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 Sister Rose
Registered User
Registered:
5/4/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 11/6/2005 at 1:17:21 AM ET
Did anybody go? Reports puh-leeze.
|  Bernadette-Fanatic
Registered User
Registered:
6/11/2002 | posted: 11/6/2005 at 1:58:33 AM ET
Oh my GOOOOOODNESS, where do I begin?!?!?!? I'm on such a high right now that I'm probably not typing entirely coherently, so bear with me.....
I've seen Bernadette in concert twice before and this was, by FAR the best I've ever heard her. Nothing new to report on the format of the concert, although she did not mention anything about her husband.
She received a semi-standing ovation when she came out, which really set the mood for the show. The crowd seriously went absolutely nuts throughout the entire show. "Let Me Entertain You" went over SO well, and I was so pleased! "Dame" got a huge reaction from the straight gentlemen in the crowd, as did "Fever".
I had read about her previous 2 concerts where songs like "Time Heals Everything" and "Not a Day Goes By" took on a different meaning this time around, but I didn't fully grasp it until tonight. They were just exquisite, and it was without a doubt the most intune with the text that I have ever heard her. There was not a member in the audience that didn't feel her pain during those numbers.
And Rose's Turn!?!??!?! I'm still REELING over! She was sitting so quietly on the steps that lead up to the piano, putting on her black shoes, talking to all of us about Gypsy, when somehow she integrates the words "...but what I have in ME" and then *BOOM*! She's Rose and she's singing Rose's Turn. I honestly didn't see it coming! It kind of felt like the Tony Awards performance because applause started right away when she said "Here she is boys" AND at the end when she was singing "Everything's coming up Rose! Everything's coming up Roses..." And I have never seen her look so physically ill from trying to hold back tears in my life. It just looked like she was going through so much pain and angst, and there were times when it was physical work for her to get the words out. Of course she received a standing O, and the crowd was going absolutely beserk.
She had some cute moments. Amongst many, after "Unexpected Song", this guy on stage right, out of NOWHERE yells "Brava..." in this drunken-slurry tone. She kind of had this puzzled look on her face and just said "Uh, thank you" and continued. Also, after Rose's Turn, the guy behind me yelled out "ONE MORE!" after she was coming back from her curtain calls and she just looked at him, and goes "Yep." Very cute. I guess you had to be there....
What shocked me most about the evening was how, if you had gone into the show not knowing about Michael, you would have been none the wiser watching her onstage. She seemed in amazingly high spirits and the pain was only visible during "..Alone", "..Day Goes By" and "Time Heals Everyting" It's just a testament to the kind of actress she is.
We waited by the stage door afterwards just to say hello real quick, but there were over 50 people waiting for her, so she came out, gave a quick smile, and then hopped into her limo.
All in all, it was just a perfect evening.
|  cuteoperaboi
Registered User
Registered:
1/3/2004
From:
Ohio | posted: 11/6/2005 at 2:04:37 AM ET
I went and just got back so this will more than likely be short as I'm exhausted. Anyways...
What an AMAZING concert she gave. Of course she gave 199858883939582983598 % as usual. But we'll get to her in a minute...
The first half was the Kalamazoo symphony--they were awesome! At first I was kind of irritated because I mainly wanted to just have a whole evening of Bernadette, but their playing was great and it was quite short. She started the second half in her beautiful dress she has been wearing. She looked gorgeous!!!! I think the songs and their orders have been the same for the past few concerts. She spoke in between a few of the numbers rather briefly-no mention of her recent tragedy. She got a standing ovation from many of us at the beginning and the crowd was really responsive throughout. Before she sang FEVER (which was AMAZING!) she said something like "I love listening to records of the legends...you know what it's like when you pull one of them out and listen to them?" And at that point someone yells out something like "Yeah like I listen to you" or something to that affect...and she laughed and said "why thank you," it was a cute moment. She did all of these great emotional pieces back to back which really surprised me, because they are so intense with emotion. I could tell during BEING ALIVE & TIME HEALS EVERYTHING that she was starting to choke up--she was literally baring her soul to us tonight and I so respect her for that because she was so tastful and brilliant that I couldn't take my eyes off of her. In spite of losing her husband I just couldn't believe how physically connected she still was to this music-she didn't separate herself from it at all! Vocally she was doing really well tonight-I thought her high notes (especially the end of Unexpected Song) were just great...there were a few moments when I thought her mic wasn't loud enough but other than that it was great. Her ROSES TURN was breathtaking, and of course she ended the concert with the touching COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS. After the concert my roomate and I went out by the stagedoor area...there were quite a few people out there--I think mostly Western Michigan MT kids (they were all so adorable)...she came out with Patty and waved at everyone and got into her limo. I'm thinking everyone really was expecting her to sign stuff, but she was still very friendly. I so give her props for going through with these concerts. It's only been just a little over a month and I would NEVER guess that anything happened if I didn't know. It was emotionally tough at points because you just KNEW that she was thinking about Michael throughout the song.
