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 Francesco Barfoed and Megan Moore

Marvelous Mezzo Megan Moore! What a pleasure it gives us to watch the development of young singers as their fame grows along with their vocal artistry. Thanks to the search bar on our blog, we are able to look back at what we wrote in prior years and, truth be told, to congratulate ourself on appreciating their gifts at an early stage of an artist's career.

It seems as if the first time we wrote about Ms. Moore was in 2018 at The Marcella Sembrich Competition when she impressed us with a song by Moniuszko, introducing us to a composer we have come to love, in spite of not understanding Polish.

Just before the career interruptions brought on by the Covid isolation, we wrote this about her performance at a Juilliard concert...What affected us the most was "Was I not a blade of grass in the field", another strophic song with some stunning melismatic passages and a powerful climax. We have heard Ms. Moore in recital and competitions-- singing an appealing Cenerentola and a resolute Dorabella as well as the Komponist--always admiring her lyricism and dramatic skills. But last night she made us weep in her deeply committed rendering of a young woman's hopeless situation.

(Forgive us, Dear Reader, for quoting ourself but we think it's important to acknowlege a young singer's development and how they grow as they tackle different roles, different periods, and different languages.) 

Entering competitions is just one part of this process. Recognition by Young Concert Artists is another feather in Ms. Moore's cap. Singing with New York Festival of Song is yet another. This year will see her playing major roles in opera companies all over the world.

That's enough about Ms. Moore's prior and future successes; we would like to tell you about her most recent recital yesterday at The Morgan Library, appearing as a first prize winner of the George and Nora London Foundation 2022 Competition. Her brilliant collaborative pianist is the equally talented Francesco Barfoed who often accompanies her. His pianism impresses us as much as her vocalism. They form a perfect partnership.

The program opened with a wide leap into the 17th century lament of Barbara Strozzi,one of our favorite composers of the Baroque period. The anonymous poet sings of her (let us assume it is a woman) luxuriating in the anguish of a lost love affair in "L'Eraclito amoroso". Of course the Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was a man, but Ms. Moore made the lament her own and mined the text for depth and complexity of emotional tone.

With a rapid shift of mood and period, the artist sailed into Rossini's exciting song cycle La Regata Veneziana. Since it was her choice to render the Baroque piece with full vocal color (as is our preference, as opposed to the dry sound one hears often at Baroque recitals) it became obvious that the decoration of the vocal line in the 19th century owes a debt to the 17th. Wherever it comes from, we adore fioritura. Even more important than the vocal artistry was the emotional intensity; it was so intense that we wanted to leap from our seat to cheer for her Momolo. The picture she painted of the gondola race became vivid before our eyes and this can only come from her own ability to visualize it and to bring us into her world.

We do not understand Russian so, minus projected titles (more about that later), we found our attention focusing more on Mr. Barfoed's colorful exposition of Prokofiev's Five Poems of Anna Akhmatova, op.27.  What moods the piano created!  Here were racing figures of excitement, there were solemn pleas for tenderness, and melancholy as well. One could hear the colors as well in Ms. Moore's voice, even when not understanding the words.

A pair of Rachmaninoff songs were more familiar to us and we noted some beautiful sounds in Ms. Moore's upper register, whereas the somber Prokofiev songs seemed to feature her sturdy lower register.

And now we come to what was, for us, the best part of the program. We never tire of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. What we love is that the singer and pianist both get to show a wide range of emotions. The singer is filled with sorrow and tries to cheer up by mean of nature, then realizes a violent type of pain, and ultimately a return to grief and an awareness of the extent of the loss. Both artists produced an entire palette of colors.

The program ended with a commissioned work that requires explanation. We can never think of the late Nora London without a wave of positive feelings. She always struck us as a most gracious lady of the "old school", going out of her way to thank us for our writing about the vocal competition and recitals. She served as a model for us; we aim to be as mobile and gracious and generous as she was.

So, the discovery of her teenage diaries from a period when she was fleeing the Nazis, traveling from France to Portugal and then to New York, filled us with anticipation. Her family wavered over the decision; should they even read them, share them, or keep them private. Jake Heggie was commissioned to set them to music and Gene Scheer was assigned the task of adapting the diary entries.

Now we realize that Mr. Heggie is honored as a major 21st century composer and that Ms. Moore is very fond of his works. We wanted very much to love this tribute to our dear Nora London. Well, we cannot say that in all truth. What we can say is that Mr. Heggie wrote some stunning music for piano that we would be happy to hear again. However, we would have preferred to hear a narrator reading the actual words of the teenage Nora over the music. The vocal line just was not interesting and that is a problem we have with most contemporary music. There, we said it and we won't retract.  There were many in the audience who did appreciate the work and we are glad of it.

Not having read the diary ourself, we have no idea whether the musings of an unfortunately dislocated 15 year old. would be worth reading. If they revealed something about the grand lady that this child would become, they would have more value to us. Still, it is a tribute and we are grateful for any honor bestowed upon people we admire.

And now it is time for "the quibble" The auditorium at the Morgan Library really needs to be outfitted with titles.  We looked around the space and observed nearly every member of the audience reading the libretto instead of allowing the artist to connect with them. We think that is sad. If it is impossible to have projected titles, it is a better plan to have the artist give a brief synopsis of the song before it is sung. We are not limiting these alternatives to works in foreign languages. Even works in English become difficult to understand unless it is a low voice with impeccable enunciation.

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