GEORGE AND NORA LONDON FOUNDATION COMPETITION

 Finalists and Judges of the George and Nora London Foundation 2024 Competition 

(Photo by Beth Bergman)

Whilst the esteemed judges (Carolyn Blackwell, Dimitir Pittas, John H. Hauser, and Susan Quittmeyer) were debating over the dozen finalists, audience members were ushered into the lobby where they enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with the finalists, offering hope and encouragement; they were also debating over their favorites and trying to outguess the judges. It is always a tense 45 minutes or so, softened by wine and nuts.

The twelve singers had made a fine showing, one and all. The audience was treated to a particularly diverse and enjoyable program and now were discussing among themselves the relative merits of their favorites.  After this lively and intense interlude, we were welcomed back into the auditorium of The Morgan Library to learn which six singers would receive the generous awards of $10,000 each whilst the other six finalists would be awarded $2000. It is a step upward in the world of vocal competitions to ensure that all finalists receive something. It is not our wont to tell you, Dear Reader, how much each finalist received. If that issue is important to you, we refer you (as we usually do) to the foundation's website.

We prefer to share with you our impressions of our most favored singers which, interestingly enough, were shared by our companion, a professional singer. The opening aria was a stunning one as soprano Adia Evans tackled Elisabeth's aria "Dich teure Halle" from Wagner' Tannhäuser. We liked the way she modulated her sizable instrument, shading it to the demands of the text. Furthermore, her German diction was quite good with no dropping of final consonants.

Baritone Benjamin Dickerson gave an excellent performance of the cynical aria "Nemico della patria" from Giordano's Andrea Chénier. He employed his finely textured instrument in a highly emotional fashion and used the full stage and his entire body to convey Gérard's complex feelings whilst preserving the legato line.

 

Mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner chose an aria that is a paean to music, sung by The Komponist--"Sein wir wieder gut". This rhythmically difficult aria from Richard Strauss' backstage comedy Ariadne auf Naxos was a fine choice. Ms. Wagner  handled the upper register with aplomb (Strauss wrote it for the soprano fach) and showed us all the intensity of a young composer in a most convincing fashion.

In Elisabetta de Valois' aria "Tu che la vanita" from Verdi's Don Carlo, the soprano gets to show off her skills with bel canto legato and also her wide range of registers. Katerina Burton did not disappoint, evincing a firm center and a pleasing vibrato that shows great promise for other Verdi roles.

Baritone Darren Drone got to perform "Schicchi's Aria" from Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi and perform he did! We enjoyed the personality with which he filled out the role and experienced all the requisite humor. This artist has personality to spare and so convincingly inhabited the character that his fine technique receded to the background. 

Piano accompaniment was provided by Maestro Michael Fennelly who can play just about anything. At moments when the voice was silent, we noticed his many gifts, especially in Massenet's Sapho and Britten's Peter Grimes.

The remaining singers each showed something noteworthy and if we didn't elaborate here, it is likely because they chose an aria that didn't suit their voice or their style.  Their names can be found on the foundation's website. We enjoyed them all to a great extent and had only two criticism, one of  which we have often mentioned here. We wish tenors wouldn't push their high notes, especially for the climax; we can feel our own throat constrict. It ain't pretty! Learn to float those high notes please!

We also have a criticism for the women. Please do not wear anything gaudy! When you are famous and giving a recital at Carnegie Hall, you can be as glamorous as you please, but when auditioning or competing, it would serve you better to dress simply, so as not to distract from your singing.  'Nuff said!

© meche kroop

ON THIS ISLAND...AND OTHERS

Ho Jae Lee, Steven Blier, Benjamin Dickerson, Hannah Dishman, Jack Swanson, Christine Price

It comes as no surprise that Steven Blier (Artistic Director of New York Festival of Song, collaborative pianist, educator, coach, recording artist, etc.) graduated from Yale with Honors in English Literature. His program notes are always invaluable and highly instructive. Furthermore, they are so well written that we find ourself wanting to quote directly from them instead of finding our own words. So, dear reader, when you see a phrase in quotes, please know exactly whom we are quoting, which surely beats plagiarizing. We hope the generous Mr. Blier will feel complimented.

The theme of last night's recital was Four Islands--comprising Ireland, Cuba, Madagascar, and Manhattan. Mr. Blier finds island dwellers to be "fundamentally different from our landlocked neighbors". Having been "under attack from outside enemies (we) must learn to protect ourselves from invasion".  Just think about that when you are trying to push through the throngs of Times Square to get to the theater!

