RENÉE FLEMING MASTER CLASS

Renée Fleming and Lindsay Mecher

The Song Continues 2018

Renée Fleming Master Class

The Marilyn Horne Legacy at Carnegie Hall

(All photos by Richard Termine)

The Song Continues will continue with Renée Fleming at the helm.

Boya Wei and Ms. Fleming

 What we observed at her master class last week reassured us that the program is in excellent hands.

Ms. Fleming's master class was fascinating for the audience and participants alike.  The audience got to see how much hard work goes into taking a song from an "8" to a "9".

Cameron Richardson Eames and Brea Marshal

Each participant received a highly personalized set of tools with which to work, some of which will improve their singing in general and others which were specific to a particular song.

We liked the way she asked each young singer to introduce herself and to tell why she chose a particular song. In nearly every case, the choice had particular value for the singer and informed her performance.

So many of the practice techniques could be picked up and used by the numerous singers who were in the audience. We personally had never heard of vocalizing through a drinking straw but were impressed about how successful it was in achieving a pianissimo in the upper register.

Another tip was to vocalize with a pencil between the upper and lower teeth. One singer, bothered by tightness in the tongue was helped by vocalizing with her tongue stretched way out.

A good way to convey the meaning of a song was to recite the text in colloquial English and then to sing it.

Students who ignored the composers markings gained a great deal by exaggerating the markings. Often, when they thought they were exaggerating, it sounded just right to our ears!

Young singers tend to put too much effort into their singing and they were shown how to lighten up.  Not every word is important and the singer should not give it all up at the beginning but rather must save something for the important word in a phrase.

A lieder is like a 3-minute opera and the singer must tell a story.

Soprano Brea Marshall opened the program, accompanied by Cameron Richardson-Eames. Ms. Fleming worked with her on bringing out the nostalgia and eroticism of Joseph Marx' "Selige nacht". We have always wondered why Marx' lovely songs are not heard on more recital programs!

In Ricky Ian Gordon's setting of Emily Dickinson's "Will there really be a morning", some playfulness is called for and each questioning phrase needed a different value.

Soprano Boya Wei was accompanied by Christina Giuca and performed the lovely "Apparition" by Debussy.  She was encouraged to "taste" the French. This reminded us of performances we have thrilled to in which the singer did seem to savor the flavor of the language being sung.

Ms. Fleming urged her to take the risk of floating the high note. Here's where the drinking straw technique came in handy as a means of practicing.

Mezzo-soprano Lindsay Mecher followed with Richard Strauss' "Befreit" in which pianist Richard Jeric produced some wonderful arpeggi. Ms. Mecher was urged to say something instead of trying to create a sound. In facing a challenging vowel, the tongue exercise was used to get the muscle tension out of the way.

This is an incredibly difficult song and the singer must listen for the harmonic changes and establish a feeling of intimacy.  Breath control is very important here and it is helpful to substitute resonance and color for over-breathing.

Soprano Isabella Moore, accompanied by Andrew King, worked on Richard Strauss' "Ruhe, meine Seele".  The portentous piano seemed to create the storms  of the soul and the singer can paint a picture of the calming elements of nature.

It seems to us that with master teachers like Ms. Fleming and with talented and hard working young singers, the future of art song is promising.

As we mentioned in our last review, Marilyn Horne has devoted a lifetime to championing the art of the song. Ms. Fleming seems to be the perfect choice to carry the mission forward.

(c) meche kroop

afterWARds

Maestro David Moody, Kirsten Scott, Renate Rohlfing, Boya Wei, Marco Cammarota, and Katherine Whyte

We believe a work of art should speak for itself and require no explanation from the playwright, painter, director, choreographer, or composer.  However, in the case of Bare Opera's reduction/expansion/ psychological illumination/distillation of Mozart's 1780 opera seria Idomeneo, we would like to quote Director David Paul, whose eloquence we could not equal.

"afterWARds is an opera about the emotional battles that continue to rage after war is long over.  It's an opera about displaced refugees, and the lingering post-traumatic effects of war. But most of all, it's an opera about love, healing, and the resilience of the human spirit."

Until last night, we had sat through this opera several times--three plus hours of gorgeous writing for massive choruses, elaborate late 18th c. costuming, gods and monsters and shipwrecks--without ever being emotionally moved. What Mr. Paul has done is to strip away everything except the four main characters, to focus on their psychological struggles. The music by Mozart and libretto by Giambattista Varesco remained intact. Like us, the characters struggle to find love and peace in a world gone mad with the carnage of war.

War is often waged for the most trivial of reasons. King Menelaus of Greece wanted his wife back after Paris, Prince of Troy, "abducted" her (we know not whether or not she went willingly). Menelaus enlisted the services of his brother Agamemnon and Agamemnon enlisted his ally Idomeneo, King of Crete. We all know how Agamemnon and his family fared--badly! And his daughter Electra appears in this opera enduring her own grief--unrequited love for Prince Idamante, Idomeneo's son.