Hope that helps wet your curiosity apetite.
XO
Justin
p.s. Her version of MY FUNNY VALENTINE is so sweet!!!!
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 11/6/2005 at 2:28:33 AM ET
Great reports people. So she sang "Being Alive" How was the attendance? I read that the Miller holds some 3,400 people, some 1,300 in the orchestra alone.
PTM
| cuteoperaboi
Registered User
Registered:
1/3/2004
From:
Ohio | posted: 11/6/2005 at 9:11:57 AM ET
No I apologize...she didn't sing BEING ALIVE...I mean tto put that that was one she didn't do and that I enjoyed NO ONE IS ALONE.
| Bernadette-Fanatic
Registered User
Registered:
6/11/2002 | posted: 11/6/2005 at 10:03:53 AM ET
Attendance was actually very impressive. The orchestra was sold out, most of the mezz. was sold out, and maybe the first few rows of the balcony were sold.
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 11/7/2005 at 1:20:49 PM ET
From MLive, November 7, 2005
"Brave Bernadette Peters Joins KSO for Songs of Loss and Joy"
"Few performers over the past 40 years have garnered more critical acclaim, and perhaps none has charmed and delighted more audiences with sentimental songs than has Bernadette Peters. Since first setting foot on a Broadway stage at the ripe old age of 13, she has been a trouper, giving her best through countless performances of numerous shows and through appearances on TV and in movies.
Peters' performance on Saturday night as featured artist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra's first Pops @ Miller event must rank as one of her most valiant efforts. She bravely sang her signature repertoire of some of Broadway's most emotional, heart-rending songs despite having lost Michael Wittenberg, her husband of 10 years, in an accident less than six weeks ago.
Marvin Laird, Peters' musical director, conducted the Pops version of the KSO from the piano for Peters' portion of the evening's program. Peters supplied some of her own musical personnel, including set drummer Cubby O'Brien, an original Mouseketeer.
Much of Peters' program came from her recent CD, ``Sondheim, Etc., Etc.'' (Angel Records, 2005). She also sang numbers from Sondheim's musical ``Gypsy,'' the show that earned her a Tony Award [**jean's comment: don't we wish**] for her portrayal of Mamma Rose in its 2002 revival.
The years have been kind to Peters, who Saturday night wore a slinky, low-cut gown. She seems to have shed much of her cute Betty Boop persona and has replaced it with that of a mature vamp. For her rendition of the John Davenport-and-Eddie Cooley song ``Fever,'' she laid across the grand piano, tossing back her head of incredibly long and curly hair.
The heart of Peters' repertoire on Saturday consisted of melancholy songs of loss and yearning, such as Sondheim's ``No One Is Alone,'' from ``Into the Woods''; ``Time Heals Everything,'' from ``Mack and Mabel''; and ``Not A Day Goes By,'' from ``Merrily We Roll Along.'' She seems able to completely internalize the emotions of the text she is singing. Nothing feels contrived about her performance.
Yet on Saturday night she included upbeat, optimistic Richard Rogers songs such as ``There Is Nothing Like a Dame'' and ``Some Enchanted Evening,'' from ``South Pacific''; ``Mr. Snow,'' from ``Carousel''; and ``My Funny Valentine,'' from ``Babes in Arms.''
The KSO was outstanding in its accompaniment of Peters. And for the orchestra's part of the program without her, the KSO under conductor Raymond Harvey gave solid performances of selections from Robert Wright's musical ``Kismet'' and Stephen Flaherty's ``Ragtime.''
The orchestra's most interesting work was James Bickel's ``Night Visions,'' a short tone-poem based on a dream sequence. Interspersed throughout this 1992 work's three movements are conspicuous borrowings, including the ``Dies Irae'' from the ``Requiem Mass,'' excerpts from Copland's ``Fanfare for the Common Man,'' and Christian hymns. Harvey closed this portion of the program with Bizet's very appealing ``Farandole'' from the suite of incidental music for the play ``L'Arlesienne.''
The collaboration of the KSO with Peters was a great success, drawing a much more diverse audience than usual. No doubt she was the main attraction, but the orchestra seemed to gain a number of friends as a result of this effort. "
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