The program opened with some Irish folksongs and regular readers will recall how taken we are with folk melodies. In "Siul A Ghra", soprano Christine Price and mezzo-soprano Hannah Dishman created some exquisite harmonies a cappella, even before Mr. Blier chimed in with a spare piano accompaniment. We haven't a clue what Gaelic is supposed to sound like but to our ears it sounded authentic. 

Ms. Dishman was then joined by baritone Benjamin Dickerson for a cute romantic ditty entitled "The Palatine's Daughter". From Mr. Blier's program notes, we learned that the Palatines were a German-speaking group who were forced out of their country by war in the early 18th c. and given asylum by England. Apparently they assimilated successfully, in this case through romance. The accompaniment by the flute of Marco Granados was lovely.

Let us skip over the song by Arnold Bax, a Brit who was as entranced by Ireland as was Victor Herbert, about whom we wrote last week.  But we won't skip without mentioning the powerful piano of Ho Jae Lee whose artistry on the piano is astonishing.

John Corigliano also set Irish folksongs and Ms. Price's clear and lovely soprano wove in and out of the fanciful line of the flute.

But the song from Ireland that captured our heart was Houston Collisson's "Eileen Og" which was given a charming and humor filled performance by tenor Jack Swanson, joined by Mr. Granados' flute. The song contained a very particular lesson for men who go a-courtin'.

The ship was ready to sail and off we went to Cuba where the "Spanish elements suppressed, resisted, slowly co-opted, and finally embraced the rhythms of the oppressed Afro-Cubans". Does that scenario sound familiar? Afro-Cubans were not freed from slavery until 1886 and yet, today, seem far more integrated than Afro-Americans.  Cuban music is a "grafting of Spanish elegance onto the complex throb of African rhythms".  (Wish we'd written that!)

It took four hands of piano (Mr. Blier and Mr. Lee) to give enough textural support to Mr. Swanson and Mr. Dickerson as they performed "Guarina", a lyrical serenade written by the untrained but gifted composer Sindo Garay.

Ms. Price, accompanied by Mr. Lee, excelled in Ernesto Lecuona's setting of "Quiero ser hombre", text by the Uruguayan feminist poet Juana Ibarbourou.

Cuba must stand among the nations of the New World which adapted the Spanish operetta known as zarzuela to their own use. Mr. Brier's droll explication added much to our enjoyment of "Aria de Matilde" from Jose Mauri's La Esclava. It was not the only piece to highlight difficult social issues like interracial romance, but it was one of the first.  Dark-skinned heroine (soprano) has dark-skinned lover (baritone) but gets seduced by aristocratic light-skinned man (tenor) gets pregnant and commits suicide. In this case, however, the aria was sung by a mezzo and Ms. Dishman sang it with lovely tone and depth of feeling.

The funniest song in Cuba must have been Emilio Grenet's "Tu no sab ingle" (sic) which sounds like a Spanish answer to ebonics. Mr. Dickerson (whom we have now heard in French, German, English, and Spanish) was hilarious lecturing his friend about his linguistic failure with American girls.

After the interval, we weighed anchor once more and set sail for Madagascar. The traditional Zulu melody, gloriously harmonized by Ms. Price, Ms. Dishman, and Mr. Swanson thrilled us with its strange words and interesting harmonies. 

However, as hard as we tried to like Maurice Ravel's Chansons Madecasses, we were unable to relate to the music. The French text of "Nahandove" and "Il est doux" was incredibly sensual which we readily picked up from Mr. Lee's piano and the delicacy of the cello, beautifully bowed by Nan-Cheng Chen. However, the vocal line did nothing for us and Mr. Dickerson's use of the music stand prevented us from feeling the connection we felt in the Zulu piece.

We were very happy to dock in Manhattan and Cole Porter's "I Happen to Like New York" perfectly expressed our sentiments. All four singers and all four hands on the piano were enlisted for this exciting final song with its punchy Anglo-Saxon rhymes.

But let us not omit the other wonderful songs in the Manhattan group. Ms. Price gave a galvanizing performance of "One Life to Live" from Kurt Weill's 1941 Lady in the Dark, in which she has a YOLO moment.  Ms. Dishman gave a highly convincing portrait of an auditioning actress in Jason Robert Brown's "When you Come Home to Me". (We sincerely hope that none of last night's artists ever have to endure such humiliation.)

