When Harry Shearer narrates and plays, laughter follows
By Marcia E. Gawecki
When Idyllwild Arts announced that Harry Shearer, the master of comic voices, would be narrating their first orchestra concert of the year, “Peter and the Wolf,” you knew it wouldn’t be ordinary, but hilariously extraordinary. The student orchestra stuck to Prokofiev’s 1936 music script, but Shearer turned the narrating part on its ear.
“That’s not the ‘Peter and the Wolf’ that I grew up with,” some of the music students said before yesterday’s (Saturday, Oct. 16) 4 p.m. concert during Family Weekend. “I don’t even recognize the words anymore.”
Without giving too much away for those who plan to attend today’s 2 p.m. concert, Shearer, who does most of the ‘Simpsons’ voices, turned Prokofiv’s masterpiece into a CNN “The Situation Room” news story. Affable talk show host, Larry King, from “Larry King Live” and tightly-wound newscasters Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper told the story in hindsight.
Peter Askim introducing Shearer and the IA orchestra
Standing at a lit podium next to the conductor dressed in a pinstriped suit and red tennis shoes, Shearer set the stage with the one-liner, “I was going to sing the last piece, but I lost the coin flip.”
He was referring to “The Marriage of Figaro,” aria just sung by Samuel, a barritone at Idyllwild Arts.
After introducing the cast of characters and their instruments, Shearer’s Larry King introduced Wolf Blitzer (no relation to the wolf), who said there were no eyewitnesses to the story that just happened in a meadow.
“A meadow?” Larry King asked.
“Yes, a meadow, Larry,” Wolf replied. “Like a big, green space.”
When Wolf said that the bird was a friend of Peter’s, Larry quipped, “A friend with birds? Peter is a special kind of kid, isn’t he?”
There was perfect synchonicity between Shearer's narrating & Askim's orchestra
The Larry King and Wolf Blitzer back and forth banter from “The Situation Room” had the audience giggling and laughing out loud.
“Here’s where it gets messy, Larry,” Wolf said, retelling the argument between the bird and the duck.
“I always find duck to be messy,” Larry said.
Later on in the show, Shearer introduced another CNN newscaster, Anderson Cooper, who tells them how the grandfather finds Peter in the meadow, brings him back home and locks the gate.
Shearer’s mimicking of these well-known voices is dead-on. No kidding, you swear that you have your TV on during the concert.
When the gray wolf appeared, the duck squawked loudly and got out of the water, Wolf announced.
“Why would she do that?” Larry asked. “A duck is no match in a foot race with a wolf.”
“The lack of any feathers showed that the wolf swallowed the duck whole,” Wolf announced.
“I prefer the breast,” Larry replied, one of Shearer’s many references to Larry King’s high-profile divorces.
Throughout all of this comedic sketches, the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra, under the direction of Peter Askim, provided professional-level classical music. Even Shearer said so.
Samuel, a baritone, sang an aria from "The Marriage of Figaro"
“What a thrill it’s been to be playing along with these wonderfully talented musicians,” Shearer said. “I’m not in the same league, or even in the same game.”
After “Peter and the Wolf,” Shearer, who is also a musician, played a bass duet with Marshall Hawkins, head of the Idyllwild Arts Jazz Department. It was a song from his group, Spinal Tap, that was rearranged for a solo with an upright bass.
Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra’s final concert of “Peter and the Wolf,” with the affable Harry Shearer, will be held at 2 p.m. today (Sunday, Oct. 17) in the Bowman Arts Building on campus. It’s free and open to the public, but you might want to come early to get a seat.
For more information, call Idyllwild Arts at (951) 659-2171 or visit www.idyllwildarts.org.
Copyright 2010 Idyllwild Me. All rights reserved.
the attachments to this post:
Peter Samuel Sing
Peter Shearer & Askim
Peter Askim intro
Peter Shearer & Hawkins
