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Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center Anaheim, CA By Angela Rocco DeCarlo "Downton Abbey," one of the most successful television shows, is set in a fictional Edwardian English castle, awash with nobles, paid-servants and enormous upheavals due to war, jealousy and financial ruin. The Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center, Anaheim, CA, is presenting an exhibition of the lovely wardrobe of the show. Seeing the clothing up close is delightful. In every detail the show's six seasons evoked the volcanic disruptions brought on by World War I and its political, societal and financial changes. The Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age took woman from their corseted floor-length dresses to loose shifts exposing naked shoulders and legs - shocking. "In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now God knows, anything goes." From Noel Coward's song, "Anything Goes." The Downton Abbey era is illuminated through the skillful Julian Fellows' scripts and an array of outstanding good-looking actors who enchanted television viewers. The gorgeous period clothing charmed all. "Dressing Downton - Changing Fashion for Changing Times" featuring nearly 40 of the original garments designed and fitted to the individual actors, can be seen at Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center, Anaheim, California, until May 11. It then ...

Verdi's masterpiece - one of them anyway - AIDA, has it's final Orange County, CA, performance Tuesday, 8 p.m., Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa, CA. It is not to be missed.        Aida, the 1871 spectacle usually performed with "a cast of thousands," including animals, which debuted at the Cairo Opera House, is distilled to its essential elements, which are quite enough to enthrall an audience.  Local critics were lavish in praise of the South African soprano, Kelebogile Besong, making her North American debut, in the role of Aida at Segerstrom Concert Hall.                    This is one of the great operas everyone should see at least once.  It is awash with military and political intrigue, a love triangle and enough gorgeous Verdi music to thrill.         Besong as Aida, slave to the Egyptian princess Amneris, played by local diva, Milena Kitic, is besotted with the Egyptian military hero, Radames, the man Amneris wants for herself. Aida, herself a princess, unknown to her captors, is distraught when the victorious General Radames brings back defeated enemies, which include Aida's father, the king.          The ingenious staging in an oversized downstage sandbox, with the fabulous 88 - piece Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Carl St. Clair conducting, on stage behind the actors, works rather well. The chorus and dancers ...

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall Segerstrom Center for the Arts Costa Mesa, CA February 23, 25, 28 – 8 p.m. Aida, the spectacular Giuseppe Verdi opera of 1871, alight with a dramatic love triangle, political and military intrigue, and the glorious aria “Celeste Aida” in Act 1, and the “Triumphal March” of Act II, comes to Orange County, California, February 23, 25 and 28. This is the opera everyone should experience at least once. Verdi was the most successful and widely performed composer in opera history. No opera season in the world is complete without including at least two of his major pieces. The Pacific Symphony, with Carl St. Clair conducting, at Renee and Henry Segerstom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa, CA, presents Verdi's dynamic masterpiece in a full-orchestra of  88 musicians, “semi-staged” concert presentation, featuring stellar performers, including local diva, Milena Kitic, who was the ferocious gypsy beauty of Bizet's Carmen, in thePacific Symphony production of a few years ago. She performs Amneris, the Egyptian princess in love with military hero, Radames. Making her North American debut, South African mezzo, Kelebogile Besong, sings the role of Aida, captured Nubian princess, slave to Amneris. Unknown to others, Aida and Radames share a deep love ...

  Thanks to energetic singer-pianist Michael Feinstein, audiences are enjoying Frank Sinatra's music, keeping him in memory alive and well, 17 years after his final curtain call and one hundred years after his birth.   We experienced Feinstein's Sinatra homage at the opening of the Orange County Pacific Symphony's pop season, November 6-7, at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa, California.   It was terrifically fun. Soprano Jessica Rivera opened the evening with a lovely mix of Broadway tunes. After intermission of 25 minutes, Feinstein showered the audience with an 80 minute show - after which many were wishing for more.   Recalling Sinatra's one hundred years is a good reason to celebrate a career that spanned the better part of the 20th century, though his contemporary, Perry Como, is said to have remarked about Sinatra - "We used to be the same age, but now he's younger than me." Como was born in 1912. Apparently,a Sinatra agent shaved some time from Sinatra in the early years, not an uncommon thing to do. And at this stage it hardly matters..   Michael Feinstein, resurrecting Sinatra's song selections, with the magnificent 88-piece Pacific Symphony Pops Orchestra, conducted by Richard Kaufman, conjured the aura of awe and appreciation for ...

