PORT OF ENTRY: NEW YORK

Dina Pruzhansky, Ruoting Li, Alexandra Linde, Pavel Suliandziga, and Rachel Arky

What a thrill! It isn't every day that we get to see not just one but two singers from our Around the World in Song concerts, onstage at Carnegie Hall. What was interesting about last night's concert was that the presenters--New York Artist Management and Composers Concordance--have the same goals as Around the World in Song does--to explore the artistic heritage of musicians from around the world who call New York City home.

These two organizations cast their net wider than we do, including all kinds of musicians, not just singers. We had the opportunity to hear music we had never been exposed to, most of which we enjoyed a great deal.

Renowned and much celebrated composer Dina Pruzhansky grew up in Israel and performed two of her own compositions. From her opera Shulamit, she chose the "Wedding Duet" with text drawn from the highly romantic "The Song of Songs". We regret having missed past performances of the opera and hope we will have an opportunity to hear a revival in the near future. Unlike most contemporary composers, Ms. Pruzhansky writes music that is melodic and accessible.

Mezzo-soprano Rachel Arky performed the female role and tenor Pavel Suliandziga performed the male part. Mr. Suliandziga was featured in our very first Around the World in Song singing Tchaikovsky.

Ms. Arky has been on our radar screen for several years. She made a fine Papagena as a guest artist with Career Bridges (having previously won an award) and we recall her Gianetta in Bare Opera's L'elisir d'Amore. The two made a fine pair with some beautiful harmonic blending in this melodic duet.

Ms. Pruzhansky also shared a solo piano work entitled AM New York which describes a day in New York in a manner that brought to mind Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. But in her composition, the day began with a jangling alarm clock followed by some unhappy chords in the piano. We enjoyed this colorful work immensely.

We were also delighted to hear Swedish songbird Alexandra Linde once more since she had performed some charming Swedish folk songs on the same program as Mr. Suliandziga. Last night she "put on her opera hat" to perform "Linee" an aria from Luigi Porto's Anita Di Laguna, with which we are unfamiliar. She was accompanied by pianist Ruoting Li.

Also on the program was a soprano from the Belgrade Opera, Snezana Savicic Sekulic who demonstrated a gorgeous upper register in "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. She also performed Rachmaninoff's haunting "Ne Poy Krasavitsa Pri Mne" and we would have preferred a simpler delivery than that used in opera.  We might have enjoyed Villa Lobos' "Melodia Sentimental" more if she had not been obscured by a music stand. With its elaborate fioritura Arditi's "Il Bacio" was a good selection for showing off her consummate coloratura.

The remainder of the program was instrumental and, above all, we favored the refined guitar artistry of Serbian Nemanja Bogunovic whose connection with his instrument is so intense that we thought he must eat, drink, and sleep with it. With each successive selection we thought "Oh that's my favorite"! There was incredible variety of rhythm and mood from one piece to the next and each one dazzled in a different way.

He not only composes for his guitar but also arranges his music for a string quintet that lay down a carpet of sound as a worthwhile background for his guitar.

Pianist Jasna Popovic delighted us with the filigree of Barcelo's "La Grandalla". Pianist Ruoting Li began the evening with Kostabi's "Italian Summer", an accessible piece that started off with a riff on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony. This made more sense to our ears than "Away" by Pritsker.

Krstajic's composition "Zasp'o Janko" contained the most delightful folk tune that was ruined for us by amplification, as was the romantic "Solo Una Noche".  They were performed by "vocalist" Tamara Jokic about whom we have nothing to say. Amplified voices just hurt our ears; that being said, the audience seemed to enjoy both her and the accompanying jazz band.

In sum, it was a worthwhile evening and filled with delights--above all hearing music that was new to us.

© meche kroop

AROUND THE WORLD IN SONG

José Maldonado, Tamara Kim, Sulgi Cho, Alexandra Linde, Marcel Sokalski, Alexei Kuznietsov, Xeni Tziouvaras, and Tongyao Li

Guest Review by Cullen Gandy

It was back to the West Village again, one of my very favorite places, this time for a special evening of song. This effort was brought about by some familiar faces in the opera community-- Meche Kroop and Amber Evans; two figures who have consistently championed the cause of supporting young talent in the city. This concert, too, was aimed toward that end. It featured a select crew of young talent, that they have mined from around town. Their national patrimonies each (funny enough) spanned from all across the world.

The singers, 6 in all, chose to sing songs from the languages native to the countries of their origin; or those with which they had a close familial connection. As you can imagine, this made for quite the eclectic evening of art! Swedish, Polish, Korean, Ukrainian, Greek, and Spanish were on the menu — while they are beautiful languages, I won’t have too much authority to speak on diction.

