Search - Bill Whelan :: Riverdance

It's hard to believe that Riverdance, which began as a 7-minute intermission act during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, is already 10 years old. Nobody back then could have imagined that a new-fangled amalgam of Irish folk styles, light classical music a la Albert W. Ketelbey and Tin Pan Alley would top the charts, win a Grammy for Best Musical and go on to take the world by storm. But why re-record Riverdance, which is as deeply associated with its original time and context as Saturday Night Fever is with the 1970s? Yes, the Irish players, all of whom are master instrumentalists, still sound fresh, but the percussive dancing feet, minus visuals, gets old fast. The Macedonian, Spanish and Russian interpolations are great fun if a maybe bit patronizing around the edges. But haven't the misty chorales, New-Age-ridden cloaked-and-hooded sopranos and other portentous Celtic Twilight-isms long since descended into self-parody? --Christina Roden