Fine music speaks its own language
Domingo concert full of surprises: Singer enjoys time in South Mississippi
Dontcha just love the provincialism and lazy journalism of small town US papers?
BILOXI - Spanish-born Placido Domingo's program of multicultural music on Saturday night at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi proved for any doubters in the audience that fine music speaks its own language.
Doubters, however, were not apparent in this group, which was appreciative, approving and, as the evening progressed, increasingly enthusiastic. By the time Domingo sang his final song, an unprogrammed "Granada," in Spanish of course, unrestrained yells and whistles wafted above the thunderous applause of what had been until now a dignified crowd.
The voices of those who also spoke Spanish resonated like a wave throughout the hall when the world-renowned tenor invited everyone to join him in the Spanish lyrics of Latin favorites "Besamo Mucho" and "Quiereme Mucho."
The start of the concert was delayed a half hour to allow people stuck in traffic on the roads outside the Coliseum a chance to get inside and be seated. Other people had arrived an hour early to avoid just such hassle. Despite box office reports that only a few hundred seats remained by Saturday, more than that were vacant.
Domingo was accompanied by the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra from Hattiesburg, led for part of the program by its own director, Dr. Jay Dean; for the remaining part the symphony was led by Domingo's personal conductor, Eugene Kohn.
For almost two and a half hours, singing in at least three different languages, Domingo entertained with opera, Latin favorites and Broadway classics.
The first half of the program featured classical numbers from operas and ballets, sung mostly in Italian. After the first few notes of each, language did not matter and the magnificent sound of Domingo's voice took over.
He opened with a perotic prayer from Jules Massenet's ballet, "Le Cid," that he dedicated to the pope, saying he had sung for him many times and "he (the pope) loved everything normal. I am sure he would be very happy we are enjoying this evening."
Domingo shared the stage much of the evening with the incredibly beautiful soprano voice - and person - of Ana Maria Martinez, who was his equal, sans Domingo's legendary prowess, in their segment from Giuseppe Verdi's opera, "Otello." One need not have known its story of love, trickery and tragedy to portend the passion and heartbreak dramatized by the singers on stage.
Amid continued ovations and encores, Domingo bantered with his audience, saying he knew they were keeping him because they just didn't want to have to face the traffic when they left.
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BILOXI - Taylis Fernandez, a sophomore music major at the University of Southern Mississippi, experienced the moment of a lifetime Saturday.
Opera tenor Placido Domingo handed Fernandez a bouquet of calla lilies in exchange for her cello at the end of the "One Voice, One Orchestra, One Night Only" concert at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi.
"I was really surprised," Fernandez said.
Domingo escorted Fernandez from the stage after the concert, which featured the world-renowned vocalist and the Southern Miss Symphony Orchestra.
"When he gave me the flowers I didn't expect that he would do that," Fernandez said. "I felt really important. He's a very amazing person."
Domingo later returned the cello to Fernandez.
Fernandez, a native of Cuba, lives in Hattiesburg with her husband, Alejandro Encinas, and son, Isaac Encinas, 9 months. She said she has enjoyed performing with the Southern Miss orchestra and its many famous guest artists, including flutist Sir James Galway and cellist Yo Yo Ma.
"It's a really good orchestra," Fernandez said. "But we played much better (Satur-day night). The orchestra sounded really good. When you play with somebody like Placido Domingo, something happens - everything is special."
Concert of lifetime
Billed as "The concert event of a lifetime," Southern Miss Symphony Orchestra Conductor and Music Director Jay Dean said it will be a tough act to follow.
"There's no way to top this," Dean said. "We'll have to do something just as good but very different."
Dean, who had presented Domingo with the flowers given to Fernandez, was instrumental in bringing Domingo to Mississippi to perform with the university orchestra, primarily comprised of Southern Miss music students.
Percussionist Kelly McGee, who has performed with the orchestra for three years, said it took months of preparation for the concert. Before the concert, she said it was hard to believe it was real.
"It's all like it's not really going to happen," she later said. "It's unbelievable. We spent so long preparing for this and now it's over in what seemed like two minutes."
Contra bassoonist Jorge Jaenz, a Honduras native who also has performed with the orchestra for three years, said the concert offered a different kind of experience for the Southern Miss orchestra - performing with a vocalist.
"One of the main reasons of music is to communicate something," Jaenz said. "This way we are supporting his way of communicating."