Mr. Swanson sang an unpublished song by Irving Berlin, cut from the musical As Thousands Cheer. "Through a Keyhole" was considered too risque for its Depression-era Broadway and it certainly is filled with naughty innuendo which Mr. Swanson captured without exaggerating.  It was done just right.

As encore, we heard a composition by Villa Lobos based on the NewYork Skyline. 

It was a great cruise and we are glad to be home safe and sound to tell you all about it.

(c) meche kroop

SPOTLIGHT ON YOUNG SINGERS

Warren Jones, Beste Kalender, and Benjamin Dickerson

Warren Jones has unsurpassed eloquence at the keyboard, and last night at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, he waxed eloquent in speech as well, when he paid well-deserved tribute to mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. This very week we are celebrating her 23rd annual glorification of the song recital in The Song Continues 2017.  As usual, there will be a recital, master classes, and a Saturday night all-out celebration in Zankel Hall. No one has done as much as our beloved Ms. Horne to ensure the survival of the art of the song.

Last night's Spotlight Recital shone the spotlight on two young artists whose participation in Stephanie Blythe's Master Class exactly one year ago is well remembered. Mezzo-soprano Beste Kalender continued to impress us with the same dedication to the text that she evinced last year, combined with the awareness of eroticism stressed by Ms. Blythe.

Baritone Benjamin Dickerson is also recalled for his fine performance in Das Land des Lachelns which we so enjoyed at the Manhattan School of Music when he was an undergraduate.  The review has been archived and is searchable.

The music on the program all came from the last half of the 19th c. and the early part of the 20th. It was an entirely satisfying choice of material that held our attention from beginning to end. Ms. Kalender opened the program with a quartet of songs by Francesco Santoliquido, a Neapolitan composer who wrote his own texts.  As an Italian, his focus on love is understandable!  The songs matched the romanticism of his text with a gorgeously melodic vocal line, a boon to the singer indeed.

The four songs composing I canti della sera were all about love and nature and Ms. Kalender impressed with her superb control of dynamics and her total immersion in the text. We were thrilled to be exposed to the work of a composer famous in his own country but heretofore unknown to us. We are looking forward to hearing more of his compositions.

Sieben fruhe Lieder by Alban Berg have been problematic for us in their compositional modernity. We have heard them performed at least a dozen times and always hope they will capture our ears. Actually, it is only "Die Nachtigall" that resonates with us and remains in our mind's ear. We did like the brief and heimlich "Im Zimmer" but it was over before we could sink into it. Mr. Dickerson sang them well in good clean German and appeared to know what he was singing about. But our attention was more taken with Mr. Jones'  ravishing playing of the evocative piano part which, in true modern fashion, was more interesting than the vocal line.

Brahms, on the other hand, made sure that the folk melodies of his vocal line would be circling the brain and providing continual delights. Readers may recall how fond we are of duets and we reveled in the glorious harmonies created by our two young artists. We loved the lively "Weg der Liebe" but we adored the barcarolle "Die Meere". How well balanced the two voices were!

The second half of the recital included a half dozen of Hugo Wolf's songs--Alte Weisen-- sung with great insight by Ms. Kalender. We were less familiar with some of these offerings than the Wolf songs that appear regularly on recital programs but Wolf's style is unmistakeable. And Ms. Kalender's style is one of generous dramatic interpretation. She portrayed six female characters-each one differently colored. We enjoyed the emasculating woman of "Tretet ein, hoher Krieger", and the teasing woman of "Du milchjunger Knabe". The singer was not afraid to make an ugly sound for the drunken "heroine" of "Das Kohlerweib ist trunken" and she allowed the old woman of "Wie glanzt der helle Mond" her dreams of paradise.

Mr. Dickerson gave us a highly rhythmic "Ouvre ton coeur" by Georges Bizet, evoking the Spain of one's fantasies. The legato lyricism of "Chanson d'avril" made a fine contrast. Reynaldo Hahn's "A Chloris" had some beautiful pianissimo moments, while Franz Liszt's "Oh! Quand je dors" seemed to include so many of the finer points that we have picked up from multiple master classes. His French was gorgeously Gallic throughout.

Closing the program were two duets (YES!) by Gabriel Faure.  The two artists took turns with lines from "Puisqu'ici-bas toute ame and then harmonized with passionate sentiment. The second duet was the frisky "Tarentelle" which brought us full circle back to Naples!

