“It Takes Two (or Three),” an 80-minute concert of opera melodies, stars David Behnke and Jenny Friedman, with Paul Doherty making a singing cameo, and Griffin McMahon on piano. A selection of Broadway’s Sondheim follows the opera pieces at the special concert on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 2 pm at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury. Proceeds from the afternoon benefit the church’s music program. The $15 tickets can be purchased at the door and include a post-performance reception.
The show is one of the many secular recitals that take place throughout the year at the island’s houses of worship. Most of the events are one-offs organized by local musicians or off-Island guests. William Peek, music director at the Congregational Church, says, “Most of our music-making is connected to our worship services. We have a fine choir and interesting organ. We also present two choral concerts each year, and sponsor occasional recitals and concerts by choir members and visiting artists. On Dec. 9, we will offer our Christmas concert, which will feature choral and vocal music of the season with harp and flute accompaniment.”
Diane Purvis, chair of the music committee of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard, organizes the annual Music in the Chapel Concert Series. Each presentation offers a different musical style, from Broadway to folk, jazz, classical, and early music. “It’s been such a successful idea, especially the folk concert, with a filled-to-capacity spontaneous sing-along. The proceeds go to the renovation of our 19th century wooden chapel,” Purvis said.
Griffin McMahon, director of music at Edgartown’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, says, “We try to offer additions to our liturgical music, something of interest to the community, including jazz, bluegrass, and opera.”
David Behnke, year-round resident and one of the Island’s busiest singers, has designed this program at the Congregational Church. Along with singing in “It Takes Two (or Three),” Behnke acts as the director and vocal coach. After a highly successful career as a managing director with JPMorgan, Behnke is revisiting his first career as a young singer; he has a master’s degree in music from Yale, and many early-career professional gigs. Behnke hails from a musical family, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of vocal music. In addition to his performing, he has begun giving voice lessons. Jenny Friedman says, “As a coach, he is wonderful, relaxed, easy to understand. He has a great knack of knowing what little trick or thought he can put into your head to fix whatever. Also he has a great ear, which is evident in both his teaching and performing.”
Soprano Friedman is known around the Vineyard for her gorgeous lyric voice, similar to Marni Nixon’s. Friedman studied songwriting at Berklee College of Music. She has always sung choir and folk music, adding relatively recently Broadway and now operatic solo singing. Paul Doherty (the “three” of “or Three”) defines himself as an actor who sings. A wash-ashore from New York City, Doherty had an excellent career as a working actor, with over 500 national commercials to his name and work on Oscar-winning films. “Some of my favorite gigs were recurring roles on “Late Night with David Letterman”: Skip Hobson, CBS Late Night Dimwit Weatherman, and the game show host of “Who Gives a Rat’s Ass.” Behnke, who is married to Doherty, says, “It’s fun singing together, we haven’t really done that before. The challenge here was to find the right blend between our approaches to the material. Paul’s, which tends to be generated more from the theatrical, and mine, which comes more from the musical.” All three singers mentioned the musical finesse of Griffin McMahon, his depth of knowledge and his fantastic sight-reading.
One of the major challenges for Behnke and Friedman is handling the musical crossover from singing opera to Broadway, especially on the same program. Behnke says, “Jenny is a really great musical actress, puts the songs across in a natural yet theatrical way. It’s been very interesting working with her as we add opera to her repertory.” Friedman herself says, “Singing opera helps every other type of singing I do.” Behnke’s challenge is to adjust his voice production in the Broadway tunes in a way that is quite different from his approach to the operatic selections. He finds, “I am much more secure now than in my ‘first’ singing career. I’m more technically aware of what’s happening, giving me much more freedom to make music and mix styles.”
At the concert you will hear, among other favorites, the two gorgeous “Countess arias” from Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” the intricate duet “Dite alla giovine” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” and Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” and “Merrily We Roll Along.”