Perla Batalla performs Jan. 15 - Napa Valley Opera House

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http://www.napavalleyregister.com/artic ... 379879.txt

Music with a foreign flavor at Opera House

Perla Batalla performs Jan. 15

Mexican-American Perla Batalla to sing and teach; Elvis Costello to perform
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Perla Batalla’s upcoming performance at the Napa Valley Opera House is a homecoming, of sorts.

More than six years ago, early in Batalla’s solo career, the Mexican-American vocalist, composer and arrangerperformed at the Opera House before the modern-day stage was even ready for performers. She sang instead in the cabaret-style first-floor café theater
“During the concert was a real feeling of community. All of these people were there because they were working to make the new Opera House a reality,” she said of the Opera House, which had opened in 1880 but had been dark since 1914. “It’s so important for individuals to feel like the community is there for you. It means a ton to an artist.”

Batalla, a former resident of Mill Valley, returns to the Opera House Jan. 15 at 8 p.m.
This time she’ll be on the main stage singing her signature mix of bilingual, original songs and traditional Mexican songs with contemporary arrangements.

Batalla and her band will present original compositions interspersed with traditional Spanish language classics arranged to reflect her bicultural personal and musical heritage.
In her act, Batalla takes the songs she heard growing up and molds their rhythmic and melodic forms to create a cross-pollination of trend and tradition. She also performs a handful of songs made famous by her former teacher, Leonard Cohen.

Batalla will accompany the formal concert with three mini-performances for children at MacPherson Elementary School, Napa Valley Language Academy and Calistoga Elementary School. Batalla sings much of these performances in her native Spanish to impress on students the importance of their native cultures.

“Live performance can be a life-changing experience,” Batalla said. “When kids hear it in Spanish, it makes them feel like their culture is worthwhile, it helps them connect.”

Batalla was inspired by similar, live, Spanish-language performances as a child. She lives in Ventura County and was born in Los Angeles, where her father, a musician, owned a popular Spanish language record store, “Discoteca Batalla.”

Batalla gained international acclaim singing backup vocals for Cohen, who encouraged her to embark on a solo career.

Since then, she has performed with k.d. lang, Nick Cave and Laurie Anderson, to name a few. She has sung in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., UCLA’s Royce Hall and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Batalla said her life’s goal is to get young people involved in music.

“What I hope to help people realize is that there is art within all of us,” she said. “We don’t need TV or a computer to satisfy the creativity we have. I believe the secret to happiness is to create something yourself.”

“We are so pleased to bring Perla back to Napa and to be able to share her stories and songs with young people in their school environments,” said Napa Valley Opera House Artistic Director Evy Warshawski. “Perla’s gift is not only a beautiful voice, but the ability to articulate a sense of pride in the Spanish language and its rich tradition of song and poetry.”

The performance is underwritten in part by Debbie and Bob Almeida. It was also funded in part by the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello will stop in Napa on his spring 2010 solo tour to perform songs from his 30-year musical career at the Napa Valley Opera House.

Perhaps best known for his performances with the Attractions, the Imposters and for concert appearances with pianist Steve Nieve, Costello has also collaborated with a range of artists from Burt Bacharach and the Brodsky Quartet to Paul McCartney and Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter.

His songs have been recorded by artists like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Dusty Springfield.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, when he began a songwriting partnership with his wife, jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall, which resulted in six songs for her album “The Girl In The Other Room.”

His recent albums include “When I Was Cruel” and “The Delivery Man.”

In 2004, Costello was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, “The Scarlet Tide,” sung by Alison Krauss in “Cold Mountain.” The song was co-written with T Bone Burnett. That year the Brooklyn Philharmonic performed the premiere “Il Sogno,” Costello’s first full-length orchestral work.

The music was originally commissioned in 2000 by the Italian dance company, Aterballetto, for their adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Following performances in Bologna with the Orchestra del Teatro Communale, the ballet was staged throughout Italy, Germany, France and Russia.

“Il Sogno” was subsequently recorded by The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas.

Costello was also commissioned by the Royal Danish Opera to compose an opera based on the life of Hans Christian Andersen.

“The Secret Songs,” a “work-in-progress” cycle from the opera, was performed in Copenhagen in October 2005 to enthusiastic reviews. Costello sang both of the leading male roles, Andersen and that of the showman P.T. Barnum.

In December 2008, Costello launched the inaugural season of his television series “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with …” The show is a blend of talk and music television that offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective on the creative process with guests that included Sir Elton John, Tony Bennett, Lou Reed, Julian Schnabel, Smokey Robinson, The Police (Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers), James Taylor, Herbie Hancock, Rufus Wainwright, Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Diana Krall, John Mellencamp, Jakob Dylan, She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward), Norah Jones, Jenny Lewis, Renée Fleming and President Bill Clinton.

The second season of Spectacle features guests including Bono & The Edge, Neko Case, Sheryl Crow, Levon Helm, Ray Lamontagne, Lyle Lovett, Nick Lowe, John Prine, Ron Sexsmith, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson, Allen Toussaint and Jesse Winchester.

Costello’s appearance at the Napa Valley Opera House is sponsored in part by Jonesy’s Steak House.

An Evening with Perla Batalla

• Friday, Jan.15, 8 p.m.
• Napa Valley Opera House, 1030 Main St.
• Tickets: $21
• Box office: nvoh.org or 226-7372

Elvis Costello Solo
• Thursday, April 8, 8 p.m.
• Tickets: $120, $135
• Box office: 226-7372 or nvoh.org. Public sales begin Jan. 18, 10 a.m.

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http://www.bohemian.com/bohobeat/?p=6381

Jan. 15: Perla Batalla at the Napa Valley Opera House
January 13, 2010 – 1:28 pm

Perla Batalla-BohoBeat.JPG (13.41 KiB) Viewed 2730 times

As a backup singer for Leonard Cohen, Perla Batalla learned early on the business of touring and performing, and indeed, she can be seen in the great Leonard Cohen tribute film I’m Your Man, singing a blood-tingling version of “Bird on the Wire.” Yet when Cohen encouraged her to go solo, she turned ever further into her past for inspiration: her parents’ L.A. record store, which sold Spanish and Latin music, and where Batalla absorbed the songs that help make up her great album Discoteca Batalla, named after the store. Having secured a place at the Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House with her bicultural output, Batalla returned again to the songs of Cohen; for the release party of her Cohen tribute Bird on the Wire, no less than Michael McDonald, Jackson Browne and Bill Frisell showed up to join her onstage. Witness pure emotion when Batalla sings on Friday, Jan. 15, at the Napa Valley Opera House. 1030 Main St., Napa. 8pm. $21. 707.226.7372.

Gabe Meline

[lizzytysh]

Did you go see Perla perform, Arlene ? Oh, how I hope to read "Yes" .

[bridger15]

Did you go see Perla perform, Arlene ? Oh, how I hope to read "Yes" .

Would that I could, Lizzy. Napa Valley is in northern California closer to San Francisco. Perhaps one of our northern Californian forum members was able to go and will report back to us.

I will be going to see the Webb Sisters perform on Monday, January 18 in Los Angeles.

[lightasabreeze]

Would love to see her in person, if only to hear her sing her version of BIRD ON THE WIRE. Next to Leonard's I love it best of all.

[mutti]

Looking forward to a concert report!
Leslie (Mutti)

[lizzytysh]

I will be going to see the Webb Sisters perform on Monday, January 18 in Los Angeles.

That's good, Arlene !