"a wonderful voice"
   – MARVIN HAMLISCH
   

Hope adds Elegant Pop to Pops
-The Regina Leader-Post, Monday March 16, 1998
Concert Review by ANDY COOPER

Elegant is a great word to describe the fine performance of the Regina Symphony pops.Guest singer, Michael Hope gave fresh readings to the greatest hits of his idol, Frank Sinatra, as well as some of Broadway's biggest tunes.

Hope is one talented and busy guy. As well as holding down his regular job as assistant principal bassoonist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, he has been a guest vocalist coast to coast in works ranging from Haydn's "Creation" to pops concerts showcasing the best of Tin Pan Alley.

The RSO and Hope certainly sparked off each other in this concert. His observation that inside every symphony orchestra lurks a big band just waiting to get out was underscored by the opening "Overture To West Side Story" and by a bluesy orchestral melody of Duke Ellington tunes. Conductor Victor Sawa and his players gave both selections rhythmically scintillating readings.

While 37-year-old Hope has a wide ranging voice, his well-oiled bass was used to particularly good effect in Gershwin's "Someone To Watch Over Me" in his first opening set of Sinatra favorites. Hope makes it clear that he's no imitator and he certainly doesn't have the instantly recognizable distinctive vocal signature of a Sinatra or a Tony Bennett.

What he does have in spades is a thoughtful approach to his work, honesty and integrity to the fore. Every note gets its due-in fact he's one of the most in-tune singers I've heard. There's no sliding around every note, he's on the button every time. No better example of that than in the well received Hoagy Carmichael classic "Stardust", reverently done to a lovely piano accompaniment by Susan Sametz.

Another gem that got rapt attention from the audience of around 1500 was "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square", a piece of pure nostalgia familiar to all veterans of the Second World War.
If Hope can be faulted, it's in the fact that sometimes he's a little too smooth, and his reading of "I've Got You Under My Skin" certainly lacked the punch of Sinatra's version. However, he really cut loose with an appropriately big bold delivery of the brassy first half finale, "New York, New York." 

The second half taste of Broadway featured more stand-out interpretations, particularly in the big ballads "Maria" and "Somewhere" which but really soared. The highlight though had to be Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot" Hope spat out the saucy lyrics about a heat wave being a definite deterrent to passion, with a cracking jazzy accompaniment from Sawa and his big band. It was nice to hear two chestnuts - Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns" and the evergreen "The Impossible Dream" from Man Of La Mancha - without cringing. Again, Hope found something fresh in both songs to win big ovations. His gentle closing encore was a warhorse too - the tear jerking "Danny Boy" featuring sensitive support from the orchestra. Elegant. That's the word."

                                         Michael