THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020461
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, Staff writer
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 49 lines
Classy, classy, classy.
In concert or in the studio, Linda Ronstadt has always held a pair of aces: that gorgeous, supple voice and a song catalog that's second to none.
How many singers are in her league, singers who can draw from rock, pop and folk; Broadway and Tin Pan Alley; or traditional Mexican Conjunto and Nordena styles . . . and do them all justice?
The question's rhetorical. As she showed Thursday at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater, Ronstadt is in a league of her own.
Blame the small turnout on the nasty weather and not any misconceptions that, on a night that took in songwriters from George Gershwin and Smokey Robinson to Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman, she had nothing new to offer.
In tracing the history of 20th century popular music, and touching most points in her career in the process, she validated her status.
Still youthful-looking at 50, Ronstadt has traded her shortie Cub Scout uniform of yesteryear for a fashionable black lace dress.
She brought that same timeless class to ``What's New,'' ``Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered'' and ``I Get Along Without You Very Well,'' the three torch ballads that opened the evening. A swinging ``Straighten Up And Fly Right'' was followed by the warmly received ``Someone To Watch Over Me.''
While it's no secret that she is notoriously stage-shy, Ronstadt, who cut her orchestral teeth 13 years ago with the late Nelson Riddle, was clearly at ease in every sense of the word.
It was an unexpected treat to hear her with the Virginia Symphony. The tour was organized by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; scheduling conflicts, however, forced the Pittsburgh orchestra to drop out for this final leg.
Under the baton of PSO resident conductor Arthur Post, the symphony took full advantage of the Amphitheater's spacious acoustics. The orchestra, which will accompany Ronstadt again Saturday in a Northern Virginia performance, took the spotlight at the start of the evening with the overture from Bizet's ``Carmen.''
The crowd was charmed.
Wouldn't it be nice if the symphony recruited some new patrons for the upcoming classical season? ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Thursday night at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater, Linda Ronstadt
was in a league of her own even with the Virginia Symphony, which
took the spotlight at the start of the evening with the overture
from Bizet's ``Carmen.'' by CNB