During the Prologue we were treated to the piano reduction performed by Renate Rohlfing whilst films of war and shipwrecks were projected (Projection Design by Caite Hevner) along with a narrative of the backstory. Princess Ilia of Troy (King Priam's daughter and Paris' sister, now one of the spoils of war) was rescued from drowning by none other than Prince Idamante.

Poor Ilia is torn between her growing love for Idamante and her hatred for the Greeks who slew her entire family. How can love invade the territory of revenge? Soprano Boya Wei used her elegant instrument well in conveying the emotional ambivalence which tormented her. She eventually finds peace in accepting her enemy as a substitute father.

The role of Idamante was performed by mezzo-soprano Kirsten Scott in travesti ; this character has a different kind of emotional roller coaster to ride and she rode it so intensely that we had goosebumps.  Her character is secretly in love with Ilia but is dealing with a far larger issue. The father he loves whom he hasn't seen in some years had sworn to sacrifice him and, to protect his son from this fate, tries to send him away with a ruse of escorting Elettra back to Argos.

Elettra, powerfully sung by soprano Katherine Whyte, is living in despair due to the loss of her family (recall that her brother Orestes murdered their faithless mother who was betraying her husband Agamemnon with his brother Aegisthus) and also due to her unrequited longing for Idamante and jealousy of Ilia.

Her rage aria is chilling, with wild flights of coloratura, but she also has moments of tenderness and beauty when she begs Idamante for his love.  And that's her roller coaster.

In the title role we heard tenor Marco Cammarota who sang with a rich full tone and successfully conveyed the despair a father must feel in denying his own son and the horror of perceiving the need to sacrifice this dear son. Mr. Cammarota evinced great skill in his dynamics. He returns home with joy, but also guilt over all the deaths caused by the war.

The ending was a bit different than that to which we are accustomed but it worked. A peaceful resolution is found with Idamante and Ilia taking over the throne of Crete.  Poor Elettra is left with her demons but that's another opera, written by Richard Strauss.  

Come to think of it Mozart's masterpiece has been tinkered with before, and by that very composer! In 1931, whilst Munich commissioned Ermanno Wolf-Ferarri to revise the opera, the Vienna State Opera commissioned Richard Strauss who did a complete revision, employing a German libretto. We have heard neither revision.

We were pleased with the vocal performances overall but found several moments that were outstanding. The Act III quartet did full justice to Mozart's artistry with voices perfectly balanced. The love duet between Ilia and Idamante allowed the voices of Ms. Wei and Ms. Scott to melt together. Ms. Whyte's expression of rage was stunning as was her despair at the end in "D'Oreste, d'Ajace ho in seno i tormenti".  No happy ending for her!

"Vedrommi intorno" was given a stirring performance by Mr. Cammarota with the aforementioned attention to dynamics and a beautiful resonance.

It was particularly rewarding to witness the artistic development of Ms. Wei and Ms. Scott whom we began reviewing about five years ago when they were students at Mannes. Ms. Scott has appeared frequently in our reviews but the only time we saw the two together was in Nozze di Figaro, in which Ms. Wei sang the role of Susanna and Ms. Scott performed the role of Cherubino.

Once more, Bare Opera has succeeded in their mission to provide an intimate experience of opera-- minus the pomp and circumstance--that is very 21st c., filling an important niche on Planet Opera. There are many dwellings on Planet Opera and there is room for all, from the palatial mansion of the Metropolitan Opera to the intimate dwellings of flexible companies like Bare Opera.  We are all smiles thinking of the nomads of Central Asia who pull up their yurts and move on. Bare Opera is on the move.  We have reviewed every one of their events and have no intention of missing the next.

More on that later but it has something to do with a barber turned personal valet.

(c) meche kroop

CROSSING THE GOWANUS

Kirsten Scott, Liana Guberman and Boya Wei

Did we really spend an hour on the subway and cross the Gowanus Canal to hear a (reported) 100 minute version of Mozart's masterpiece Le Nozze di Figaro?  Yes, we did.  Was it worth it?  YES!  We would have traveled twice as far.  Was it really a severely truncated version?  No, it clocked in at nearly three hours and the judicious editing did nothing to impair the musical cohesiveness nor the comprehension of the delightfully silly plot.  The only things missing were bios of the artists (about whom we wish to know more) and the harpsichord continuo.  Music Director Laetitia Ruccolo did just fine on an electronic keyboard.   Conductor Dean Buck had the 20-piece orchestra well in hand, or in baton as was the case.  The young maestro started Loft Opera with singer/producer Daniel Ellis-Ferris and we feel glad to have gotten on board in time for this weekend's performance and sad to have missed their first effort--Don Giovanni.

The yearling company has succeeded on two counts; artistically and socially.  In an epoch in which young people have shown very little interest in this art form, it was heartening to see a loft bursting at the seams with twenty-somethings who might have been encouraged by the presence of Brooklyn Brewery beer which could be consumed during the performance; but their enthusiasm for the performance knew no bounds and the whoops, cheers and applause at the end left no doubt that they were well on the pathway to opera addiction.

