FAR AND NEAR (and also DEAR)

Angela Dixon, Aumna Iqbal, Jane Hoffman, William Lewis, Joyce Yin, Mary Kathryn Monday, Brittany Fowler, Rebecca Richardson, and Tara Gruszkiewicz

Last night found us back uptown at the gorgeous United Palace of Cultural Arts for an intimate song recital given by Cantanti Project, of which the lovely Joyce Yin is Artistic Director. To say that the architecture almost eclipsed the singing is to praise the lavish decor, not to diminish the recital, which was quite lovely. 

We have followed Cantanti Project since its inception four years ago and have had the opportunity to hear some of the singers in prior productions. We also welcomed the opportunity to get acquainted with some singers heretofore unknown to us.

There were some very special moments to cherish, chiefly the opportunity to hear American songs that were instantly relatable and sung with clear enunciation so that not a word was lost. Sung without amplification (of course) these songs occupy a place in the canon which they so richly deserve.

Coloratura soprano Joyce Yin offered a stunning rendition of "If I Loved You" from Richard Rodgers' Carousel, showing a wide range of emotions and a delicate decrescendo at the end. A very funny song by Lee Hoiby entitled "The Serpent", from his Songs for Leontyne, allowed her to give full range to her palette of vocal colors and her charming personality.

We also enjoyed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", from Harold Arlen's The Wizard of Oz, which was arranged for two voices by our venerable accompanist/coach for the evening, William Lewis. Ms. Yin was joined by soprano Rebecca Richardson who impressed us with her appealing vibrato in "Chi bel sogno di Doretta" from Puccini's La Rondine.

The versatile Ms. Richardson seasoned "De Ronda" with ample sazon. How could we not have known that Joaquin Rodrigo, composer of Concierto de Aranjuez, also wrote songs! This little gem was marked by a lovely melody and a concise and charming text about reaching for the inaccessible.

There were other duets on the program, to our delight. Inarguably one of every opera lover's favorite duet for female voice--the "Flower Duet" from Léo Delibes' Lakmé--was performed by soprano Jane Hoffman and mezzo soprano Brittany Fowler in perfect harmony.

The "Evening Prayer" from Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel was sung by soprano Angela Dixon and mezzo-soprano Aumna Iqbal. We just reviewed that opera the night before when it was sung in German.  Last night it was sung in English to no great detriment.

We enjoyed the contrast between the colors of two very different mezzo-sopranos in Consuelo Velásquez' famous "Besame Mucho". Mary Kathryn Monday's mezzo is on the lighter side whereas Tara Gruszkiewicz' coloration is significantly darker. We heard a contralto in the making!

Ms. Monday's delivery of the "Seguidilla" from Bizet's Carmen revealed plenty of contempt peeking out from behind the seductive exterior.

Ms. Hoffman introduced us to a composer with whom we are unfamiliar; Eva dell'Acqua's "Villanelle" had exceptionally fine writing for both voice and piano and offered the singer an opportunity to dazzle us with bird song, trills, and a vocalise. 

We were compelled to look up the composer. She is one of those unsung female composers, part Belgian and part Italian. We hope to hear more of her works, perhaps on a program with other largely overlooked female composers like Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach. Ms. Hoffman would seem the perfect singer for such a program since she also performed Ms. Beach's "I send my heart to thee" from Three Browning Songs.

Ms. Fowler performed one of Ms. Mendelssohn's songs, as a matter of fact--"Nachtwanderer" from Sechs Lieder, a lovely piece and well sung in fine German. She also sang clearly in English, Mr. Lewis' arrangement of the folk song"Shenandoah" sung with great depth of feeling.

Ms. Iqbal had no trouble with the low tessitura of "Home" from Alan Menken's Beauty and the Beast, a wonderful song from a show with which we are unfamiliar. She also performed Robert Schumann's "Wanderung" from Zwölf Gedichte.

We are also unfamiliar with Bernstein's Peter Pan but found Ms. Monday's delivery of "Build My House" pure delight. We are so glad for the preview because we are going to Bard next week to review that American musical/opera!

Ms. Gruszkiewicz showed her versatility by performing Aaron Copland's arrangement of the spiritual "At the River" and also one of the songs from Dvorák's Gypsy Songs -- the sentimental "Als die alte Mutter", sung in fine German. 

