Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre
Reviewed 14 June 2018
From a young girl on the mountain-sides of Peru to a Beverly Hills recluse, Peruvian songbird, Yma Sumac, is introduced to the audience through famed Australian singer, Ali McGregor.
McGregor first discovered Sumac whilst listening to a CD made for her by a friend and although she had heard samplings of her work throughout the years, this was the spark that lit a fire in the Australian singer to learn all she could about this extraordinary woman’s life.
Yma Sumac (pronounced E-ma Soo-mack) was one of the world’s most famous exponents of the exotica genre in the 1950’s due to her mysterious and foreign background and impressive four-octave vocal range. She began singing in the mountainside of Peru as a young girl and soon became a singing sensation in her own country, alongside her husband and cousin. They then decided to try their luck in the USA where Sumac was marketed as a mysterious Aztec Princess, playing to the American audience’s desire for exotic glamour.
McGregor doesn’t shy away from detailing the darker side of the singer’s life, including the relentless unfaithfulness of her husband, cousin and assistants, alongside her loss of fame and fall into anonymity.
This enthralling life story is interwoven with McGregor’s extraordinary vocals as she performs mind-blowing renditions of Sumac’s famous songs, recreating the Peruvian coloratura soprano’s extreme vocal range with complete ease. Her passion in bringing Sumac’s story to the world is obvious and inspiring.
At many points Sumac’s vocals (as presented by McGregor) are reminiscent of birds chirruping in a forest, and it is clear that she was heavily influenced by a childhood spent singing to the birds. At other times her vocals are like a deep, dramatic bellowing that shakes the room as the emotion and passion felt inside both singer’s surges over the audience.
The stage and set have been left mainly unfurnished to allow for McGregor, her supporting acts and the talented band to be the main focus of the show. The minimalistic set, though, does include a screen on which images of Peru and real videos of Sumac are at times projected, providing a ghost-like sense of her presence.
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival continues to impress this season with Yma Sumac providing its audiences with an extraordinary and unique vocal experience as Ali McGregor gives her all to presenting the life of a singer whose story has become intertwined with her own.
Reviewed by Georgina Smerd
Twitter: @Georgie_xox
Rating out of 5: 5
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, 5000
Season: 14 – 16 June
Duration: 70 mins
Tickets: $42 – $57
Bookings: https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/events/yma-sumac/
More News
