to direct is
oneof the roles that I’ve done a
lot, i for instance, . Tosca,

‘ Traviata, or Girl of the Golden

West.

I wish Puccini had written at
least five more operas where the
baritone chases the soprano

iaroundltheroom; then I’d have

a lotmore scenes to do.V’

Good Thingthe   
Neighbors .Didn’t  
Play Bagpipes 

It started with a ukulele.

No, really. Singer/songwriter Cheryl
Wheeler actually began her career when she
was a little girl and found a discarded ukulele

amongst a neighbor’s garbage.

Since then she has written songs for and
recorded with the likes of Jonathan Edwards,
Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Vince Gill, Alison

Krauss, and Dan Seals.

While many find it hard to pigeon-hole
Wheeler’s music into one definite category,
most agree that her songwriting is brilliant.
Whether you’re questioning your sanity, won-
dering about gun control, mourning a troubled

relationship, or cruising down memory lane,

Cheryl Wheeler knows the feeling and knows how to express it.’
Sponsored by the Peace and Justice Center, Wheeler Will be i _
Church in Burlington on Friday April 30 at'8:0O pm. Tickets are available through the Peace and Justice *

n concert at the Unitarian Universalist

Center, the Flynn Theatre Box ‘Office, Pure Pop Records, Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op, and Vermont
Trading Company in Montpelier. V

. l

classically trained——cl0wns.

,,/r"L.»—"‘”“
Sponsored by T1 ll-. Pl lY.\‘l( il:\N'\'

La Gran Scena

Friday, April 9 at 8 pm

Media Sliprioil lrrnn Mia
(f(7Ml‘l 7Tl:l{ (.'Ul\ll'AN\' L

 
   

Ballet Trockadero meets the Marx Brothers inthis all-male opera spooi in
drag! In falsetto and ialsies—and magnificent voices—lhe madcap divas
of La Gran Scena perform scenes from operas "greatest hits," including
Act ll of Puccini's Tosca, plus A/da, Carmen, La Boheme, Die Wa/kt/‘re,
and more. You don't need to be an opera lover to-enjoy the visual and
vocal slapstick of these consummale——and l

 

 

ad design

lellerhead

i

l,nsl§nl|y.‘ilied vinyl with

 lavender velour is all the rage.

logo design

V fig 

  
  

brochures

business cards

newsletters

 lllIllVl|I(

flI3I'IliDS 8 design

DONALD EGGERI
802.860.1044
MAYAK@Gl0BAlNEl|SP.NEI

PillllllEllW,.lATTliE ED.

Lasso yourself some
fun at Southern Vermont’ s
only gay bar!

Drink Specia1s,Grea_t Shows,
Latest Dance Music

Route 5 Brattleboro

Between Exits 354, 1-91

 

(802)254-9830