Star enjoys evening
Domingo, who has performed with professional musicians in most of the major opera houses in the world, said he was impressed with the Southern Miss orchestra.
"You should be proud of the University of Southern Mississippi orchestra," he said. "Your youth, they have done so much."
The tenor also enjoyed the audience. He and guest soprano AnaMaria Martinez performed five encores in response to the concertgoers' pleas for more music. The vocalists danced a waltz as the audience sang to "Guantana-mera."
"I think you don't want to go home," he told the audience. "Thank you very much for the love you have shown us."
Even though the concert started after 8:30 p.m. and ended after 11 p.m., Domingo spent about 45 minutes backstage meeting fans, signing autographs and posing for photos with them and members of the orchestra.
Tom Johnson, who drove to the concert from Houston, brought photographs of him with Domingo and both men's families taken about 20 years ago at an exotic animal park near the Texas city.
Domingo joked around with Johnson as he autographed the photos, and said, "That was a long time ago. I don't have dark hair anymore."
Southern Miss offers hospitality
To ensure Domingo, Martinez and guest co-conductor Eugene Kohn were comfortable, symphony officials arranged to have recreational vehicles brought to the coliseum. Concert co-sponsor Beau Rivage officials filled the RVs with flowers and amenities to make their guests feel at home.
Jim and Sue Gallaspy of Hattiesburg lent their RV to the university for the event after they received a request from Margaret Firth, who works with the symphony office and was the concert's stage manager.
"I'm glad our motor home was part of it," Sue Gallaspy said. "We were glad we could do it."
Galway also used the RV when he and his wife, Lady Jeanne Galway, performed with the orchestra earlier this year.
When asked what she thought about having famous people as guests in the family motor home, Sue Gallaspy laughed and said, "That's neat!"
Sue and Jim Gallaspy and their daughter, Kim, were students at Southern Miss. Jim Gallaspy served the university as director of athletic training and head athletic trainer. Sue Gallaspy said her family still supports the athletic and music programs at Southern Miss.
"I could not be more impressed with our orchestra," she said.
Domingo fans come from near, far
Early concertgoers began arriving around 5 p.m., arriving from as far away as New Jersey, Atlanta and Houston.
Some of the crowd seated above the stage shouted in Spanish, "We are from Madrid" and "We saw you before in Mexico." Domingo is a native of Madrid but spent many years as a child and young adult living in Mexico, where his parents performed Zarzuela - Spanish lyrical opera.
Sharon Spagnolia of Spring Lake, N.J., met her friend, Robyn Dowdall of Atlanta in Biloxi to attend the concert together. The pair said they first met years earlier at a Domingo concert at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and have been to many of Domingo's concerts since then.
"She showed me how to get backstage to meet him," Dowdall said of Spagnolia. "The first time, I couldn't speak, I couldn't talk."
Manuel Navarez of Jackson said he met Domingo once in Mexico, but had never heard him perform live.
"The family of Domingo is well-known in Mexico," Navarez said.
Navarez came from Jackson with Jeanna Grace and her mother, Barbara Grace, also seeing Domingo in concert for the first time.
"I saw him on ETV (Mississippi Public Broadcasting) for the first time," Barbara Grace said. "I've always loved opera. This is my first concert to see one of the Three Tenors."
"He's got a sweet, mellow voice and he sings some beautiful Spanish songs," Jeanna Grace added.
Many concertgoers came from the Pine Belt, including brothers Larry Lawrence and Carl Lawrence, both of Hattiesburg.
"We go to a lot of Southern Miss symphony concerts," Larry Lawrence said. "We've been going off and on for years."
The brothers said they felt they should attend the Biloxi concert to continue their support as well as see "the concert of a lifetime," Carl Lawrence said.
"(Domingo) is probably one of the top three tenors in the world," Larry Lawrence said.
The Lawrence brothers attended the concert with Carl Lawrence's wife, Sue, and friends Lyndel McKay and Cecile Sandifer, both of Hattiesburg.
"We had to go to this one," Carl Lawrence said. "It speaks well of our community, our state and Dr. Jay Dean.
"And it shows how smart (Domingo) is that he picked us," he added jokingly.
Ashley O'Shields, a graduate assistant in the music department at Southern Miss, said she was glad she was able to attend the show.
"It's probably one of the most exciting things I'll ever see," she said. "This will put USM on the map."
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