(Above: Siri Vik in a previous performance at The Shedd; photo by Paul Carter)

By Randi Bjornstad

The title of Siri Vik’s new solo show at The Shedd — Save for Later — at first might sound a bit strange, but when she explains it, you think, “Oh, of course. Now I get it.”

The phrase reminds her of what happens to her and many other online shoppers as they fill their virtual shopping carts with potential purchases. “You know, where you pare down the impulse buys in your cart and push the button that says ‘Save for later,’ ” Vik says. “This show’s theme is just like that list of things you’re saving for later.”

Musically speaking, the Eugene chanteuse actually has been saving things for later for years, and she’s decided now is the perfect time to put them together in a concert that offers a broader array of styles and moods than many of the ones she has designed in the past, which often featured a particular singer, era, or musical genre.

The idea first came up a couple of years ago in a conversation with James Ralph, The Shedd’s executive director, Vik recalls, when he suggested that she come up with an “easier” show theme for the next season, meaning more relaxed concept development, research, and preparation time than her usually tightly woven themes and song choices require.

“My response was essentially that I have a stack of songs at home that I love, that I haven’t performed in a Shedd show, that haven’t fit previous Shedd concerts for various reasons — why don’t I do a concert of those?”

A few months later, planning for such a concert came to an abrupt halt when the coronavirus pandemic hit early in 2020, completely shutting down the performing world. But now that performers and audiences are eagerly returning to theaters and concert halls — albeit with vaccination, masking, and social distancing in mind — it seems like the ideal choice.

Vik describes Save for Later as “a program of eclectic vocal music — eclectic to an almost absurd degree.”

“There‘s a bit of gospel, musical theater, 19th-century opera, 1930s cabaret, ’50s ballad, ’60s bossa nova, disco, French chanson, and some classic and modern pop songs — and a song from Robert Altman’s 1980 film, Popeye.”

Even  — or maybe especially — with all those choices, developing the playlist was difficult, she admits.

“Unfortunately my favorite music — from campy, guilty pleasures to some of the most sublime art music — is all pretty high-key, theatrical, and extreme,” so broadening it out and and then narrowing it down was no easy task.

At the same time, constant awareness of the fear and grief of the pandemic, with lots of time to look both inward and outward, has helped her hone her philosophical approach both to life and song, Vik says.

“I feel, well, a little battleworn, as we all do,” she says, “but also more tender, more earnest, and more interested in taking risks that are worth taking.”

The result is this concert, in which “the repertoire is demanding, theatrically and vocally, all the way through. I’m pretty sure another vocalist would not, in their right mind, put some of the songs on the same concert that I have here,” Vik says. “But overall, the set list feels like ‘me,’ and it just feels worth it, at this point in time.”

Save for Later

When: 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19, and Saturday, Nov. 20; 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21

Where: Jaqua Concert Hall, The Shedd Institute, 868 High St., Eugene

Tickets: $18-$32, available at The Shedd Ticket office, by telephone at 541-434-7000, or online at theshedd.org/SaveForLater; discounts available for students and youths, multiple ticket purchases and season packages

Pre- or post-concert meals: Served at 6 p.m. by reservation only; $24.75, children 9 years and younger, $18.75; menu and reservations at 541-434-7000

The Shedd’s covid-19 protocols:

  • Masking — State of Oregon requires masks to be worn by all, in all indoor public places.
  • Vaccination/testing — Patrons age 15 years and older must present proof of full covid-19 vaccination or a certified negative test within three days of the performance.
  • Distancing — not required.
  • Note —All Shedd staff, faculty, and artists are fully vaccinated.

Program:

SET I
Saved (1960), Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Moonlight Drive (1967), The Doors
Alto’s Lament (1998), Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich
Ronde du Veau D’or (1859, Faust), Jules Barbier, Michel Carré, and Charles Gounod (m)
He Needs Me (1980, Popeye), Harry Nilsson
Thieving Boy (1960, The Criminal/The Concrete Jungle), Cleo Laine
Seeräuber-Jenny, aka Pirate Jenny (1928 Die Dreigroschenoper), Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
La mamma morta (1898, Andrea Chénier), Luigi Illica and Umberto Giordano
Is That All There Is? (1969), Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

SET II
Sous le Ciel de Paris (1951, Sous le Ciel de Paris), Jean Dréjac and Hubert Giraud
Show Off (1998, The Drowsy Chaperone), Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
The Ladies Who Lunch (1970, Company), Stephen Sondheim
The Last Midnight (1987, Into The Woods), Stephen Sondheim
Burn The Witch (2016), Radiohead
Llorando (1961, 2001, Mulholland Drive), Joe Melson and Roy Orbison
Retrato Em Branco E Preto (1965), Chico Buarque and Antônio Carlos Jobim
J’Arrive (1968, J’Arrive), Jacques Brel and Gérard Jouannest
Chance (2019, All Mirrors), Angel Olsen
Tightrope (2010), Janelle Monáe