Quirky star Slean entrances Kelowna
It was the Sarah Slean concert with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night rather than the OSO featuring guest artist Slean.
Even though the orchestra invited Slean, the Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, visual artist and occasional actress was the undisputed star from beginning to end.
One of the challenges with many classical works is that they can be musically fascinating but visually unexciting.
That has changed during the past 11 years with the OSO under musical director Rosemary Thomson. Witness the recent John Denver tribute.
So Saturday's two-hour concert for nearly 700 at Kelowna Community Theatre was a study in contrasts.
The OSO peformed the musically exciting opener, Dimitri Kabalevsky's Galop (from The Comedians), and later in the second half, the subdued Prelude to Act 3 of La Traviata by Guiseppe Verdi.
After the brief Galop, the star emerged, barefoot, wearing a full-length gold gown that shimmered every time she moved.
And she moved, a lot, head and shoulders swaying side-to-side, up-and-down, backand-forth, regularly rising slightly off the piano bench, her shoulder-length hair sometimes dropping onto the piano keys.
It was so visually exciting that the audience could hardly take its eyes off her.
It was almost as if the orchestra wasn't there if not for the full rich sound that surrounded her.
On her website, sarahslean.com, you can listen to and watch eight videos but they are nothing like her live performances.
Known for her dramatic flair - after all, she is an actress, she is not only fun but quirky.
After her introductory song about her mates, Duncan, she crossed her forearms across her chest and drew her hands down her cheeks as if wiping away tears.
Occasionally leaving her grand piano, she swayed back and forth as the orchestra performed a musical interlude, and her arms and hands seemed to help shape her vocals song after song.
She has also mastered the art of what acting directors call "cheat out" - turning downstage slightly to improve audience sightlines.
Slean even brushes her long hair to the side after one of her characteristic headand-shoulder dips so everyone can clearly see her facial expressions.
Although she obviously revels in being the centre of attention in orchestral presentations, she often closes her eyes as if she too is caught up in a magical moment.
And as the extraordinary sound from her piano fades at the end of a number, she sports a huge grin.
Not just Thomson but the entire orchestra applauded.
“Kelowna, let’s do this every night,” Slean exhorted to sustained applause.
Or perhaps every Saturday with apologies to her band, she added. “Orchestras only.”
Her magical covers of Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Judy Garland, Wizard of Oz), I Dreamed A Dream (Ann Hathaway, Les Miserables) and Mein Herr (Lisa Minelli, Cabaret) make you wonder why she isn't already a Broadway star.
But looking at her already significant artistic accomplishments and incredible range of abilities, she couldn't possibly be tied down to
performing the same setlist night after night for weeks, months or even years.
“I get to be Judy Garland (for a moment),” she joked, in-between serious reminiscences about discovering through Beatrix Potter’s stories about Peter Rabbit that things die, “causing a massive earthquake to my psyche. I like to remind myself that someday I won’t be here and to soak it up. It enriches the present moment to such a degree.”
The Rose encapsulates her thoughts on mortality: “Will the birds be singing/When my life is done/And all the seasons of me have come and gone/Plant me in the garden where the willow grows/And from my sorrow, a rose.”
Slean didn't just stand in the spotlight on Saturday night. She outshone the spotlight
“Oh, I'm having so much fun up here,” she commented as the concert neared its final songs, Nothing But The Light and Sound of Water. “That's the first time that (Nothing But The Light) has been played live anywhere,” she noted.
And she sang an a capella thankyou to the audience after complimenting the “fabulous orchestra.”
Sustained applause and a standing ovation prompted faux surprise and another joke: “I was all packed up and ready to go.”
The result of her weird Parisian residency, the newly-orchestrated fiery Virginia (The Baroness, 2008) and the soft lullaby The Right Words (Land and Sea, 2011) ended the concert on the right note and another standing ovation.
This Renaissance woman with giant blue eyes has released 11 albums (including EPs and live albums) garnering three Juno nominations during her 20-year career.
She has also published two volumes of poetry, starred in short films and a movie musical (spawning two Gemini Award nominations), penned two string quartets, held numerous exhibitions of her paintings, and shared the stage with eight of the country’s professional orchestras.
Her website notes 29 orchestral performances from 2002 to 2016.