The entire cast joined forces for "Go the Distance" from Alan Menken's Hercules, another work with which we are unfamiliar.

Everyone went the distance.  Ours consisted of a long ride home on the A train! The excellent show made it all worthwhile.

(c) meche kroop

A MARRIAGE, A FUNERAL, AND A HAPPY ENDING

Aumna Iqbal, Marques Hollie, and Joyce Yin in Caccini's Euridice

Music can lift our spirits, bring us catharsis for sorrow, and produce feelings of oneness with the universe.  But can it bring the dead to life? That is a myth the Ancients would have us believe. The demigod Orpheus played and sang so beautifully that he was able to soften the heart of Pluto, god of the underworld, and thereby guide his beloved Euridice back to Earth.

What a perfect story for a new musical form, devised in 1600. Many opera goers credit Monteverdi as the first composer of opera but the oldest surviving score is that of Giulio Caccini who used a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini--also used by Jacopo Peri. We understand there was a race to get the opera performed.  These scholarly points matter little to us. What matters to us is that the the fearless and endlessly creative Cantanti Project underwent the project of restoring Caccini's work to vibrant life.

At the turn of the 17th c. there were no theatrical conventions for opera as new ground was being broken. Harking back to antiquity, a Greek Chorus was used to narrate and the characters  sang lovely melodic phrases to each other simply and directly with minimal artifice. 

In this telling of the tale, the chorus of shepherds and nymphs tells us of the joys of the happy couple, Orfeo and Euridice.  Euridice (Artistic Director soprano Joyce Yin) celebrates with her friends, dancing and singing her joy. The celebration of Orfeo (mezzo-soprano Aumna Iqbal) and his friends is somewhat randy with teasing and masculine energy.

The sad news that Euridice has died of a snakebite is brought by Dafne (soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek). Arcetro (soprano Laura Mitchell) tells of the arrival of the goddess Venus (mezzo-soprano Brittany Fowler) who will carry Orfeo to the underworld in her chariot. She encourages him to use his musical talent to sway Pluto, god of the underworld.

At first, Pluto (bass-baritone Tom Corbeil) is intransigent. Returning the dead to Earth is not in his playbook. The intervention of his wife Proserpina (soprano Lydia Dahling) has a powerful effect and Orfeo gets to take Euridice home.

The good news is spread by Aminta (tenor Marquis Hollie) who unites the loving couple and everyone celebrates.

Under the divine direction of Bea (Brittany) Goodwin, the entire cast (including tenor Michael Celentano in the dual roles of Tirsi and Caronte (Charon), the tale was told with integrity and sincerity. We expected the fine singing that we heard from the cast but were astonished by their facility with body movement. We concluded that several of the female cast members had experienced  ballet training at some point. Ms. Yin was particularly affecting in her joyful turns and arabesques. We loved the physicality of the production as much as the singing.

Musical accompaniment was provided by Dorian Baroque with Dylan Sauerwald conducting from the harpsichord. The instrumentation was given to John Mark Rozendaal who bowed his Viola da Gamba with impressive lyricism, to Paul Holmes Morton who dazzled us with his control of the long necked Theorbo, and the plangently plucked Harp of Christa Patton. There were passages in which only one or two instruments were heard.

The singing was lovely all around and the production generated optimistic feelings. We wondered what the audience might have thought and felt four centuries ago. We imagine that this novel form of entertainment must have made a hit because opera continued to grow and evolve.

We would add that Alexandria Hoffman's simple costume designs were effective, as were the simple props.

This is only Cantanti Project's fourth season but they have already given us a number of memorable evenings, including a radical interpretation of Handel's Orlando. Although they are not a repertory company, their reputation ensures that they can attract a stellar cast, as evidenced by the outstanding performances we heard in this production of Euridice.

(c) meche kroop

MAGIC AND MAYHEM

Cantanti Project creating Magic and Mayhem at Shapeshifter Lab

Once again, it is Halloween, our favorite holiday. Several performing groups have used the themes of Halloween to create unusual programs involving death (see yesterday's review of Death and the Maiden by Music Talks) and the supernatural. We wish we could clone ourself and attend them all!

