Telling someone to “go sing in a cave” sounds like a perfectly delicious fifth grade playground taunt, but, in truth, it is a tactic that seems to be working quite well for Marble City Opera. This past Saturday afternoon found them in Historic Cherokee Caverns off Oak Ridge Highway for “Tenors, Tuxedos, and Stalactites,” a program of mostly operatic nuggets for three local tenors: Cody Boling, Chris Plaas, and John Overholt. The keyboardist was musical director Brandon Coffer.
Although one might guess that a cavernous interior consisting of a sandy floor and angular rock faces punctuated with dripping stalactites would be full of echoes and reverberations, the opposite is delightfully the case. The full-house crowd on Saturday—or should I say “full-cave” crowd—discovered the cavern’s remarkably great acoustics thanks to the infinitely varying textures and angles of the rock surfaces.
This was not MCO’s first venture underground at Cherokee Caverns—previous concerts have featured sopranos as the vocalists. This time it was an opportunity for tenors—and the voices were beautifully supported in this geologically challenging subterranean world. After opening with a three-tenor arrangement of “La Donna e mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto, the men took turns with solo musical numbers that matched their particular vocal personality. Mr. Overholt took on “Che Gelida” from Puccini’s La bohéme, a beautiful “Time to Say Goodbye,” and the practically mandatory “Nessun dorma” from Turandot.
Mr. Plaas sang a beautifully poignant “Lonely House” from Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, along with “Dies Bildnis ist” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and the tearful “Una Furtiva Lagrima” from Donizetti’s Elixir of Love.
Mr. Boling brought his vocal personality to beautifully achieving the high Cs of “Ah mes amis” from Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment. He followed it with the gorgeously poignant “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, and a marvelous “Sit down you’re rockin’ the boat” from Guys and Dolls.
Of course, what would a concert by three tenors be without reminding everyone of the charming concert antics of the infamous Three Tenors collaboration of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras and their “O sole mio.”
Will future MCO underground concerts next feature baritones? Stay tuned.