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo Frank Sinatra is still dead. But his music and iconic imprint on the soul of music lovers of several generations remains. Plenty of wheelchairs kept company with fresh-faced teens in coming to pay homage to a great iconic performing artist of the last century. Frank Sinatra Jr., pianist and singer, debuted his paternal paean, “Sinatra Sings Sinatra: as I Remember it,” in Orange County, California, May 2, 2015. The show is scheduled for May 22, in Wilkes-Barre,PA, at Kirby Center for the Performing Arts. It was clear the debut audience loved the show and gave both Sinatras – younger and elder - a standing ovation. In fact, a more enthusiastic crowd is seldom seen outside a rock concert. Clearly they were swept away by the magnificent 39-piece onstage orchestra and the catalog of emotional memories Albert Francis Sinatra’s long career evokes in each individual. Nonetheless, I confess I went expecting to hear, as well as see, something of the original Sinatra. Alas, there was no audio of Sinatra Sr. The show was a son’s remembrance with photos and his rendition of the music. As a rich archive of film, television, recordings, as well as newspaper coverage of six decades, is available, hoping to ...

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo "Sinatra Sings Sinatra, as I Remember It" Music and Life Story performed by his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr. Segerstrom Hall, Costa Mesa Saturday, May 2, 2015   Frank Sinatra arrived 100 years ago and for the better part of the last century he was in the limelight in films, stage performances and recorded music...How fortunate for fans we live in an age when the best of Sinatra can be conjured electronically and presented onstage, as it will be Saturday night for the show's world premiere at the Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa, California. His son, Frank Jr, has created "Sinatra Sings Sinatra, as I remember It," to remind us what is now missing from the cultural arena. Back in Chicago when my father-in-law took our three school age sons to see Frank Sinatra, my husband and I couldn't be bothered. So the four DeCarlo men became a band of brothers seeing as many shows as possible while we continued to ignore him. That was until Frank Sinatra opened a new outdoor theater on the far South Side of Chicago and I had an assignment to cover it. Well, sitting in the sixth row, so close I marveled at his perfectly creased midnight blue tuxedo trousers, which ...

You have one last chance to see Maestro Carl St. Clair and Pacific Symphony's semi-staged live performance of Georges Bizet's (1838-1875) masterpiece opera, "Carmen" as it takes the stage Tuesday, February 24, 8 p.m., at the Costa Mesa, CA, Segerstrom Concert Hall. Having seen "Carmen" several times in full productions, I knew this was a show which could be effective in a concert format. And it was. The spectacularly beautiful voices carry the story of a hapless Spanish soldier, Don Jose, who falls under the enchantment of the gypsy cigarette factory girl, Carmen, who knows no loyalty or duty except to her romantic desires. This production is rich in talent: Milena Kitic, a Newport Beach resident, and world-acclaimed mezzo-soprano, plays Carmen as a beautiful woman supremely confident in her allure. Andrew Richards, tenor, seen as the duke in the late Opera Pacific's "Rigoletto," is mesmerized instantly by Carmen. Konstantin Smorigina, bass-baritone, is bullfighter Escamillo, who has been adored by everyone, so of course, Carmen must have him. Elizabeth Caballero, soprano, is Micaela, Don Jose's endlessly loyal hometown girl. The supporting cast of soldiers and smugglers are wittily engaging with beautiful voices. Andrew Gangestad, bass, another Opera Pacific singer, is Don Jose's superior ...