The seats were benches but we weren't squirming.  The shoestring set was nothing more than a chair, a bench, a table.  The costumes made a modest attempt at evoking Spain.  But the commitment of the singers was total.  They had so much fun performing; it was only exceeded by the fun the audience had watching.  Comic turns were everywhere, especially in the case of character tenor Francisco Corredor who put a very personal stamp on the roles of Don Basilio and Don Curzio who had a very funny stutter.

The eponymous hero, sung by Pnini Grubner, was a charming Figaro with his "Se vuol ballare".  His Susanna was the adorable Boya Wei who won our hearts; her final aria "Deh vieni, non tardar" was lovely.  Liana Guberman made a dignified Countess and sang "Dove sono" even better than "Porgi amor".  The philandering Count was sung by Suchan Kim whose spiteful and clueless nature was another source of great amusement.  Kirsten Scott made an appealing Cherubino and did justice to "Non so piu" and "Voi qui sapete".  Yoojin Lee performed the role of Marcellina, making the rapid change from wanting Figaro for her husband to accepting him as her long lost son.  Producer Daniel Ellis-Ferris put in an appearance as the gardener Antonio and also as Don Bartolo who is obliged to accept Figaro as his son and to marry Marcellina.  Larisa Martinez made a winsome Barbarina.

All the voices measured up and we particularly enjoyed the duet between Susanna and the Countess whose voices blended beautifully.  Ensembles were similarly well-balanced.  The opera was directed by Carlos Conde.  The audience was so close to the playing area that we felt like members of the Count's household.  This operatic intimacy is rare and to be cherished.

You could not do any better than to cross the Gowanus Canal this weekend; the opera will be performed again Friday and Saturday night.  It deserves the wide audience it attracted and we hope there will still be tickets left for YOU!

(c) meche kroop

IGOR MEETS GIOACHINO

The person who calls Chicago "the second city" might call Mannes College for Music "the third school of music".  But the performance put on by The Mannes Opera was first-rate.  Under the baton of Artistic Director Joseph Colaneri, the Mannes Orchestra played with high energy and skill while the singers--a few undergraduates, a few graduate students and some Professional Studies Diploma candidates--sang and acted with energy, skill and enthusiasm to match.

The December 19th program was entitled "Igor meets Gioachino" and introduced the audience to two rare one-act gems from two different periods, the first by Stravinsky and the second by Rossini.  Both were entertaining and delightful under the superb direction of Laura Alley, known to us through her work with New York City Opera and Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance.

The brief curtain raiser, Stravinsky's Mavra, a satire of bourgeois manners, tells the tale of a young woman, apparently a White Russian émigrée in Paris, who smuggles her lover into her mother's home, disguised as a maid.  The young lady was sung by soprano Liana Guberman, the mother by mezzo Elizabeth Picker, the neighbor by Kirsten Scott, and the Hussar boyfriend by tenor Christopher Colmenero.  The performances were fine on both vocal and dramatic levels.  Our only reservation was about the choice to sing the work in English.  It seemed as if the rhythm of the words and that of the music were out of sync.  We had the same feeling when hearing the Met's "family oriented" production of Il Barbière di Siviglia sung in English.  There are probably some good reasons for this choice but...just sayin'.

The libretto was by Boris Kochno, based on a Pushkin story that actually took place in Russia but the change of locale was not a problem.

The second work was Rossini's La Scala di Seta, another opera buffa with stock characters inherited from la commedia del'arte.  One easily gets a glimpse here of the young Rossini gaining command of his musical vocabulary with lively music, duets, trios and ensembles, and much frantic behavior.  However, the characters are unidimensional.  The libretto was written by one Giuseppe Maria Foppa.

Giulia, sung by soprano Boya Wei, is a young woman who was secretly married to Dorvil (tenor Adam Bonanni).  Her guardian, tenor Deun Lee, would have her marry Blansac, a friend of Dorvil (bass Enrico Lagasca).  Giulia's cousin Lucilla (soprano Lydia Dahling) would love to marry Blansac.  Comic relief is provided by the bumbling servant Germano (a very funny Suchan Kim, bass).  This was not the clever servant devised by daPonte for Mozart!  No, this servant makes several errors of judgment regarding who is climbing the silken ladder by which Dorvil gains access to Giulia.  The entire plot is delightfully silly and the music sparkles like champagne.

The single set, a house in Paris (which explains why the action of Mavra was geographically altered) was unfussy and effective.  Roger Hanna is credited with the Set Design.  The always attractive and suitable costumes were by Helen E. Rodgers; the Lighting Design by Jeff Davis contributed to the overall excellence.  Amanda Miller is credited with Makeup and Wig Design.  The harpsichord was played by Eunkyung Lee.

The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College makes a fine venue for chamber opera and the choice of these gems was perfect for the fine young cast.  Great evening all around!

(c) meche kroop