IN CONCERT: Prelude to a Kiss — The Love Songs of Ella Fitzgerald
Where: Mary Winspear Centre, 2243 Beacon Ave., Sidney
When: Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $60 from tickets.marywinspear.ca or 250-656-0275
A tour of the Vancouver Island area featuring Leina DeBoer as Ella Fitzgerald continues tonight in Sidney with a performance its star says will be a “a journey through the stages of love.”
“Ella made a point of singing about it, from the beginning of a relationship to the heartbreak of losing love,” DeBoer said. “Recalling those moments of heartbreak, but seeing how you were able to rise up and love again, is what this show is about. We’re going to laugh, and we might even cry a bit.”
DeBoer, who lives in Abbotsford, will be joined in Sidney and for additional performances on Salt Spring Island (Feb. 13, ArtSpring) and Courtenay (Feb. 16, Sid Williams Theatre) by pianist Morrissey Dunn. DeBoer has the hugely difficult task of portraying Fitzgerald, who won 14 Grammy Awards during her 60-year career and is considered by many to be the best singer of all time, but she’s up to the task.
Inhabiting an artist who is often only referenced by her first name is not lost on DeBoer, whose Prelude to a Kiss — The Love Songs of Ella Fitzgerald tour with Dunn started Jan. 21 in Parksville. DeBoer, 39, is the same age as Fitzgerald was when she was drawing raves in the 1950s for her big-band treatments of the Cole Porter songbook, now considered one of the best creative periods of any artist in history.
It took her all of two seconds to realize during rehearsals that Fitzgerald was wise beyond her years. “She makes it look so easy, what she did on the stage,” DeBoer said.
“When you dive in and sing her songs in her style and her voice, you realize it’s a workout. Physically, you want to make sure you’re drinking lots of water, because she could take it from a low range and slide it up an octave like that. Nobody could do it like Ella.”
mdevlin@timescolonist
