If the little chocolate valentines wrapped in red tinsel scattered on the tables didn’t give it away, Alfie Zappacosta’s rendition of My Funny Valentine made it clear.
His concert Thursday at Centre in the Square was intended as a St. Valentine’s Day treat delivered four days early.
Every one of the 17 songs he delivered to launch the Centre’s seventh annual On Stage Series was a musical valentine.
Beginning with the classic confection from Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, the Edmonton-based singer/songwriter explored the contours of love like a miner prospecting for romantic gold.
With the exception of Volare, popularized by Dean Martin, Billy Paul’s Me and Mrs. Jones and Marc Jordan’s enchanting Tears of Hercules, which Zappacosta has recorded, the evening consisted of original compositions spanning more than two decades.
Dressed in a dark suit, with his shirt’s top three buttons undone to reveal a gold pendant, he played the role as an Italian lover with his suave vocals and seductive acoustic guitar work.
The two-time Juno winner offered some of his most popular songs including Oh My Baby, from one of his most recent albums Bonafide, in addition to We Should Be Lovers, I’ll Be the One, Passion, 500 Days and When I Fall.
The personable performer also sang Orlanda, inspired by an aunt with the enchanting name; Nothing Can Stand in Your Way, a co-write with David Foster; and Stella, an unrecorded song he wrote to raise funds for a women’s shelter.
His encore was I’ll Be the One, an old song he has recorded a couple of times which his daughter asked him to sing at her wedding last summer.
Accompanied by Andrew Glover on piano and Claudio Vena on violin and accordion, Zappacosta displayed a vocal style of impressive range and emotional colouring. It was easy to see why he has enjoyed a career in musical theatre in addition to one as a pop artist.
There were times, however, when he succumbed to the temptation of the big theatrical gesture which bordered on affectation. Worked-up emotion slipped into sentimentality. In these instances, less would have been more.
The intimate, cabaret-style format of the On Stage series provided the perfect setting for an evening of romantic ballads that bridged pop, smooth jazz, Latin and adult contemporary styles.
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The style is relaxed, the mood is intimate, a little more supper club than cabaret, though there is somewhat of a theme which fits the bill for this cabaret romantico."Falling in love is so easy" reads the introduction to the show, "while staying in love can be so hard." There's nothing terribly original in that - just about every cabaret that's come along in the last 25 years or so is about contemporary relationships. And in fact Zappacosta and MacEwen could sing the phone book and make it sound good, but romance is decidedly in the air with the two. MacEwan relates to Zappacosta in the duets like a cat with the cream; on her own she shares some friendly space with master accordionist/violist Claudio Vena who can make his instruments sound as if the music is wafting from a favorite Hungarian cafe.