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Tenor Javier Abreu (the Prince) has a nearly ideal bel canto voice, light, sweet and agile. The role of Don Magnifico, the witless stepfather, is one of the great basso buffo roles in Italian opera, and Jason Hardy brought all its acting and singing potential vividly to life.
Evelyn Pollock and Audrey Babcock sang the roles of the two stepsisters wittily and prettily, and Daniel Gross and Weston Hurt were excellent in supporting roles.
-- Joseph McLellan
John Mooney
Like John Hammond Jr., another veteran blues singer and guitarist with a passion for vintage Mississippi Delta tunes, John Mooney doesn't need to tour with a band to get a groove going. The combination of his pounding footwork and fiercely percussive guitar attack is all that's required.
Of course, a little amplification doesn't hurt, either. At the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage on Friday evening, Mooney relied on three electric guitars to color and propel his solo set -- two Stratocasters and a handmade instrument aptly dubbed the Swamp Box. He played slide on the custom-crafted six-string, producing single-note riffs and dense waves of reverberating overtones with every swipe of the fret board. He further heightened the rhythmic drive by using his middle fret-hand fingers to introduce knotty bass string runs.
When he picked up one of the Strats, Mooney favored a brighter, sometimes piercing tone, but his fret-hand thumb often dropped over the low E-string to evoke the sound of a bassist strutting along for the ride. The most stirring performance was also the most telling: a rendition of Son House's "Levee Camp Moan." As a teenager, Mooney became friends with the Delta blues legend, and one can still hear echoes of House's rhythmic power and spiritual thrust in Mooney's performances.
A fine singer with a booming voice, Mooney paid evocative tribute to other blues legends, including Robert Johnson, and punctuated the set with some original songs, wry and tender. He capped the set with a benediction of sorts, the Delta-flavored "Sacred Ground."
-- Mike Joyce
