Pubdate: Thu, 17 Apr 2008
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2008 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Richard Scheinin, Mercury News

CRITIC'S PICK: MUSIC: SHEER FUN

A year ago, Santa Cruz composer Joel Ford premiered "The Cannabis 
Cantata" at the University of California-Santa Cruz. The 
jazz/rock/reggae opera was a blast: charming, funny and original. Now 
here comes a reprise performance Sunday at the Rio Theatre. Ford 
takes his inspiration from J.S. Bach's "Coffee Cantata," a brief 
comic opera about the tribulations of coffee addicts in 18th-century 
Leipzig, with lines like this one: "If I can't drink my bowl of 
coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like 
a piece of roast goat." Ford's libretto holds a skewed mirror up to 
the plot, while comically examining some of the behaviors of today's 
marijuana users, as well as social attitudes surrounding them. It's 
neither preachy nor P.C.; it's just plain fun, and you'll enjoy the 
music, which draws on everything from Zappa to Mingus to the Beatles 
and Phish. Ford directs a spirited young cast, and the nine-piece 
band features the terrific saxophonist Paul Contos.

7:30 p.m. Sunday, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz; $16, $13 
advance; www.riotheatre.com; information (831) 234-3718, (831) 227-4980.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake