The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

PARKSVILLE, NY (April 8, 2013) – On Sunday, April 7, the Parksville United Methodist Church opened it doors to welcome a highly enthusiastic audience to the first concert of the Parksville USA Music Festival 2013.

The brainchild of longtime Parksville resident Tom Caltabellotta, this series of “First Sunday” concerts takes place monthly through October, with a special Holiday celebration on December 1.

The Festival is dedicated to the memory of his Tom’s wife, Michele (at left in top photo), who always championed the development of Parksville. The concerts are also, in what was a very apparent way yesterday, an extension of the Dead End Café musical evenings that Tom and Michele served to music lovers at their Parksville restaurant for almost 20 years, and had come to be known as “one of Sullivan County’s musical treasures.”

This inaugural concert was many things other than a performance. For former Café attendees, it was a happy reunion. For other Sullivan residents it was a re-welcoming to the area of an obviously much-wanted addition to the local music scene.

The performers were faces and voices well-known to Dead End audiences, “The Lyric Quartet,” comprised of bass Caltabellotta (photo left above), soprano Leslie Swanson (photo right), tenor Mariano Vidal (photo left), and the new addition to the group, keyboardist and musical director Corey Battey. Battey (photo below right) recently performed with The Bronx Opera in South Fallsburg for the Chamber Music at St. Andrew’s series, which is coincidentally produced by Parksville residents Peggy and Robert Friedman.

Prior to the concert’s beginning, it was easy to feel the excitement and anticipation in the air, especially when a few volunteers were scrambling around looking for seats for the overflowing crowd, or surging down the center aisle with a few folding chairs. That excitement was finally released, after the first offering. The Quartet cleverly opened the program with the appropriate “Reunion Trio” from Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment,” and the applause seemed to be much more than just a “thanks, I enjoyed that” energy. It also seemed to be a “thank you for bringing music back to Parksville.”

The program continued with delightful solos and duets – operatic, popular, folk, Neapolitan – during which the performers were joined by special guests mezzo-soprano Evgeniya Krachmarova (photo left) and cellist Teresa Kubiak.

Caltabellotta and Vidal are known for their bantering, and they did not disappoint. Completely comfortable in that role, they connected even more with the audience, and the surprise of the afternoon came when cellist Kubiak ad-libbed some humorous comments. The repartee added much to the joyful atmosphere that permeated throughout the church. And it continued outside the church during the intermission, thanks to the warm weather one can assume Michele was sending down to Parksville as she watched and listened in spirit. The Festival is sponsored by the Michele Koury Caltabellotta Foundation, and was attended by members of her family who live out of the area.

Kubiak’s presence (photo right) added a lovely complement to Swanson’s singing when she accompanied Swanson’s moving offering of “Vissi’d’arte” from “Tosca.” Vidal’s prowess was evident in his very funny delivery of “You Can Get Away With Everything” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s unsuccessful musical “Woman in White.” Caltabellotta stretched his operatic-Broadway style with his rendering of the cowboy favorite, “Take Me Back To My Boots and Saddle,” while Krachmarova displayed her splendid tessitura (range) in the “Seguidilla” from “Carmen.”

Immediately after Caltabellotta’s singing of “the saddest song I ever sang” (“Se” by Luigi Dena), the effervescent afternoon ended with all four singers performing Verdi’s miniature masterpiece, the Quartet from “Rigoletto.”

To sum up the afternoon, The Parksville USA Music Festival 2013 was heartily and lovingly welcomed by all.

Next up at the Festival is the Minerva String Quartet on Sunday, May 5 at 3:00 p.m. For more information about the series, go to: http://www.parksvilleusa.com/.

For tickets and directions call 845-747-4247. Tickets are also on sale at Floyd & Bobo’s Bakery, the official Parksville USA Festival box office, 89 North Main Street in Liberty.