Prepare to seriously crush on Eric Stern of Vagabond Opera Friday night at Jazzbones. There’s something about his decadent, chocolaty voice and his rebellious use of unusual music that makes him at least a fascinating, enigmatic character and at most a goddess, demon, virgin whore. (After you’ve seen the show that last line will make a lot more sense to you.) Anyway, back to Stern (no relation to Howard), not only does he have tremendous talent and academic degrees to back up his skill, he also has this sexually ambiguous Tim Curry charisma thing going on — which is no small accomplishment while playing the accordion.



A night with Vagabond Opera is a plunge down the rabbit hole into dirty European Gypsy immigrant love. Only in this rabbit hole, instead of Alice’s encounter with a phobic albino bunny and a feline with daily tooth whitening appointments, this trip includes a flame-masticating dancer with a hula hoop of fire and an abdominally flexible expert in Raks Sharki (that’s a fancy name for belly dancing if you didn’t know; Wikipedia is a writer’s best friend). The Vagabond Opera show even includes the occasional act of on-cue violence, which everyone knows is essential to any modern form of 21st-century entertainment. 



The Vagabond Opera concept was founded by a restless intellectual opera singer with bohemian leftist ideals referencing Kierkegaard inspired Absurdism to explain the whimsical nature of his creations. The music is a highly entertaining, mesmerizing romp through intermingled, obscure and nearly forgotten genres of music.



The music is totally uninhibited by borders or anything else. It’s Yiddish, it’s jazz, it’s Arabic, it’s Balkan, it’s klezmer, it’s cabaret, it’s Ukrainian folk-punk, it’s Neo-Classical opera, and it’s all performed with the panache of a pseudo-circus ringleader with a handlebar mustache and a bowler hat who happens to be a flawless operatic tenor who can hold a robust note for a full 20 seconds. In fact, I bet he could read aloud that last sentence in a single breath.



The recent resurgence of musicals and opera into the mainstream had not a thing to do with his decision to perform his hybrid operatic compositions. “I’ve studied opera and loved it all my life,” says Stern. “I had this vision a long time ago.”



Stern’s isn’t the only operatic voice in the band. The lilting soprano of Leslie Kernochan adds a sense of sweetness to the performance.



“The big thing that separates us is our stage presence and musicianship,” says Stern. “All of us are trained and have degrees or multiple degrees.”



Stern speaks French, Italian, German, Yiddish, Arabic and, of course, English, but he sings in several languages in addition to those. “Even if I don’t speak the language,” he says, “I look up each word to know what it means and to get the pronunciation right.”



Though the show doesn’t intentionally follow a story line, Stern says people might feel that way after the show, and it’s something Stern and company are definitely looking to do in the future.

“It is centrally a musical event, but I think of it as neo-cabaret because there is definitely a showmanship to it. It would be nice if we wrote an opera,” says Stern. 



As for the Cirque du Soleil style, over-the-top, circus sideshow shtick, Stern admits, “It’s just the presentational format we’ve chosen. I’m sort of influenced by the HBO series ‘Carnival.’”



My recommendation is call ahead for a reservation and don’t wear anything flammable.



[Jazzbones, Friday, Feb. 9, 9 p.m., all ages, $8-$10, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169]