EVOC-ing Yesteryear, East Village Style

The evocative East Village Opera Company returned to San Francisco Tuesday,
performing at Café Du Nord.
Photos by Luke Thomas

By Luke Thomas

November 22, 2008

For some nose-in-the-air opera purists, the East Village Opera Company may not be your cup of afternoon tea.

But the for less pretentiously-minded music aficionados – those indiscriminate lovers of sublime musicianship – an opportunity to hear and inhale EVOC’s avant-garde fusings of centuries-old arias, plucked from the veins of Verdi, Puccini, and Handel, and adapted to rock electrification, is a temptation too irresistible to overcome.

And as Oscar Wilde musingly lamented, “I can resist anything but temptation.”

And so it was Tuesday when EVOC returned to the city that bucks stagnation, tempting the temptable with their brand of revisionist classical opera, performing music by Mozart, Wagner and other composers before a gathering of spellbound rock-opera devotees at Café Du Nord.

“Welcome back to San Francesco,” a self-described music connoisseur Harold Brown hailed as EVOC’s 9-member orchestra (which includes two vocalists and a string triplet) assembled on stage. “We missed you.”

“We missed you, too,” responded Peter Kiesewalter, EVOC’s cofounder, keyboardist, clarinetist and compositional arranger. “This is a beautiful city and we’re very happy to be here again.”

EVOC got its genesis in 2001 when Kiesewalter was asked to write a soundtrack to the film “Kiss of Debt” that starred EVOC cofounder Tyley Ross for ABC television in New York. But because Ross is not classically trained, Kiesewalter adapted the arias to rock songs. The resulting collaborative effort was such a success that Kiesewalter and Ross developed an album of arias, formed a band, and subsequently released their first studio recording, La Donna, in 2004.

EVOC cofounders Peter Kiesewalter and Tyley Ross

EVOC added female vocalist AnnMarie Milazzo to the lineup in 2005 to perform solos and duets with Ross. And in the strictest definition of opera, Milazzo and Ross act out specific characters within the drama of the arias they are singing, adding visual intrigue to the group’s performances.

 
AnnMarie Milazzo

Adding visual intrigue, duet vocalists AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross.

But where EVOC really shines is in the quality of its musicianship. One can clearly hear every note from all the instruments, all exquisitely arranged by Kiesewalter. Of particular note during Tuesday’s performance were the solos performed by guitarist Ben Butler (who also plays mandolin) and violinist Pauline Kim.

Guitarist Ben Butler (right)

Pauline Kim

EVOC’s latest masterpiece, Olde School, is “an album 300 years in the making,” according to the group’s website. The album took 12 months to record using 18 engineers and 65 musicians from all over the world.

“It was a logistical nightmare,” Kiesewalter explained to Fog City following the performance, “but somehow we managed to pull it off.”

EVOC, who have been on the road for almost a year, will have just a few weeks to enjoy a much needed rest during the upcoming holidays before hitting the road again in January.

Here’s to hoping they will return to San Francisco again, soon.

More Info

East Village Opera Company’s website.

Luke Thomas

Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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