Cruises broaden entertainment with opera, theater

BY ARLINE AND SAM BLEECKER | Chicago Tribune

May 25, 2008

Sure, the fanfare and the feathers are still there: the high-stepping Vegas-look-alike hoofers, the brassy Broadway revues and the bauble-bedecked million-dollar productions. But entertainment at sea is broadening to include classical music performances, opera, contemporary dance and theater.

Cunard Line, for instance, plans to showcase the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, one of the world's most distinguished chamber music ensembles, on Queen Mary 2's eastbound trans-Atlantic crossing departing New York Sept. 4. (For details, visit cunard.com.)

On Crystal Cruise Line's new "Classical Music" cruise to Scandinavia and Russia on the Crystal Symphony, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will headline a program of distinguished artists and composers. Performances and guest lecturers highlight the music of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart and, as Crystal's announcement notes, transform the symphony into a floating concert hall on the 11-day voyage, which departs June 7 to the Baltic's imperial cities. (crystalcruises.com).

Celebrity Cruise Line, in conjunction with Haven Entertainment, will host a "Smooth Music Cruise" in 2009 aboard the Celebrity Century. The five-day Caribbean cruise will spotlight some of the top talents in smooth music, including Norman Brown, Nick Colionne, Boney James, Mindi Abair, Larry Carlton, Heather Headley, Acoustic Alchemy, Marion Meadows, Michael Lington, Shilts, Steve Oliver, Chieli Minucci, Alan Hewitt and Althea Rene. The cruise (smoothmusic cruise.com) sets sail from Miami Jan. 31.

Also on the docket for next year, Hurtigruten Cruises, formerly Norwegian Coastal Voyages, announced seven theme vacations on its fleet of vessels as they wend their way above the Arctic Circle along Norway's fjord-filled west coast.

Hurtigruten's "Virtuosi Classical" cruises pay tribute to the life and work of famed Norwegian Edvard Grieg and the music of some of Europe's most accomplished composers. In April, passengers on the Trollfjord can experience the sounds of Benny Goodman and Cab Calloway on the "The Big Bands Are Back!" cruise. Live music from that era features a medley of offerings, from Dizzy Gillespie to Jimmy Dorsey (hurtigruten.us).

Meanwhile, entertainment elsewhere is stretching the envelope. On Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade, passengers not only can see four new Off-Broadway musicals, but also the long-running "Tony n' Tina's Wedding." The production's wedding and reception are held once per cruise in the ship's Spinnaker Lounge, which is transformed into Vinnie's Coliseum restaurant. The most unusual offering aboard the Norwegian Jade may be Twyla Tharp's Sinatra Suite, a ballet duet set to Sinatra music and performed as part of a classical evening that includes an opera singer (ncl.com).

On Silversea Cruises' voyage July 5 from Athens to Venice aboard the Silver Whisper, award-winning actor John Lithgow performs portions of his new one-man show, "Stories by Heart," currently playing a limited engagement at Lincoln Center. The show is a comic meditation on the art of storytelling, invoking memories of Lithgow's grandmother and father as well as a family history spanning three generations. (silversea.com).

Perhaps as testimony to the degree of changes taking place in the entertainment-at-sea department, even the Metropolitan Opera has made a mainstream appearance. In an industry-exclusive event in April, Princess ships became the first cruise vessels to broadcast a performance live from New York's Metropolitan Opera. The special, "The Met: Live on the High Seas," was a presentation of Puccini's "La Boheme." It was part of the Met's series of eight opera performances transmitted live via satellite to movie theaters around the world. The Puccini classic was broadcast on all 16 Princess ships (princess.com).