{"id":757,"date":"2008-02-10T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2008-02-10T08:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/10\/eartha-baby\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:39:47","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:39:47","slug":"eartha-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/10\/eartha-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"eartha, baby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My, oh, my!  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/www.earthakitt.com\">Eartha Kitt<\/a> swept into Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall like a proverbial force of nature last night &#8211; I don&#8217;t think that the place will be the same ever again!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>What an amazing talent, first of all, and what a consummate professional she is.  White-hot intensity for the entire evening &#8211; yes, this was a full evening set, not the half-concert set that artists forty-odd years younger insist upon for specials or pops concerts &#8211; and a special brand of sex appeal that has hardly diminished in her 81 (!) years.  Unbelievable!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/eartha-kitt.JPG\" title=\"eartha-kitt.JPG\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/eartha-kitt.thumbnail.JPG?resize=200%2C300\" alt=\"eartha-kitt.JPG\" class=\"imageframe\" height=\"300\" width=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The near-capacity audience was rapturous in their reception of this great artist, introduced by Portland&#8217;s own <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/www.pinkmartini.com\">Pink Martini<\/a> front man and Oregon Symphony booster Thomas Lauderdale, and Oregon Symphony president Elaine Calder.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, they don&#8217;t make artists like this anymore &#8211; or if they do, they are few and far between these days &#8211; and the entire evening was devoted to showing off her formidable assets, including thinking on her feet while interacting with the evening&#8217;s rambunctious front row audience members.  Ms. Kitt has honed her craft to a razor&#8217;s edge, and none of us escaped being cut by it last night &#8211; not mortally, of course, but enough that we gained a new appreciation for our vitality and mortality, and left the hall invigorated and elated.<\/p>\n<p>As Stephen Brookes of the Washington Post wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p> &#8220;Is any woman on the planet more dangerous than Eartha Kitt? Even at 80, the original sex kitten can wreak more damage on men&#8217;s hearts with a simple glance than today&#8217;s pop tarts can with their entire bodies.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ditto.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder who Mr. Lauderdale wants to bring to town next \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I can&#8217;t wait to find out!<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, check out this 1962 video of Eartha Kitt singing <em>I Want to be Evil:<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"580\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tQ5VaBgXzuM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<p>and <em>C&#8217;est Si Bon<\/em>:<\/p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"580\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b5WVkl_f7_E?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My, oh, my! Eartha Kitt swept into Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall like a proverbial force of nature last night &#8211; I don&#8217;t think that the place will be the same ever again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[115,137,2],"tags":[3668,110],"class_list":["post-757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-popular-music-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-pops"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-cd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":673,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/18\/eartha-kitt-one-performance-only\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":0},"title":"eartha kitt &#8211; one performance only","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Oregon Symphony: ONE NIGHT ONLY: THE INCOMPARABLE EARTHA KITT PERFORMS WITH THE OREGON SYMPHONY (PORTLAND, Ore.) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The seductive Eartha Kitt \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a showbiz icon whose career has spanned more than six decades of stardom in film, theater, cabaret, television and the recording studio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c makes a rare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ek","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/eartha_kitt.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/09\/eartha-kitt-rehearsal\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":1},"title":"eartha kitt rehearsal","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not a good idea to take photos while rehearsing (it's basically verboten), but taking a few before things get started are always fun. Here's the view from my chair: And here is principal viola Jo\u00c3\u00abl Belgique zoning out before the start of rehearsal, and a look at our lovely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;fun&quot;","block_context":{"text":"fun","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fun\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2254070534_5b70bf5c17_o.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/2254070534_5b70bf5c17_o.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":438,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/19\/eartha-kitt-tears-up-new-york\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":2},"title":"eartha kitt tears up new york","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo: Richard Termine for the New York Times She's appearing with the OSO this season, and by the sound of this review in the New York Times, you'd better score your tickets sooner than later, she's red hot. Here's an excerpt from the review by Times writer Stephen Holden: It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/kittspan.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/kittspan.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/kittspan.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/01\/cheap-seats-the-oso\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":3},"title":"cheap seats @ the oso","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks for generous support from Symphony sponsor Wells Fargo, now through February 8th, the Oregon Symphony will be offering all seats for the remainder of the season at either $20 or $50 each (except for the Eartha Kitt concert). There's lots of great stuff to grab tickets for, here are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":758,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/10\/conscientious-objector-for-better-or-worse\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":4},"title":"conscientious objector &#8211; for better or worse?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In his introduction of Eartha Kitt last night, Thomas Lauderdale mentioned that she was long blackballed for having spoken out against the Vietnam War during a command performance at the White House. This made me think about the relationship between artists and those in positions of power.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4466,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/18\/the-pleasures-of-working-and-not-working\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":5},"title":"the pleasures of working and not working","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday was one of those days in which I took off my Oregon Symphony hat and put on my freelance violist hat. I was on leave from the pops series, so I was not at the hall for the OSO's pops matinee on Sunday, but I was at the hall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;cycling&quot;","block_context":{"text":"cycling","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/cycling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/4532804920_e127e26797_b-300x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}