As encore, the pair gave us "Guten abend, gute nacht", Brahm's famous lullabye. We suspect the grateful audience might have demanded more but there is something so final about that song.

(c) meche kroop

ON THE VIENNA-BHUTAN EXPRESS

Benjamin Dickerson, Dominick Corbacio, Maria Brea, and Kendrick Pifer

Franz Lehár's Das Land des Lächelns is translated as "The Land of Smiles". Our pleasure in the performance we saw at Manhattan School of Music was so intense that one might think the term referred to the effect of the piece on the audience.

Although Lehár's fame was established by his 1905 Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), we consider this 1929 operetta to be a superior work with greater depth and lovelier music. Whoever has not thrilled to "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" has probably never heard it. Hearing it sung last night by tenor Dominick Corbacio in the role of Prince Sou Chong was pure heaven. The song made Richard Tauber famous and we hope it will do the same for Mr. Corbacio. Accomplished way beyond his senior student status, he has a pleasing tone and floats his high notes without pushing.

The plot of this work likely satisfied the needs of the Viennese public to be exposed to the exoticism of Asia and the equivalent need to see Vienna as the best place on earth. It concerns Lisa (the lovely soprano Maria Brea), daughter of General Lichtenfels (effective bass Gabriel Rollinson), who graciously turns down the marital offer of Count Gustav von Pottenstein (superb baritone Benjamin Dickerson) to run off with Prince Sou Chong to wed him in his own kingdom.  Although the work was set in 1912 China, by the costuming we believe we were meant to be in Bhutan.

The Prince's Uncle Tschang (baritone Seok Jong Baek, excellent in a thankless role) does not recognize the marriage and insists that the Prince marry "the chosen one". This does not sit well with Lisa and when the Prince turns unpleasantly authoritarian, she realizes she cannot live under such restrictions and must be rescued by Count Gustav. This requires the lovely Maria Brea to go through a spectrum of emotions which she achieved, while retaining the clarity of tone and fine phrasing that made her a winning heroine.

A subplot involves the Count falling for the Prince's sister Mi,  sung by the delightfully charming Kendrick Pifer who brought the role alive with her winning personality and admirable coloratura. Their duet "Zig, zig, zig" was enchanting. When the Count left she switched moods and became wistful in "Wie rasch verwelkte doch!"

The bittersweet ending has everyone accepting their fates and relying on smiles to cover up the sorrow. Lisa is happy to return to her wonderful Viennese home.

It was hard to believe that the cast comprised undergraduates.  Although it is called Senior Opera Theater, some cast members were in their third year, But they could have fooled us easily!  Tenor Joseph Klebanoff made a fine showing as Cousin Rudi who sang "Seufzergässchen" as welcome comic relief.

Baritone Jonathan Thierer portrayed Colonel Bloch, who annoyed everyone except for the irritable Countess Frida (mezzo-soprano Erika Rush Robinson) whose lovely duet with him "Wer hat die Liebe" melted her icy demeanor.

Tenor Giovanni Pinto portrayed Fu-Li, the Prince's major-domo; the more officious and pretentious he got, the funnier.  The chorus of women were excellent at Lisa's birthday party. Lehár's wonderful waltz tunes permitted some charming choreography by Francis Patrelle.

All of these delights were pulled together by Dona D. Vaughn who directed with a sure hand, which we have come to expect. The work was treated with honesty, respect, and sincerity. No attempt was made to update the dialogue or the appositely stilted delivery.  It came across just as it should. We always prefer retention of the original style.

It was an excellent decision for the dialogue to be spoken in English; the songs were sung in German that was so accurate that we didn't need to read the titles. Kudos to Diction Coach Marianne Barrett.

Maestro Jorge Parodi led the orchestra with his customary relaxed rigor, bringing out every gorgeous tune that Lehár composed. The music flowed forth like honey on a warm day.

Sets were simple. For the General's home, a table and a pair of chairs, some topiary and some chandeliers were enough to suggest bourgeois comfort.  For the Prince's palace, a huge gong and some potted palms sufficed.  Nothing more was needed.

Costumes by Summer Lee Jack were colorful but often ill-fitting and appeared thrown together. They suggested some indeterminate Asian country.

We would wish to have more operettas produced here in New York. They were a valuable bridge between European opera and the American Musical Theater. They are invariable tuneful and always worth a rehearing; this is more than we can say for contemporary opera which we endure and never wish to hear again!

(c) meche kroop