Victor Borge hit with record matinee audience at SPAC
by Candace Hollar, The Saratogian
Victor Borge, one of the old masters of comedy, entertained and delighted a record crowd of over 11,000 children, parents and grandparents in a beautiful summer afternoon matinee, Tuesday at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
From the children stretched out on the spacious lawns, to smiling adults and fidgeting youngsters in the front rows, Borge took the audience from the start with his spontaneous, improvisational style of comedy that both endeared him to audiences worldwide.
The crowd was a record itself, with SPAC officials reporting the 11,318 persons who heard and saw Borge and the Philadelphia Orchestra Tuesday afternoon comprised the largest single matinee performance in the history of the center. Reportedly, the previous matinee record was a 1972 performance of “The Nutcracker” by the New York City Ballet, with a crowd of over 6,000.
With a well-earned reputation as a pianist and comedian, Borge introduced yet another dimension to his career– conducting the Philadelphia orchestra in a wide variety of classical and popular music.
With Borge’s memorable comedy in between, the orchestra opened with Dvorak’s “Carnival” Overture, a famous and favorite among both children and adults; followed by Korngold’s Overture to “Captain Blood” (movie overture), and Papp’s “Adventures of Piccolo and Saxophone or a Small Story of a Big Orchestra”. Entertainment at intermission was provided by Ronald McDonald, whose appearance was sponsored by 26 McDonald’s restaurants in the Capitol area.
Papp’s “Adventures of Piccolo and Saxophone” was a bright and entertaining piece intended to introduce children to the instruments of the symphony orchestra, and was a welcome relief from innumerable performances of “Peter and the Wolf.” The piece was narrated by Borge, two of his children, Frederikke and Victor Bernhard Borge, Marc Goggins, and Marylyn Mulvey.
Following intermission was a short arrangement of Rodgers-Hammerstein’s “Happy Talk” from the film “South Pacific.
Winding up a beautiful afternoon, the orchestra combined their instrumental voices with those of the Saratoga-Potsdam Chorus in an inspiring performance of Glazunov’s “Triumphal March”, a combination of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and a Russian folk song.
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