Judy Matzke
RIVERSIDE THEATRE
MILWAUKEE, WI
December 6, 2009
It is always a treat and a half to see an Irish Tenors performance,
their Christmas shows even more so. The three men were in fine
fettle (as Finbar might say), in voice and in manner. The ballads
were gorgeous, the fun songs were boisterous and amusing, the antics
always enjoyable - From Finbar’s falsetto in “Golden Jubilee” and
Anthony’s sly seizing of one of Karl’s outstretched hands at the end
of one of the encore songs, to the goose bumps I got from the
brilliant harmonies for which these men are famous.
By now we’ve all read the most helpful list of songs sung, so I
would like to offer some impressions and observations.
And to relate a story or two.
Tonight’s maestro was Eric Stern, who also happened to have
conducted the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra for The Tenors’
current CD, along with Arnie Roth. After the first song of the
night, Finbar introduced The Tenors and maestro, and said how
much they always felt at home when coming to Milwaukee…
and that perhaps it was the smell of the beer. Milwaukee loves
anyone who alludes to liking anything at all about beer.
Following Anthony’s The Palatine’s Daughter, the good maestro
took a sad misstep off of his podium, landed in quite an ungraceful
presentation, and arose victorious if a bit embarrassed. When
it seemed sure that he was all right, Finbar quipped that he’d
warned him about the beer. At show’s half, Maestro Stern
turned to the audience and said that he hated to belabor the
point, but he’s on a different stage every night and there are
all different sizes of podiums…and he thinks that the Riverside
Theater was a bit stingy with theirs. I love a man who can
laugh at himself. Believe it or not, he very nearly fell once more,
but caught himself somehow before he tumbled totally. Poor
Anthony feigned his heart coming out of his chest with that one.
As he introduced one of the orchestral numbers, Maestro Stern said
that he hoped we could pretend, just for a moment, that Tchaikovsky
was Irish…which garnered giggles from the audience, as the
musicians began to play “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies” with
a decided Irish lilt. And when Finbar came to the stage soon
after to introduce his “Mary’s Boy Child”, he said with that impish
smile that now he was asking us to pretend, for a moment,
that St. Patrick was a Jamaican. And we giggled with that, too.
A few remnant thoughts:
There was a lot of much-appreciated explaining of the songs.
This adds so much to the meaning of the songs and to our
enjoyment. Plus, it’s a tremendous delight to hear those
wonderful Irish voices speak in their wonderful Irish dialects.
Yessirree, a treat up and down.
Dapper in their current cream-colored jackets and black trousers,
black dress shoes a-shining, I have a suggestion for a future CD:
The Irish Tenors do Big Band. I’m just saying.
Wish they’d do all of the duets from several Christmases ago.
I’d be very happy with those. I’d be very happy if they did other
duets, too…but not as happy as if they did those.
Thank you, dear Irish Tenors, for a fun and fanciful night
of delightful music. What a nice way to leap into the holiday season
