TAKING a three-month hiatus from her singing career on stages in Las Vegas casinos and venues in Arizona, New York and throughout the United States, Grace Abarca is back home in Costa Rica. She will perform tonight at Tokú restaurant and bar in the western San José suburb of Escazú, and again in a Christmas show at the Palacio de los Deportes in Heredia, northwest of San José.Her performances run the gamut of languagesand musical styles and are studded with some original tunes.She sings her collection of Broadway show tunes, Italian opera, Latin pop and other styles at the Stratosphere, Caesars Palace and the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, and recently toured the United States with acclaimed Vegas New Age pianist Giovanni.“I want people to have fun; I want to interact with people,” Abarca said. “I havesome very good memories of American people – they are very warm.”Her professional career spans 20 years, but she broke onto the U.S. scene only four years ago. One of the advantages she has over the stiff Vegas competition is the sheer variety of styles she can handle.“Versatility has helped me. I can show (potential employers) that I could go fromopera to Latin pop and sound good in bothstyles,” she said.Besides shifting styles, she shifts languages,singing songs in English and Spanish, as well as French, Italian, Portuguese, German and Japanese. A nine-piece band and backup singers will accompany her tonight at Tokú. Her repertoire will include mostly songs in English and Spanish, though she will sing one opera selection in Italian and another song in Portuguese. The performance begins at 9 p.m. and the cover charge is ¢5,000 ($10). For information, call Tokú at 228-4091.The Christmas show in Heredia will run from Dec. 19 to Jan. 1. More information on this event will become available in the coming weeks.
