While Steve was flying east to Montreal yesterday, Fraser Walters of The Canadian Tenors was flying west to Edmonton to join the rest of his group for a performance with the ESO at the Winspear. Steve got weathered out of Montreal, and Fraser got weathered in. The remaining tenors (Remigio Pereira, Victor Micallef and Clifton Murray) made it in time for the 7:30 performance while Fraser crawled across the country.
A bonus of the evening was having world-class trumpeter, Jens Lindemann, start the evening with a Christmas carol medley. He warmed our northern hearts by stating that the Winspear Centre was, in his opinion, one of the top five performance halls in the world. And he should know, he said, because he’s played at most of them. Amen to that. We do love our Winspear.
The three tenors did their best at filling in for their missing counterpart. There were a couple of slips but for the most part the adjustment was seamless considering the sudden imbalance and what they lacked in numbers, they made up in comic relief. After each song the group would inform the audience with Where in the World is Fraser Walters? updates: “He’s made it to the airport!”…“He’s on the highway!” making it feel like a true Christmas concert of old where gap-toothed youngsters with halos and wings askew, singing off-key carols, were told of Santa’s whereabouts before the Big Man made his entrance. When Fraser finally appeared—in time for the second set—the crowd cheered and Fraser took some good-natured ribbing from Remi, Victor and Clifton about what he missed so far.
And then he sang, and those of us in the audience listening to The Canadian Tenors live for the first time were treated to a depth of sound and harmony that we hadn’t even known was missing. Before Fraser arrived, I was enraptured by the men’s vocals. Now I was blown away.
The Canadian Tenors are four men of amazing talent who have traveled the globe singing for presidents and royalty and performing with legends like Andrea Bocelli, Paul McCartney, STING, Sheryl Crow, David Foster and Sara McLachlan to name a few. If you haven’t yet seen these fellows perform live, you have one more chance tonight at
Edmonton’s Winspear and on December 17th when they take part in the Singing Christmas Tree at the
Jubilee Auditorium. If you can’t get tickets to either, you can watch the Tenors’ Christmas December 13th on CBC (check your local listings for times) for the Season of Song: The Canadian Tenors and Friends. The “friends” include soprano wunderkind Jackie Evancho (America’s Got Talent), Filipino sensation Charice, Paul Anka, David Foster, and heartthrob singer, Justin Bieber. On December 19th the Tenors’ PBS show airs, however I can’t find a listing for it at this time.
Setting aside their obvious good looks and charm, The Canadian Tenors have voices that could calm the most colicky of babes and move the most jaded of souls. They are modern-day tenors who dress like Armani models and sing like angels.
The Tenors’ Christmas album titled The Perfect Gift would make any fan of Canada’s Fab Four happy this season, but tickets to upcoming performances would make a perfect gift any time of the year. Check out what the Tenors are up to at Canadiantenors.com
Well we both made it, if somewhat late. I am guessing though he was not blessed with microwaved pizza and something purporting to be coconut shrimp on HIS arrival. The latter morsels proved to contain sufficient elasticity to make quite a bounce ( as I demonstrated to the server to her delight) … I was in a foul mood.
Ha Ha Mr. Anonymous (aka, Steve!)…but at least you got to eat at Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal, so the price and the pain was definitely worth it. And that being said, you better be bringing some Schwartz’z meat home… 🙂