Brazil’s Vibrant Arts Get a Tepid Display at the Ford’s Summer Festival

Lacking any real headliner, the Brazilian Summer Festival at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday night filled its program with relatively lightweight performances.

The exception was Ballet Folkclorico Do Brasil’s superb array of colorful costumes and African-influenced music and dance. The ensemble’s most fascinating segment focused on the dramatic movements of the capoeira, a potentially dangerous mix of dance and martial arts, in which arms and legs are rapidly hurled. The wild, acrobatic moves drew repeated shouts of enthusiasm from the full-house crowd.

There was far less response to the balance of the show. The Sambacoustic Choro Band is a pleasant if not especially intriguing ensemble whose easygoing samba music is probably better suited to a lounge than a concert stage.

Velly Bahia & the Capoeiras produced tepid Brazilian pop and indeterminate dance music in an effort to draw members of the audience to the dancing area at the rear stage. It was unclear why the group was called the “Capoeiras,” and Bahia himself was far better at prancing across the stage than he was at singing in tune.

And the announced “Vegas-style presentation” by the Tropidanza Dance Ensemble fell short of that mark with a random set of minimally choreographed sambas performed by a group of attractive but not especially well-rehearsed dancers.

Fireworks Above Bowl Stage, Not On

Lightweight entertainment is what one expects and generally gets at the Hollywood Bowl’s annual Independence Day celebration. Ephemeral musical selections, often with a patriotic tinge, lead up to the fireworks display.

Friday’s concert, however, set a standard for insubstantial entertainment. The most intriguing musical moments, in fact, were provided by some songbirds, high in a tree near the stage, whose blithe warbling added a wonderfully appropriate touch to the opening bars of Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” The balance of the program, mostly made up of undemanding film and stage music, was executed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra with unblinking professional boredom.

Della Reese’s narration for the Copland work revealed little of the sensitivity she brings to her role as Tess in the CBS drama “Touched by an Angel.” In the past, Reese has done some dependable singing in a style that blends elements of gospel, blues and jazz. But her showcase set, attempting to display her as a big-voiced, declamatory vocalist, simply didn’t play to her skills.

Singing Whitney Houston’s hit “The Greatest Love of All,” the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” the patriotic “America, the Beautiful” and, predictably, “Touched by an Angel,” Reese pushed her vocal skills to their limits and beyond. A more intimate approach may not have suited her current star status, but it would have produced a far more effective representation of her very real talents.