Ravinia's Dueling Divas

So... when I was in New York last month, I saw Ms. Patti LuPone at 54 Below. More on this later, I promise. When we arrived at the club, the hostess asked me how close to the stage we wished to be sat. I said as close as possible without, you know, actually being on stage. Wish granted! While we were sitting there, the couple next to us wondered if it was too close. To which I replied (even though they were not speaking to me, per se) that, in the case of The Patti, there is no such thing as too close. She's Worth It.

Fast forward to last night - Gala Night at the Ravinia Festival, featuring Ms. Patti and soprano Patricia Racette. A totally odd and incredibly random pairing, but whatever, She's Worth It. (I am reasonably sure that I have actually seen Ms. Racette perform at Lyric Opera - although I am not officially sure any more what opera I saw her perform in. I think it's either Tosca or Madame Butterfly. Whatever. I had heard of her, knew she was pretty good, even if I couldn't remember specifics, so I was happy at the prospect of the concert).  Thanks to some wonderful friends, I had tickets in the pavilion in Row X, dead center, with no one in front of me.

The concert was billed as "The Leading Ladies" but I instantly renamed it "The Diva Duel" - and it was time for Round 1. It kicked off with the National Anthem (despite the fact that the Pretty Party People had not entirely taken their seats), and then the CSO played the overture to Rosamunde.


Then Ms. Racette came on, in a lovely dark blue dress (So.Much.Fabric. I was sitting there in a slip dress and I was hot. I don't know how all the Pretty Party People (PPP) were surviving in their tuxes and fancy dresses, let alone how the orchestra, conductor and soloists were coping in the heat). She sang a few arias - one from La Boheme, Un Bel Di from Madama Butterfly, the Song to the Moon from Rusalka, and Ebben? Ne Andro Lontana from La Wally.  And I'm really sorry to report, she was kind of boring. The arias were beautifully sung but just a bit bland. She performed the best in the Butterfly aria, but the others were kind of blah.

Then came Patti. This one knows how to command a stage - it took her a matter of moments before she had the entire audience right where she wanted us. She looked glam and divalicious in a strapless red dress (That's right red - as if to remind us exactly whose house this is, thank you very much, and you'd best not be forgetting it!) and some insane wrist bling, and sang Don't Rain on My Parade, Easy to Be Hard, Don't Cry for Me Argentina, and Being Alive. The audience totally came alive, and as she left the stage with a little wave, it was like, don't go, Patti! Stay and sing a while! Please??!?!!

Round 1 of this Diva Duel went easily to Patti.

How does one follow that? One sends the orchestra out with some Wagner. No kidding. The overture to Tannhauser. It put me in the mind of hell's waiting room - dark and hot, with Wagner playing in the background.

Out comes Ms. Racette, this time in black. She took the mic, and said "How about some Piaf?" To which we in the audience responded (mentally, anyway) Sure, what the hell! This program really couldn't get much weirder, right?  But the Piaf medley she sang was really lovely. Much more interesting, strangely, than the arias. The medley included Milord, Padam, Padam, La Vie en Rose nd Mon Dieu! for those of you keeping score at home. This would have been a great opportunity for Patti to join her, since she's got some Piaf up in her bag o'tricks, but no.

She did come back, though, in black this time, and launched into another section of Broadway selections - As Long As He Needs Me, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Everything's Coming Up Roses (with a special shout out to the Ravinia Festival and to Mr. Kauffman) and Ladies Who Lunch (a rather interesting choice, I thought, given that this gala was, in fact, celebrating 50 years of the Women's Board, the very embodiment of the song). On her last "Rise!" she flung the water out of her glass onto the PPP in the front row ("It's just water!" she said to the patron(s). I can't imagine that a little dousing wouldn't have felt good, since it was 2000 degrees in the pavilion, so hopefully they were cool about it, since it was just water, not battery acid, and there probably wasn't much of it. Being the North Shore and all though, I guess you never know how people are gonna react.

Then the two divas made an appearance on the stage together, singing Get Happy/Happy Days are Here Again.  And there the concert should possibly have ended, but the orchestra played a (long!) interlude from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe (which I initially read as Dolphins and Chloe, which is a different story all together!)

Whatever. Round 2 - also went to Patti.

She clearly won this Diva Duel - I don't know why they didn't have her alone on the bill in the first place, or pair her with someone with whom she could have truly shared the program (Audra? Mandy? Laura Benanti? Someone a little less random?)