NAC, Ottawa - June 3, 2007Nana Mouskouri delights devoted fans
By ANN MARIE McQUEEN -- Sun Media
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Concert Review: Nana Mouskouri
NAC, Ottawa - June 3, 2007
Nana Mouskouri delights devoted fans
By ANN MARIE McQUEEN -- Sun Media
Nana Mouskouri performs at the National Arts Centre last night before a nearly full house of enthralled enthusiasts. (BLAIR GABLE, Sun Media)
OTTAWA -- The National Arts Centre hosted some major old school entertainment last night, as enduring Greek songstress Nana Mouskouri captivated a devoted, nearly full house of fans.
Mouskouri, who arrived in Ottawa Saturday and must surely have wondered at a normally staid city engulfed in hockey madness, has made the capital one of only two Canadians stops on her sweeping world farewell tour.
A four-year farewell tour, actually, for the 73-year-old, known for her powerful pipes and ever-present dark-rimmed glasses, begun back in 2004 and set to wrap up next year.
The two-and-a-half hour show began with a video montage showing Mouskouri morph from bright-eyed, slim-waisted ingenue back in the 1960s to the well seasoned, sequined caftan-wearing performer of today.
HISTORIC SPOTS
There were shots of her on tour with Harry Belafonte and massive concerts of her own later on at some of Athens' most historic spots; even footage of her brief stint in the European Parliament. With more than four decades of material, thousands of songs in a variety of languages, and hundreds of millions of records sold, Mouskouri's career is a marvel by any standards.
She stepped on stage clad in white, launching right into I'll Remember You. A stirring rendition of Love Changes Everything set the tone for the evening.
"Singing has been very important for me," she told the crowd. "I believe most of you must know I started singing very young, because my parents used to say it was the only thing I could do. I could sing and I could cry."
In between old favourites, Mouskouri talked about her upbringing, introducing a string of songs in French her mother, also a chanteuse, taught her as a young girl.
A jet-setting philanthropist years before Angelina Jolie made it fashionable, Mouskouri spoke of her work with UNICEF -- which she will do again today when she addresses the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa at the Ottawa Congress Centre -- and her hopes for the children under the program's care.
Time will tell if Mouskouri sweeps back through town a few years down the road -- when it comes to aging musicians, farewell doesn't always mean goodbye -- but her intention is to bow out gracefully, and that she did last night.
Though I am not a fan of Mouskouri's tendency to hit sharp, startling high notes or indulge in excessive vibrato (and her cover of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now left much to be desired) her crowd was clearly enthralled with her
