Review: James Bond draws sold-out audiences to Cape Symphony's lush, precise performances
Judging by Cape Symphony’s two sold-out performances this weekend, the 007 spy’s appeal is still widespread 61 years after his first movie, “Dr. No,” was released in October of 1962.
“The James Bond Experience: Music Behind the Man” saw Cape Symphony performing 21 compositions ― well-known Bond movie themes, as well as music from “North By Northwest,” Austin Powers’ “The Spy Who Shagged Me,” "The Pink Panther" and “Shaft.”
Cape Symphony performed the lush, sweeping numbers beautifully with perfectly timed fades and crisp stops on songs that included “Peter Gunn” and “The Pink Panther” by Henry Mancini, “The Look of Love” by Burt Bacharach and “Live and Let Die” by Paul and Linda McCartney. It was a wonderful opportunity to sample the works of well-known composers of the last half-century.
Guest conductor Gerald Steichen elicited pinpoint precision with a fun, playful style. His background includes opera and Broadway, as well as symphonic work, so his theatricality ― right down to weaving the baton through his fingers like a chopstick and letting it drop to the floor once ― seemed very much in character.
Steichen even encouraged applause after each in a series of brass and percussion solos, giving the Barnstable Performing Arts Center the feel of a jazz club.
Also singled out was guitarist James Phipps, who was instrumental in most of the numbers and drove “Shaft” as he plucked out the beat with a series of reverberated notes that sounded like he was playing underwater.
Guest vocalists Hugh Panaro and Morgan James brought glam and glitz (and CDs they sold at intermission) as both handled the high-pitched registers of ballads most associated with “Bond girls.”
Panaro, known for playing the Phantom in Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera” 2,000 times, gave an especially moving performance of Sam Smith’s haunting “Writing’s on the Wall” from the 2015 Bond film “Spectre.” In all of his numbers, Panaro's control of falsetto and holding those impossibly long notes without waver is very impressive.
James, who handled most of the songs, certainly looked the part in several dramatic gowns and long blonde wig. Her classically trained voice was lovely but did stray in places, with her sounding like she was especially struggling in her duet with Panaro of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
One last non-musical note: Jeni Wheeler’s Family Table Collaborative is now managing the Cape Symphony concession booth which sells amazing sweets including brown butter chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter brownies. Kudos to the collaborative but the coffee, while tasty, is intimidatingly hot ― impossible to drink during a 20-minute intermission.
Gwenn Friss
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Review: Cape Symphony's James Bond great journey to 60 years of music