The first young singer of the night was a soprano by the name of Alexandra Linde, from Sweden. The most salient selection from her set was a Swedish aria by the name of "Ack hvad behag ett hjärta njuter" (Krauss). I had to do a double take when looking at this one, because it sounds almost identical to something Mozart would have written. It is a pleasing light lyric soprano voice, and showed some really nice ability to sing in the legato parts of the set. Sometimes, though, she faltered a bit with the fioritura passages. I think Mozart will be a great fit for her as she progresses through her professional career.

Marcel Sokalski offered a set of Polish art songs. The Canadian baritone had a clarion type of sound, especially through the middle and top, without sacrificing too much on the bottom. His voice reminds me of some great lyric baritone contemporaries like John Brancy, where people marvel at just how easy it sounds up there. His acting was good for the majority of the set, but there was a bit of indicative hand gesturing going on, at times. He will be attending Chautauqua this summer; featured in the role of Demetrius from A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

Sulgi Cho explained that the “modern” art song didn’t exist in Korea, because of the lack of pianos and western musical norms there. She offered several traditional songs, with the addition of a fairly recent Korean art song. She was the only person to have brought a prop to the show, a little hand fan, which was cute. I really enjoyed the ethereal quality of Cho’s voice. It seemed to emanate throughout entire space of the room, like a sunbeam. She also displayed several stylized gestures during the course of her singing, which reminded me of French Baroque operatic styling. Interesting stuff.

As the night progressed, so too did the maturity of the artists in certain ways. Alexei Kuznietsov, a Ukrainian tenor, was an interesting example of that. In his bio, it reads that he has garnered a fair amount of acclaim in his native country, by winning an X-Factor competition there. You would never know it, from how unassuming and bashful his stage demeanor is, when he introduces his work.  The voice, though, enamored. He has put in so much solid technical work through the passaggio that I couldn’t help but admire the sounds that were coming out. It is very Gedda-like, in my opinion (sure enough, he has performed Lensky and other such signature roles). While the acting, much like the speaking, was generally understated, he did show a bit of flair in his final selection Dyvlyus” ya na nebo. The high note at the end was immense and satisfying, the kind of high singing to which younger, less experienced tenors, ought aspire.

Greek mezzo-soprano Xeni Tziouvaras was probably one of the most polished acts of the evening. The initial things that I appreciated about her were that she gave a succinct, well though out description of what she was about to sing, and she encouraged the audience to hold applause until after the end of the set. I cannot bear sitting through a concert where the audience claps after every single song. She offered an interesting Greek translated version of Ravel’s 5 Popular Greek Songs (ironically, usually sung in French). Her voice was mature, but not over darkened; as some eager young mezzos are oft to be. She had a gorgeous, well-connected sound, with no audible cues of a shift in technique. The major revelation was how that voice connected to her dramatic capability. Her gestures and expressions were always well-informed by the context of the song, and they always seemed genuine and extemporaneous, as a result.

José Maldonado, a Mexican-American baritone I had the pleasure of hearing just a day before, closed out the evening with the more 'crowd pleasing’ Spanish, feel-good songs. He has a powerful instrument that really bursts out in a wall of sound on top. Sound output through the passaggio, and the climax on top, make me think of a Quinn Kelsey-esque Verdian instrument. His acting chops were ample, too — he left so much on the stage after Granada that he looked fatigued! I expect people will be seeing him on some larger stages sooner rather than later.

The pianists showcased some diverse skills, themselves. David Ji, Tongyao Li, and Tamara Kim were all keenly attuned to the needs of the songs and their collaborators, while still maintaining their own careful styles. I was particularly impressed when Kim and Maldonado were able to synch up their entrances in and out of rubati (the Spanish set being the only one with which I had enough experience/knowledge to criticize).

The evening was delightful, and it gave a chance for each of the young talents to shine in their own ways. If I had one critique, it would be that the structure of the concert could have done with a bit more exactitude. People were standing around chatting like fifteen minutes into the concert that was supposed to start at 8, there was no discernible set way that the artists were to be ushered onstage/introduced, and there were no parameters around the explanations of the pieces. This caused some of them to be a bit too long or convoluted. All-in-all the overarching idea was to provide young singers with a low pressure platform to showcase their skills, and I think Meche and Amber achieved that with gusto. There were also brownies and wine after, so 10-out-of-10 for the night; as far as I am concerned.

(c) meche kroop

THE KING SAID SO!

