Music: A little shaky By Erik Eriksson News-Chronicle With a Green Bay favorite and a Broadway celebrity as guests, the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra concluded its 2001-02 season last Saturday night with a good pops' event at the Weidner Center. Good, but not without some significant caveats. On the podium, GBSO music director Bridget-Michaele Reischl proved, as she did earlier this year with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at De Pere, that she is as adept with the lighter repertory as she is with the standard one. Moreover, she does not condescend to pops programming, but invests this music with as much integrity as she brings to Brahms, Bartok or Rachmaninoff. Brad Little returned to a city that has embraced his title impersonation in "The Phantom of the Opera" and, overall, he was once again a striking presence. What was different this time, however, was the obvious tiredness of his voice. From his opening phrases, his vibrato at full volume was distressingly shaky. Little has maintained an arduous schedule of performances and, thus, it might be overwork - or it might be simple wear and tear. In addition, all the dynamic area between a whisper and an all-out forte remains unexplored. Even in such familiar territory as "Music of the Night," it was either soft or loud, short-changing the nuances that lie within. Little is an estimable artist and it would be sad if he were to continue as he sounded last weekend. At present his singing is simply too strenuous for comfortable listening; perhaps some voice therapy would help. Little's associate, the attractive Christiane Noll, boasts a long list of credits on and off Broadway and gave evidence explaining why. Hers is a light, well-trimmed soprano, at its best in nonpop-style musicals and operetta, and her straightforward interpretation of Sigmund Romberg's "One Kiss" was one of the evening's highlights. Elsewhere, she too often blotted her copybook by taking on the artificial, tear-in-the-voice sob that pop singers seem to think is mandatory. The best popular singers of earlier times felt no need of it - indeed, conscientiously avoided it. Noll is too capable an interpreter to rely on such cheap devices; vocal color does far more to suggest deep emotion. Choices of music were well considered (although Noll's ultraflirtatious, Marilyn Monroe soundalike "S'Wonderful" might have been better suited to a nightclub). The orchestra played well for the most part although, once or twice, the strings seemed to have varying ideas about which key they were in. Here and there in the show medleys, the (uncredited) arrangers were decidedly uninspired in their writing for percussion. RECOMMENDED READING Sergei Prokofiev was one of the 20th century's most important composers, with no more than five or six equals. In 1987, writer/critic Harlow Robinson's "Sergei Prokofiev; A Biography" was published, quickly establishing itself as the best-written, most useful text on the composer in English. Now, we are indebted to Northeastern University Press for reissuing the book in soft cover with new forward and postscript by the author. In the former, he details his relationship to those of Prokofiev's family who had survived and the new information that had been published in Russia since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In the "afterward," he examines the composer's style, noting that Prokofiev - whose ease in composing was legendary - was obliged to exert himself mightily in the creation of his operas. He describes Prokofiev's transition from a keenly word-oriented composer to one who gave increasing importance to musical values. In the book, Robinson explains the composer's curious move back to Russia, into the Soviet system at a time when it was clear how repressive that regime was to its artists: Prokofiev believed that his operas would enjoy greater opportunities for performance there than in the West. The great Russian cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich recently ruminated on his friendships with Dmitri Shostakovich and Prokofiev (he had become close to both men); while Shostakovich had retreated into an irreducible part of himself in defense against the terrible offenses visited upon him by the Soviet regime, Prokofiev needed a collegial teacher/student relationship which would serve his child-like need for company. Robinson's biography reveals a great deal about a highly complex personality. Unreservedly recommended. Erik Eriksson, an Egg Harbor resident, critiques opera and jazz for The News-Chronicle. He is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America and the Jazz Journalists Association. Write to him via e-mail at [email protected].