The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 189

I FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2001 Music DAILY HERALD SECTIONS PAGE 9 Joel Silberman leaves his mark on Chicago It would be difficult to find a musician with more diverse talents than Toel Silberman, from opera to musical theater to the cabaret scene, he's done it singer, composer, arranger, conductor, accompanist, producer, director and educator. It is in the latter role that Silberman just completed a two-week visit to Chicago, working with resident ensemble singers of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, who last week presented world- premiere performances of Michael John LaChiusa's "Lovers and Friends (Chautauqua Variations)." Silberman's performance credits would fill a large book; he re- centiy was stage director of Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts' production of Giacomo Puccini's "La Boheme." And the list of entertainers with whom he has collaborated is a virtual "who's who" of the popular and classical music fields, including Audra McDonald, Carol Burnett, Cleo Laine, Michael Feinstein, Aprile Millo, Robert Goulet, Bernadette Peters and die renowned classical pianist Jean-Yves Thibauet. But Silberman also loves to teach the art of creating a communicative theatrical performance. That's why his visits to Chicago at the invitation of Lyric Opera Center director Richard Pearlman are so very special. "Richard and I have been friends for a long time," Silberman said.

"This really began out of Richard saying to me, 'Joel, you spend time in the world of musical and his belief that die Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, since most of them are American and speak English as a first language, should be able to 1 if diey're not comfortable and fluent widi their acting instrument in English, how could they possibly do it when diey have to put on i them in a foreign language?" One of the things Silberman does with the Opera Center singers is assign each of them a musical theater piece to perform and interpret for a piece outside dieir normal operatic mi- 1 lieu. "It's very much about storytelling songs. These are not songs that are there for their vocal they're songs that are there to tell stories," Silberman said. "So, when the young artists come to me, we 1 begin to work on these pieces from CONCERT PICKS Continued from Rige 4 In his previous band the Bad Livers, Danny Barnes combined i bluegrass and punk rock. His new band, Thee Old Codgers, eludes a bassist and fiddle player and revisits acoustic music with a decidedly left field approach.

Bill Gowen Classical music the point of view of telling a story can we put our instrument in service of telling a story? "And then, after working on those pieces for a while, we take out dieir (operatic) arias and we begin to apply the same acting technique to working in opera," Silberman said. For example, while directing "La Boheme" in Philadelphia, he had his singers approach this operatic warhorse as though the members of the cast were discovering a contemporary piece of musical theater for the first time. "That's die way I direct," he said. "I come from that place musical theater), and it is my belief that while the director can lay a high concept on opera or bring a visual sensibility that's different, what interests me is taking these great pieces that have enormous drama, and making them real and contemporary today in their feelings. That's not so much about their settings, but making their feelings the universal tilings that they are." Silberman seeks from his singers what he calls "emotional through-lines" in an operatic performance.

"In the case of Puccini, it's easy, because Puccini is musical theater, he said. "He's probably the easiest of all of the operatic composers to do. 'La Boheme' is simple, from an actor's point of view, to make real. What we did was show them how they could take and elongate the moments of life diat are illuminated in that opera and use the music underneath as if it were the best movie score ever written, so that they can fully inhabit every moment of that music and spread their emotional reality over that time. "What I like to do is find die emotional through-line, the sub- textural terrain, without the score, and dien carefully lead them to the path where it all falls on the score.

Because it is my belief that if they do it out of diem is an organic acting moment in which they are visually involved from what they are seeing all the what they see is so full and so rich in their inner life Joel Silberman actually illuminates the score, because the score already has it in it" Silberman knows today's audiences are very sophisticated. And that doesn't relate to age, either, as opera audiences grow younger. The old "stand and deliver" operatic technique doesn't work anymore. Audiences demand singers who can act. "I call it 'park and and it just bores me," Silberman said of the operatic technique born in Europe centuries ago.

Silberman tested his theory re- cendy when he took two teenage boys, one age 13 and the other 14, to a performance of Verdi's "La traviata" in Los Angeles. "Now, bringing culture to Los Angeles is always difficult and bringing Los Angeles children to culture is especially difficult," he said. "So I took these two boys, neither of them artistic normal boys who'd really rather watch the Lakers the opera. The soprano was Elizabeth Futral (a Lyric Opera Center alumna) She was brilliant. Her Violetta was delightful; she was sexy, she was exciting.

And the tenor, who shall remain nameless, was not as brilliant, acting-wise. "Afterward, I asked the two boys what they thought, and their comments were very interesting. They looked at me and said, "This wasn't as bad as we thought it would And I said, 'What do you And their answer was, 'Well, it was like a theater piece, and we understood what was going on (they had written tides to help them). And she was terrific. But what did she see in that "And I said "What do you mean?" and they said "Well, she was singing to him and was loving him, but he would just stand there and sing to "Now, if the tenor had been a better actor and was involved with her, the two boys would have thought the performance was hot.

And that's my if we are to make diese pieces live well into the 21st century, we have to bring a new reality to them, so that the new audience tiiat doesn't know these pieces that well will get to know them." StMtoNMuwWi Crow ami Jeffrey 7:30 p.m. Dwsday at the AIMate Amu, 8920 NL Mannheim, Rosemont (312) 559-1212. The fairy princess of 70s rock returns for a solo tour accompanied by Sheryl Crow, who helped co-write and produce her latest comeback album, a Santana- type project littered with guest star cameos. The Cowboy Junkies with Jeb Loy Nichols, 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Ravlnla Festival, Lake-Cook ami Gram Bay Roads, Highland Park.

(312) R-A-V-I-N-IA. Bring your earplugs: there's an irony that the Cowboy Junkies one of the most minimalist rock bands ever typically attracts the gabbiest crowd bent on drowning them out. If you can avoid the talkers (probably if wkicMolanfr Qtntimate One night in deluxe accommodations Chilled bottle of champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries Full American breakfast buffet Use of pools, healthclub, lounges and restaurants NDIAsI LAKES 250 W.Schick Road Bloomingdale, II60108 www.indianlQlcesresort.CDm 630.529.0200 minurei away from Woodfield Moll METROPOLIS SUMMER COMEDY! THE SECOND CITY Juno 22-Aogoit 1 (Ikago's legendary comedy theater is back! Adult language' Tickets $15 SCHADENFREUDE 21-July 12 (Ihuixloys only) Don't miss this critically acclaimed sketch comedy group who recently wowed audiences at the Chicago Improv Festival. Adult language' Tickets $10 SUMMER CABARET LEADING LADIES OF CHICAGO THEATER Sundays July 8-August 12 You've seen them on stages all over.town—Marriott Lincolnshire, Drury Lane, Chicago Shakespeare, The Enjoy the leading ladies of Chicago's musical stage in our Summer Sunday Cabaret Series. Tickets $18.50 CHILDREN'S THEATER S1EEHNG UGLY-July 12 A fun twist to the classic Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping a princess with a lovely face and an ugly disposition. 3 Tickets $8 MIMMISTIITSKIN'September 1-16 Emerald Gty Theatre Company's musical production about a peasant who mnkes a promise to a king that his daughter can spin straw into gold does 3 and up-Tickets $8 BIG The Musical August 16 Direct from its premier at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, the 1987 hit movie bursts onstage in this vibrant, funny and touching Broadway musical obout a boy who wants to be big, Tickets $32 METROPOLIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE BOX OfflCE 847 577 J1J1 www.me»ropoli«irts.eoro.