Leap of Faith

This musical stars Raul Esparanza and Brook Shields.  Who knew that Brooke could sing?  I was doubtful, but I was pleasantly surprised.  We’ve all seen this type of plot before.  A handsome scoundrel con man comes into town, sweeps a single mother off her feet, struggles with his life’s direction, finds love and settles down. 

Raul plays Jonas Nightingale who leads a troupe of entertainers across the Midwest to hold the tent revivals where they whip the audience into religious frenzy when he proclaims their private weaknesses and prays to redeem them.  The con is that members of the troupe discretely overhears audience conversations or investigates people, especially the wealthier population.  They then relay the information to Jonas who proclaims that he obtained this information through divine intervention. 

Another attraction is the miraculous healing.  For example, as she walks into the revival tent, a poor old lady is pushed into a wheelchair.  She sits in bewilderment as Jonas lays his hands on her forehead crying out, begging her to walk.  Of course she can walk…but no one else in the town knows because she is a visitor from another town.  In the meantime, the gospel singers are banging tambourines, waving their uplifted hands, singing “Allelelujah”!  The singing throughout the show is so absolutely uplifting,  the audience wants to jump up and wave their hands too.

The problem the town faces is that they have little money because most of what they earn goes into drilling for water because of the drought conditions they are facing.  So the struggle Jonas faces is the fact that he is fleecing money from a town with little money, struggling to survive. 

Brooke plays Marva, a single mother of a young boy named Boyd.  She is a street smart waitress in the only café in the small town.  Marva falls in love reluctantly with a man who arouses her suspicions.

Years before, Marva’s husband died in a car crash.  Boyd was also in the crash causing paralysis from the waist down.  Jonas sings, “Death is a breeze.  Death is a breeze because no one has come back to complain.  But Life is the really hard part.”  Boyd believes Jonas is going to provide a miracle and you guessed it….Boyd walks and everyone lives happily ever after.  The plot maybe old, but the excitement and top notch entertainment is worth seeing again. 

 As the cast took their bows to the standing ovation, Brooke asked to make an announcement.  I thought, oh she is going to make a request for contributions for AIDS or some Performing Arts association.  But it turns out that it was the last performance in L.A. and it was also Raul’s birthday.  So 2000 members of the audience, cast and stage hands sang Happy Birthday to Raul as he stood stunned and teary eyed.  It was fun. 

Il Postino

Ah, the first opera of the 2010/2011 season starring Placido Domingo.  He plays the role of Pablo Neruda, a poet from Chile, exiled because of his politics.  Pablo won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1971.   He is known for reading his poems to large communist gatherings and was actually a senator for the Communist party.  He returned from exile after 3 years, living in his country continuing to write his poetry until his death in 1973 at the age of 69 years old.  

We normally do not like modern operas because of an experience years ago attending a modern opera called Regina, performed at the Orange County Performing Arts.  We went with another couple, dear friends of ours who are always a lot of fun to be with.  The opera was awful, but we were having so much fun anyway.  Regina just could not compare to the classic operas.  For heavens sake, the characters talked with a southern drawl and then would break out into an aria.  Operas should be sung in Italian, French, Spanish or German.  People around us were leaving throughout the performance, but we kept hanging in there, thinking it had to get better.  It didn’t.  A week later, I had t-shirts made for our friends that read, “I survived Regina” to remember the experience.

I digress. Back to Il Postino (The Postman).  Pablo, exiled from Chile seeks refuge for a short while in a small Italian island of Cala di Sotto.  The other main character is Mario, performed by Charles Castronovo.  Mario is the young postman who delivers the mail to Pablo from many of his admirers worldwide.  Mario is rather aimless because he can’t move to America like his brothers and hates fishing, so he rejects being a fisherman like his father.  Over time, Mario interacts with the gracious Pablo, learning more about poetry from the master.  He uses his newfound knowledge to write poetry to win his love, Beatrice.  He eventually wins the hand of Beatrice and marries her.  But he meets his death when he attends a Communist gathering to read his poetry and is accidentally shot when a riot breaks out. 

It was a beautiful opera both visually and through its music.  Scenes from around the island were superimposed in the background to provide inspiration for Mario’s poetry.  The sound of the water as the surf meets the beach, the fishermen in their boats, hills and mountains overlooking the sea.  Music is mixed with the love and creation of poetry.  Placido is yes, past his prime, but he was excellent.  He was excellent, keeping in mind that he underwent cancer surgery a few months earlier.  He is an artist to be admired and we will take every opportunity to attend every opera that is performed by Placido because he is such a legend. 

Our rating of "Would we see it again", is a poetic "Yes"!