TSO gives fans a late Christmas gift

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, E Center, Wednesday.

WEST VALLEY CITY — Christmas extended itself this year.

And by the looks of the musical and visual gifts the Trans-Siberian Orchestra left at the E Center Thursday, the audience must have been very good, indeed.

What's more, TSO, as it is known by fans around the country, chose Utah for the final date of its annual Christmas tour.

While other bands sometimes rush through its sets on its last date, TSO — featuring guitarists Al Pitrelli and Angus Clark, keyboardist Carmine Giglio, drummer John O'Reilly, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and pianist Jane Mangini (Pitrelli's wife) — took its time and made sure each note and visual aspect of the show was executed with care.

The lasers added to the excitement of the production where the stage lights stopped and the flashpots and other pyrotechnics kicked the show up a notch.

However, the concert wouldn't have been anything without the music. Each one of Pitrelli and Clark's leads touched the soul of the arrangements. The keyboards and piano added reverence to the story line narration by Anthony Gaynor.

Also joining the band was a string octet comprised of seven members of the Utah Symphony & Opera, and Anna Phoebe, TSO's own violinist.

The mix of the show was balanced and clean. No feedback interrupted the heartfelt vocal solos by Michael Lanning, Jill Gioia, Guy LeMonnier, Tommy Farese and Graham Tracey.

Power chords highlighted classic Christmas carols, such as a medley of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "O Holy Night." The musicians offered up their musical prowess during "A Mad Russian's Christmas" and the breakthrough single "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24."

Gioia belted out "Good King Joy," and Farese took center stage during "Ornament." LeMonnier, who has performed in various musical theatre works in New York, filled the hall with his passionate voice on "An Angel Came Down," and Lanning took on the blues with "The Prince of Peace." Not to be left out in the cold, Tracey warmed his hands and the hearts of the audience with "Old City Bar."

During the second half of the show, vocalist Kristin Gorman hit the operatic soprano notes during "Anno Domine," and the keyboardists once more dueled it out with classical, ragtime and blues riffs during "Wish Liszt."

The mixing of rock and classical came to a head with the TSO version of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and Pachelbel's "Canon," rechristened "Christmas Canon Rock." And the audience rewarded the band with a few well-deserved standing ovation. In fact, it didn't want the band to stop and lined up in the E Center lobby for autographs.

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com