The cast of Léo Delibes' Le roi l'a dit at Manhattan School of Music

We never get to see the Sun King Louis XIV onstage but he is the engine driving the deliriously silly plot of Léo Delibes' 1873 operetta presented for the past four nights at Manhattan School of Music. A golden medallion of his royal visage adorns the reception room in the home of Le Marquis de Moncontour, who has earned an audience with the King by capturing a stray parrot.

The work itself is like a meringue. Beaten just right, you get a delectable confection. Beaten too little and there is no shape; beaten excessively and things get nasty. The team of Director Dona D. Vaughn and Music Director of the Senior Opera Theater/Conductor Jorge Parodi are so incredibly effective that we wonder why the revered Metropolitan Opera cannot do such honor to the operas they choose to present.

This piece of fluff is a period piece and the entire production team gave us exactly what was intended--a gentle satire using stock characters to poke fun at the aristocracy, arranged marriages, duels, clever servants outwitting their masters, class distinctions, yearning for power, and awe of those in "superior positions".

The work itself is less than two hours in length; reading the plot summary takes almost as long! But the ending brings joy to the Moncontour household; the two marriageable daughters get the husbands they want, the two disdained suitors chosen by the parents get frightened off after a mock duel, the clever servant girl Javotte gets to spend her life with Benoit, the sweetheart from her village, and the Marquis and Marquise can stop quarreling. They are happy. We are happy.

The big joke is the sudden Pygmalion-like transformation of Benoit; he wants to better himself and falls into a situation where the Marquis needs to produce a son to win favor from the King. Miton, the household etiquette tutor, achieves the transformation in ten lessons. Benoit, dressed to the nines, adopts the mien of arrogance and becomes thereby convincingly aristocratic.

He presses his advantage to dispatch the unwelcome suitors, to rescue the daughters from a convent, and ensure that they get the husbands they have chosen for themselves.

The libretto for this silly but pointed plot was written by Edmond Gondinet and first offered to Jacques Offenbach who was and is known for his fine hand at this sort of thing. That Delibes was equally assured at frivolity came to us as a delightful surprise. The work was a modest success in the 19th c. and was revived a few times in the 20th c. but was never before presented in the United States. 

The music is as light and tickly as champagne. Maestro Jorge Parodi took command of his fine orchestra right from the overture, comprising an opening march, followed by a lyrical theme, and then a frisky one.

But oh, those melodies! They tumbled out one after another with the entire cast doing a splendid job with their fresh young well-trained voices. Particularly lovely was the duet between Benoit, the upwardly mobile peasant (terrific tenor Philippe L'Esperance) and his sweetheart Javotte who left her village to come work for the Marquis. This role was sung by soprano Alexandra Linde, an adorable Swedish songbird, possessor of astounding coloratura skills.

Speaking of adorable, if the four daughters had not been chosen for their fine voices, we would have believed they were chosen for their looks. In ensemble, they harmonized happily. Only petite soprano Christa Dalmazio had an aria to show off her fine coloratura. The other three were sopranos Nicole Rowe and Grace Kidd, and mezzo-soprano Alanna Fraize.

The sycophantic Marquis was well portrayed by baritone Michael Gracco and the Marquise by the fine mezzo-soprano Monica Talavera.

The two desirable suitors were britches roles and soprano Eleanor Coleman and mezzo-soprano Agness Nyama made them vocally and dramatically appealing. In the second act trio with Benoit, we were astonished by the musical modernity of Delibes' writing. It sounded almost like jazz singers doing scat!

The two cast-off suitors were portrayed by baritones Nicholas Krsnich and Seok Jong Baek.

Matthew Hernandez made a fine servant to the household. As Miton, the pompous etiquette tutor, Marshall Morrow overplayed his part by half but it just added to the fun. After all, we are watching stock characters meant to utilize a very broad acting style.

The costumes by Summer Lee Jack were appropriately over the top, poking fun at the High Baroque. The set by Kate Ashton was simple but effective; there were sheer white drapes, a few pieces of period furniture, some flowers, and a screen for suitors to hide behind (of course). We spied a couple porcelain rabbits hiding under tables.

Ms. Vaughn kept the action moving at a fast pace and wisely chose to have the dialogue in English and the singing in French. French diction was fine all around, thanks to the efforts of Bénédicte Jourdois. 

We walked out smiling and humming the tunes, wondering why no one ever thought to revive this gem before. Perhaps it was chosen for its large cast, giving so many talented young singers a chance to perform. Whatever the reason, we are grateful that the always enterprising folks at Manhattan School of Music put it on stage. 

(c) meche kroop