EVOC is something to remember

David Parsons couldn't give a hoot about what you think if you don't like the kind of dance--on a mission to light a fire under every available ass--that can make a mainstream audience rave. But he's got an audience, and I heard them raving last night about the new work he's created in collaboration with East Village Opera Company. It's a full-evening work called Remember Me, and the Times seems to have deemed it memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Now, I gotta tell you, EVOC's lead vocalists--phenomenal AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross--make me rave. EVOC specializes in souped-up, often rocked-out arrangements of arias over orchestrations that probably sit better with me than with some people because I am of the generation that swooned over the likes of The Who, Queen and Marvin Gaye, among the many influences on the music of this ensemble. I am more than ready to listen to Rossini, Bizet, Verdi, Schubert and Purcell saucily reimagined by Ross and EVOC co-founder and musical arranger Peter Kiesewalter, mainly because I find EVOC's singing convincing and compelling on both sides of the radical hybrid.

In theory, this should make a ducky combination with the likes of Parsons whose approach to EVOC's music owes much to the aesthetics of Broadway jazz, music videos and So You Think You Can Dance. And, certainly, Parsons's fleet-footed dancers can dance. That's n0t in question here. The Times expressed some sympathy for them for having to sell cheesy product. Hey, the product is not my usual bag either, and I sat there sometimes thinking that I'd be happier if some of EVOC's music went totally unvisualized. But, as I said, Parsons's audience gave it all a big bear hug. It's doing the job it was intended to do.

The inflamed and flower-power projections, the unsurprising aerial work, the awkwardness of the staging and the murky, overheated storyline--a lethal love triangle so crowded and crawling with extras that it needs remedial math--is something that you either resign yourself to or resist with all the energy of Abby Silva, female point of the triangle, fighting off the obnoxious attentions of Miguel Quinones. Me? I kept coming back to those intense voices--heavenly Ross, fiery Milazzo--and let everything else slide.

Remember Me is Parsons's Program A. Program B features several other Parsons works--Fill the Woods with Light, Swing Shift, Ebben, My Sweet Lord, Shining Star and Caught. The season continues through next Sunday, January 18. Click here or here for details on the schedule of both programs and ticketing information.