Last night we trekked out to the farthest reaches of Brooklyn (was that the Gowanus Canal?) to share in Cantanti Project's celebration of Magic and Mayhem, which inaugurated the company's fourth season. The venue was the spacious Shapeshifter Lab and the informal nature of the table seating reinforced the values shared by many young companies. Intimacy of performance is paramount.

What struck us the most was the conception and realization of the theme which, we learned, was a collaborative effort. Familiar works, drawn from the worlds of opera, art song, and Broadway, were presented in dramatically novel ways that shed new light on them. At times, a singer was joined by other members of the cast who enacted silent roles.

At Music Talks, we just heard tenor Aaron Blake sing Schubert's lovely lied "Der Tod und das Madchen" in which he colored his voice to create both characters. But last night we heard two singers perform the work--soprano Sangying Li as the Maiden and mezzo-soprano Kirsti Esch as Death. Although the lied is brief, it magically became a dramatic scene.

Similarly, in Brahms "Walpurgisnacht", the queries of the child were sung by soprano Daniela DiPasquale whilst the responses of the mother were sung by soprano Lydia Dahling.

Ms. Dahling has become the source of a new interest for us. She sang a magnificent aria from an opera unknown to us by an equally unknown (to us) composer. The composer Ferenc Erkel was Hungarian and was the father of Hungarian opera. In wonderful 19th c. style, he set dramatic tales to luxurious music.

The aria we heard "Volt a vilagon ket kis madar" (sorry about the missing diacritical marks) is the lament of a woman who goes mad after the trauma of being raped by the Queen's evil younger brother, while her husband and the King are off fighting somewhere. The music has a distinct Magyar flavor and Ms. Dahling was superbly coached.  Not that we understand Hungarian; let's just say it sounded right. There were many changes of mood, all well realized by vocal coloration and acting skills.

We have reviewed mezzo-soprano Emily Hughes before and always enjoy her performances, especially in the title role of La Calisto at Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. Last night, she made a fine Sandman, scattering sleepy-stuff over Hansel and Gretel in a scene from the Humperdinck opera.

She also delighted us with a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Unquiet Grave" in which her fine diction made every word clear. In this scene, the ghost of her lover was visible to us as well as to her, in the person of baritone Frank D. Fainer.

Mr. Fainer was the sole male in the cast and performed a duet from The Phantom of the Opera, with Ms. Li as Christine. This is a show that we had never seen and we were glad to be introduced to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical by such a fine performance.

We were quite taken with the elegant performing style of mezzo-soprano Tara Gruszkiewicz who performed Schubert's "Der Doppelganger" with excellent German and an eerie coloration. We've never heard the lied performed by a woman before but the performance was all the more affecting for being so still and self-contained.

Just the opposite was the highly gestural style of mezzo-soprano Aumna Iqbal in "Crude furie" from Handel's Serse sung by the eponymous Serse. This time, the Furies were real! Ms. Iqbal also performed "The Worst Pies in London" from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. The acting was commendable but, unfortunately, the clever lyrics were not consistently understandable.

It was a generous program, including works by Purcell, Verdi, Wolf, Duparc, Mozart and Mussorgsky. We always love hearing Jezibaba's aria "Cury mury fuk" from Dvorak's Rusalka which was sung by Ms. Esch. For those who are curious, the words are the Czech equivalent of "abracadabra".

Adding to the effectiveness were marvelous masks created by Claire Townsend and the perfect accompaniment provided by pianist Maria Didur. The only time we missed an orchestra was for the Hungarian aria and that was solely because we are curious about a new composer and wondered what his orchestration would sound like.

The projections curated by Laura Mitchell went a long way toward heightening the drama. Translations were occasionally included but, unfortunately, not when they were most needed.

We have just written that Monteverdi's 1609 Orfeo was the first opera but we stand corrected, having learned that Cantanti Project is tackling Caccini's Euridice, which premiered in 1600. We have already put it on our calendar for Feb 23, 2018 and so should you!  The insanely gifted director Brittany Goodwin will guide the cast through the underworld.

Many thanks to Artistic Director Joyce Yin for taking Cantanti Project in so many interesting and novel directions.

(c) meche kroop