PERFORMING ARTS

Monday, June 30, 2008

Datarock

Everything about Datarock is calculated, from the matching red tracksuits and wraparound sunglasses to the over-the-top enthusiasm and canned stage patter ("You're the best audience ever!").

But those calculations add up to a lot of fun, as Datarock showed at the Rock & Roll Hotel on Saturday.

These Norwegian merrymakers take many of their cues from Devo, musically, instrumentally and visually. But where Devo was made up of jesters commenting on society, Datarock's four members are pop showmen who celebrate all the great things about rock and dance music, distilling those bits to their hip-shaking, arena-quaking essence.

Singer-guitarist Fredrik Saroea frequently told the crowd to clap its hands, dedicated "Princess" to "all the ladies" and declared (twice) that Kjetil Moster wasn't playing saxophone but rather a "sex machine." Datarock even broke into a synchronized and aerobicized group dance during "Ugly Primadonna" -- and then politely asked the fans if they were ready for a drum solo.

It might all sound shticky, but Datarock's delight in performing seems real. The group writes super-catchy dance-rock songs, too, so all the booty shaking in the audience wasn't a mechanical exercise: Datarock's music is made to make you move.

This was Datarock's D.C. debut, and the animated crowd chanted to the crispy funk of "Fa-Fa-Fa," rapped along to the smart and witty electro jam "Computer Camp Love" and lost its collective mind singing to the encore, which was a show unto itself. Rather than wrapping up with an original tune, Datarock did an epic karaoke version of the "Dirty Dancing" fave "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," with Moster jumping into the crowd for a soul-stirring sax solo straight outta 1987.

Kitschy? A bit. But it all added up to joyous genius.

-- Christopher Porter

Choralis

Haydn's oratorio "Die Schoepfung" ("The Creation") opens on a scene of quiet, dark orchestral chaos (quite lovely, somewhat chromatic chaos, to be sure) and then proceeds happily through God's busy days of creating: light, the firmament and the waters, plants and animals and, finally, man (remember, Haydn's was an age of optimism) -- proclaiming after each that "it was good."

The cheerful performance of the oratorio that Choralis brought to Alexandria's Schlesinger Concert Hall on Friday left one with this same feeling of satisfaction. The chorus, about 90 strong and augmented with 35 high school members of the Choralis Summer Choral Festival, sang crisply, with splendid diction and impressive presence at both ends of the dynamic spectrum. Attacks were alert and contrapuntal textures were clean and balanced. The well-prepared orchestra was as charming in its roles as eagles and larks as it was as whales and worms.

The soloists approached their assignments with a sense of the dramatic. Bass Kerry Wilkerson, who was responsible for much of the narration, sang powerfully throughout his range. Tenor Joseph Dietrich projected excellent diction and a wonderfully clean sound up high but couldn't be heard much in some of the lower range, and soprano Susan Wheeler, who did a fine job with coloratura passages, swallowed most of her texts.

There was a lot of fussing with "dramatic" lighting and projections of translations superimposed on illustrations of what was being created -- water, cows, people and so forth. Haydn didn't need this help.

Conductor Gretchen Kuhrmann, who led all this briskly and confidently, is building a fine program with this group.

-- Joan Reinthaler

Thievery Corporation

Thievery Corporation shows are not your typical lounge parties. This time around there was trip-hop tango-dub by Argentinean classic guitar virtuoso Federico Aubele, a priming Turntables on the Hudson DJ set detonated by a live Middle Eastern/Latin percussion duo, '80s goth-glam new wave courtesy of Ladytron and soulful, gospel-music-doused art rock by TV on the Radio.

And that's before T-Corp's DJs Eric Hilton and Rob Garza even hit the stage Saturday night at Merriweather Post Pavilion for the last of their six-city, eight-day "Outernational" mini music festival.

Throughout their hour-and-a-half set, the D.C. twosome did what they do best: provide a sonic foundation and get out of the way. After barricading themselves behind their DJ gadgetry and laying down a seismic bass beat that may have registered on the Richter scale, they began cycling in their live talent: a seductive belly dancer, three pogoing reggae emcees, a sitar player and a few other guest vocalists, including Brazilian samba revivalist Seu Jorge.

Though Thievery's high-energy set ran together at times, it did little to discourage the nearly 5,000 faithful concertgoers from getting their dance on.

-- Mario Iván Oña

Bethesda Summer Music Festival

What the Bethesda Summer Music Festival lacks in polish, it makes up for in enthusiasm. It was daring of Artistic Director Mira Yang to stage a near-complete Mozart "Magic Flute" with young professionals and students after only a two-week workshop. The staging was stripped down but the essentials were right, thanks to some very fine singing.

At Bethesda Presbyterian Church on Saturday night, the best voices belonged to the leaders of the opposing forces. Adrianna Sgarlata was a haughty, imperious Queen of the Night, combining excellent stage presence and a fine coloratura with even sound almost to the top of her range. As Sarastro, Kwang Kyu Lee had a strong, resonant bass with a dark, rumbly lower register.

Neil Carling was a rather stolid Tamino, but he emoted well in "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schoen." Kotnim Chung was at her best as Pamina in Act 2, lamenting her presumed loss of Tamino's love.

Doug Peters was a brightly active Papageno, his rather light baritone nicely complementing Carling's solid tenor. Peters's duet with Katelyn Sexton as Papagena was utterly charming.

The Three Ladies (Eunyoung Hong, Rebecca Roberts and Carrie Coultas) made a nicely catty trio, and Brendan Sliger was a buffoonishly menacing Monostatos.

The music came from a string quartet, piano (Steve Bertino) and flute (Youn Yong Yi) -- plus recorded thunder, trumpets and sound effects, all conducted by Samuel Bill. And there were no surtitles -- a challenge for the audience, which did not seem to mind at all.

-- Mark J. Estren