P.D.Q. Bach:  The Vegas Years is one of the P.D.Q. Bach touring programs that includes a modest-sized orchestra and conductor—although, actually, the conductor may be any size the orchestra wishes.  The pièce de resistance of this program is a suite of selections from P.D.Q.’s shameless dramatic oratorio, Oedipus Tex, featuring soprano Michèle Eaton as Billie Jo Casta and tenor David Düsing as tenor David Düsing, with the Professor himself filling the boots of the charismatic title character.  Also in the second half of the program are selections from the Art of the Ground Round, fully introduced by Professor Peter Schickele himself.  The first half of the concert features one of the most recent P.D.Q. Bach discoveries, the cantata Gott sei dank, daβ heute Freitag ist (“Thank God It’s Friday”), for soprano and about a dozen instruments, depending on how you count the percussion, as well as some Schickele stuff including the infamous Songs from Shakespeare, in which some of the Bard’s best-known speeches are dropped into a seething vat of 1950’s pop music styles.  Also on this program is Swing Sweet, Low Chariot, which is an ingenious... hey, wait a minute—why should we give it away before you’ve bought a ticket? This tastefully boffo program is now playing wherever fine orchestras are willing to present it.  See the concert schedule page for dates and places.

 

Audio Sample Oedipus Tex (excerpts) Listen to a sample of one of the pieces on the program, as found on the Telarc recording Oedipus Tex and other Choral Calamities.  This sample includes excerpts from “Well”, “Howdy there”, “And it wasn’t long”, “My heart”, “But”, and Finale from Oedipus Tex. Copyright 1991 Telarc International Corporation.  Used by permission. Audio Samples can be played using the free RealAudio player.

Reviews Here are some excerpts from recent reviews describing the P.D.Q. Bach:  The Vegas Years program: His program Friday night at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts was rather pointedly titled Peter Schickele Meets P.D.Q. Bach.  In practice, this worked out to be Schickele music in the first half, P.D.Q. in the second.  Of course, the Schickele pieces selected for this act is mostly stuff that at least has a comedic element: some slightly bawdy vocal rounds, for instance, or the jokey pop takes on Shakespeare.  . . .  The P.D.Q. selections were two of his ostensible classics:  portions of The Art of the Ground Round, and a condensed version of the truly tragic oratorio, Oedipus Tex.  It’s not giving away too much to say that the latter is funnier than Sophocles.   — Steve Metcalf, The Hartford Courant   Schickele’s catholic taste, his intelligence, his ribald sense of humor and his musicality combine to produce one of the most unique personalities performing today.  Or, to quote the woman who sat right behind me throughout the concert and voiced her opinions frequently, “He is very strange.”  Tenor David Düsing and soprano Michèle Eaton joined Schickele in concert, with Schickele himself leading the orchestra, singing and/or playing piano, telling jokes, the whole deal.  The only non-laughing matters were . . . a sweet suite of vocal rounds, performed a cappella by Eaton, Düsing and Schickele.  The rest was a hoot, with the Shakespeare songs including a lounge-lizard version of “To be or not to be,” and If Love is Real containing a funky little aside on Zeno’s paradox.  The second, all-P.D.Q. half comprised selections from The Art of the Ground Round and Oedipus Tex, two well-known scores by the “least and last of J.S. Bach’s sons.”  Both had the familiar punch of a P.D.Q. score, and the performances were fun.   — Ken LaFave, The Arizona Republic