June 14, 2009 - The 11th annual Ocean Aires classical concert, coordinated by Isaac Steven Vaughan, under the auspices of the Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG), took place at the Community House on June 13 and, in keeping with APCG's theme of the season, celebrated "Classical Music in Hollywood Movies," as performed by 15 talented artists. Narration, delivered by the ever effervescent Philomena and providing the contexts for the selections, enhanced the evening immeasurably, as did onstage flowers, furnished by Michael Guerette of Garden Grove.

The concert commenced with pianists Vaughan and Eric Martin striking up anthem "God Save the Queen" to accompany the grand entrance of Grove Homecoming Queen Urban Sprawl. Assisted by Vaughan, William "George" McGarvey lent a light baritone to a graceful "Lungi dal caro bene," an aria antica by Antonio Secchi, which may or may not have been sung by Rufus Wainwright in a film. Lovely Jacqueline Jonée, at the keyboard, played an at once sweeping and lilting "An der schönen blauen Donau" (To the beautiful blue Danube), the waltz by Johann Strauss, Jr., used in "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Austin Powers," "Flawless," and other movies. With Vaughan, contralto Rosemary Palladino offered a lyrical "Ach! so fromm"/"M'appari," the tenor aria from Friedrich von Flotow's opera "Martha," in English, as "Ah, so fair." The aria appears in film noir "House of Strangers" and in "The Gray Fox."

Pianist W. John Bainbridge treated us to a gently languid Première Gymnopédie, of Erik Satie, heard in the cinema in "Man on Wire," "My Dinner with André," and so on. Polished tenor David Ekström and our own Eric Coyne, assisted by pianist Gene Rohrer, brought down the house as they evoked exotic climes and probed impassioned friendship, love, jealous hostility, and concord once again in a lush "Au fond du temple saint," from Georges Bizet's opera "Les Pêcheurs de Perles," and used in the film "Gallipoli."

With Martin assisting, tenor Chris-Ian Sanchez and, returning to the Fire Island stage for the first time since 2000, baritone David Auxier, playing brothers Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri, introduced themselves with an ebullient "We're Called Gondolieri," from William S. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan's operetta "The Gondoliers," a duet sung in "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Vaughan, on accordion, and Martin, remaining at the piano, waxed sentimental with Rumanian composer Iosif Ivanovici's "Donauwellen" (The waves of the Danube), more familiarly known as the Anniversary Waltz, which puts in appearances in "Dishonored," "Blondie's Anniversary," "Falling in Love Again," and numerous other motion pictures.

With Rohrer at the keyboard, soprano Sherri L. Rase triumphed by regaling us with Bernard Herrmann's challenging "Salammbô" aria-a bit "Thaïs," a bit "Samson et Dalila," and intentionally excruciatingly sung in "Citizen Kane," for which it was written-as the bel canto, if melodramatic, aria it can be, but brought along a mosquito fogger to extinguish the final high C to remind us of the aria's origin. Pianist Clarence "Kye" Perry followed with a Sergei Rachmaninoff Elegy, Opus 3, Number 1, of melancholy grandeur, a piece used in the 1997 film version of "Anna Karenina."

For a light-hearted finale, Martin and Vaughan accompanied Ruth and Susan Freedner, making their classical music debuts, meowing their way through Gioachino Rossini's "Duetto buffo di due gatti," the comic Cat Duet, not actually known to have made it into any cat movie. Sanchez and Auxier muscled in with their own meows in the middle section, and Ekström and Coyne usurped the stretta, inspiring appropriately indignant hissing and spitting from our two star cats.

The 12th annual Ocean Aires, next season, is entitled "The Dirty Dozen" and promises "classical musician direct from the beach, still sticky with sand." Don't miss it.