Atlantic City Weekly

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The Ocean City Pops remain one of the area’s best bets each summer, offering a lively and varied series of performances at the Music Pier, with a schedule that extends through September.


But that schedule is sprinkled with a lot more than just performances by the Pops’ resident musicians. Throughout the season Pops performances are livened up with guest singers and bands. 


William Scheible, director of the pops, traces back the Pops’ schedule of guest artists to a refurbishing of the Music Pier about a decade ago, which increased the size of the venue’s stage. 


“Before, we couldn’t really do any theatrical productions or bring in very many guest artists,” says Scheible, who has been conducting the pops for 25 years. “But now we’ve been able to work with theater groups and bring in guest artists ... We could never do that before.”


Which is why this Sunday, Aug. 21, The Pops will play opera. 


The pops will present Highlights of Carmen, the classic opera by Georges Bizet.


Joining the Pops will be singers Colleen Daly, Norman Garrett, Mo El Zein, Carla Dirlikov, with choral accompaniment provided by the Doug Murdoch Singers.


Here are the descriptions of the guest singers.


Dirlikov was recently described by Opera Magazine as having “the most compelling voice of the evening, one that grabbed the heartstrings with its dramatic force and musicality.” In the past two seasons, she made European debuts as Principessa Eboli in Don Carlo with the Opera Royal de Wallonie in Belgium and her European concert debut in Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Beethoven’s Kantate auf den Tod Kaiser Josephs II at the Spoleto Festival in Italy.


Soprano Colleen Daly is rapidly emerging as a “dramatically powerful” (The Washington Post) singer in today’s operatic arena. Miss Daly’s wide range of roles includes Musetta in Des Moines Metro Opera’s production of La Bohème, the Countess in Annapolis Opera’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro, and the title roles in Opera Delaware’s production of La Traviata, among many others. 


Norman Garrett, baritone, is a native of Lubbock, Texas. Garrett has a BM in vocal performance from Texas Tech University. Most recently, he received his MM in voice from CCM, The College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Garrett was consistently cast in main stage roles at CCM. Those roles include Bertrand — from Dangerous Liaisons, Thoas — from Iphigénie en Tauride, Reporter 1 — Miss Lonelyhearts (Midwest Premiere), and Alcindoro — La Bohème.


Mo El Zein hailing originally from Beirut, Lebanon, is a resident artist at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He recently performed the role of Luigi in Puccini’s Il Tabarro in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in which the review from the Philadelphia newspaper The Chestnut Hill Local said of him: “Tenor Mo El Zein intensely invested in the role of Luigi with reckless abandon….most certainly thrilling to see and hear.”


All in all not a bad lineup of up-and coming operatic talent. 


Tickets are $20/$12. Showtime is 8pm.


Tuesday, Aug. 23, the Pops offer up their version of Cirqu De La Symphony which features exceptional cirque veterans from throughout the world - aerial flyers, acrobats, contortionists, dancers, jugglers, and balancers, all performing to exciting music of the Pops.


So you can see, you can never be sure who’s going to be on stage with the Pops.


Tickets are $25/$20. Showtime is 8pm. 


Another concert of note is the closing performance of the Stockton Goes to the Beach concert series. For the last hurrah, the series features “ABBAmania” a recreation of the 70’s pop super group. You can expect pretty faithful recreations of the bands hits (isn’t every ABBA song a hit?) including “Dancing Queen,” “Fernando,” “Waterloo,” and “SOS”.


The Stockton performance is Monday at the Music Pier at 8pm. Tickets are $30.