A ROYAL CELEBRATION

Curtain Call at the George London Foundation Celebration Concert

The 45-year-old George London Foundation has partnered with The Morgan Library and Museum for the past 20 years and has succeeded in three important areas: they have supported no less than 400 singers at the early stages of their careers; they have built a devoted audience of opera lovers; and they have honored the legacy of bass-baritone George London.  

All of this has been accomplished under the stewardship of Nora London who was honored last night by a gala recital, performed by opera royalty, some of the brightest stars of the operatic firmament. It is a wonderful tribute that recipients of the foundation's awards returned to honor Mrs. London with performances that left us dazzled by their brilliance.

The evening was hosted by the retired Canadian tenor Ben Heppner who also ended the evening by treating the audience to Weatherly and Woods' 1916 song "Roses in Picardy", sung with touching depth of feeling and dynamic variety. It was a great treat to hear him sing again.

We tried to define what made this concert stand out above all the superb concerts we have seen this year.  What did all these luminaries have in common? Other than their artistry, dedication, and commitment, we sensed a joy in singing. Most likely they chose material that they loved to sing; they appeared to be having a wonderful time. 

Christine Brewer has a huge soprano which she scaled to the size of the hall and the tenderness of the songs selected from Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder. We have heard her "huge" and we have heard her "funny", but we have never before heard her "tender". Collaborative pianist Craig Rutenberg, by all accounts an engaging presence, matched her delicacy perfectly in "Der Engel" and "Träume".

Later, she sang the stirring "My Long Life" from Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All, paying tribute to Susan B. Anthony by making every word and phrase count in what could be taken as a lesson in English diction for young singers. She closed the program with a tribute to Mrs. London--"If I Could Tell You" by Firestone.

Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky gave a riveting account of "Song to the Moon" from Dvorak's Russalka. Her enormous voice was just bursting with overtones and her intense involvement with the emotional content shook us to the core. 

Later in the program, with mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, she performed "Mira, o Norma" from Bellini's opera of the same name. There was maximum sympathetic impact from these two incredible voices harmonizing in sound and spirit. Actually, we perceived the performance as a trio with Mr. Rutenberg's piano weaving in, around, and under the vocal lines.  It was thrilling.

Ms. Mentzer delighted the audience with "Sein wir wieder gut" from Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos--a real tribute to music as a "heilige kunst".

When soprano Ailyn Pérez took the stage, the electricity in the room was palpable. With consummate Latin fire, she performed a quartet of songs by the 20th c. Spanish composer Fernando Obradors.

"La mi sola, Laureola" began with an a capella passage for the soprano and then the gentle filigree of the piano entered. We became entranced. By the time the pair got to "Del cabello mas sutil" we were melting into the seat. "El vito" is a folk song which Obradors set in wild rhythm and it was performed with incredible vitality.  Even the gifted but unassuming collaborative pianist Ken Noda caught fire!  

This Latin charmer showed another side of her artistry with the verismo aria "Ebben! Ne Andrò Lontana" from Catalani's La Wally.

The three male singers were all bass-baritones, as was George London!  It is one thing to hear established stars up close and personal for the first time. One doesn't know what they sounded like when they were young and promising, although we are sure there were at least a few people in the room who heard James Morris and Eric Owens when they were starting out.

 It is quite another thing to hear someone young enough that we have been able to observe the growth of their artistry.  Such is the case with Brandon Cedel who just keeps getting better and better. Even at the very lowest part of his range, his voice is exciting. But there is no sacrifice of flexibility as he demonstrated in Count Rodolfo's aria "Vi ravviso, o luoghi ameni" from Bellini's La sonnambula.

Later, he performed the folksong "Boatmen's Dance", set by Aaron Copland; the performance was marked by lively personality, good variety of dynamics, and such fine English diction that not a single word was lost.  It was fun!  And just looking at Mr. Noda's face told us that he was sharing the fun and showing it through his nimble fingers.

Another bass-baritone to perform was Eric Owens, who always gives a splendid performance. Don Ruy Gomez de Silva's aria "Infelice! E tuo credevi" from Verdi's Ernani was given an expansive reading with Mr. Owens employing all the depth and breadth of his instrument in a show of intimidating aristocratic force.

His second choice was the "Chanson à Boire" from Ravel's song cycle Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. His bibulous performance began while Mr. Rutenberg was still shuffling the pages of the piano score and the audience loved it.  

A medley of songs from M. Leigh's Man of La Mancha was so magnificently performed by the venerable James Morris that we were finally able to "accept" him as someone other that Wotan. We never had the opportunity to hear him in his youth but we heard him as Wotan so many times that we had trouble imagining him portraying any other character.  But his rich voice and compelling stage presence made him totally convincing as Don Quixote. We loved it!

There was one charming bagatelle that we must mention.-- Mr. Rutenberg on the treble side of the piano and Mr. Noda on the bass side performing Tchaikovsky's own arrangement of "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" from The Nutcracker Suite.

What a celebration! A celebration of George London's legacy, a celebration of a mutually beneficial partnership, a celebration of Nora London's dedication, a celebration of vocal and pianistic merit, a celebration of "heilige kunst".

(c) meche kroop

A CHALLENGING PROGRAM BY LINDEMANN ARTISTS

Lachlan Glen, Dimitri Dover, Brandon Cedel, and Mary-Jane Lee

We await the annual Lindemann Recitals with great anticipation and we have never been disappointed.  Yesterday's recital was filled with delights both familiar and new. As much as we love to be turned on to works we've never heard, we get even greater pleasure when an artist gets us to understand works we've never favored.

Such was the case when soprano Mary-Jane Lee sang Alban Berg's Sieben Frühe Lieder, accompanied by Dimitri Dover. We have always found these songs inaccessible but Ms. Lee, by some alchemical process, managed to get inside the songs and to convey what we have never heard before. 

Ms. Lee has a soaring soprano that dazzles in the upper register.  But she also has an engaging manner and musicianship that made sense of Berg's strange vocal lines; they became rather haunting. Although our favorite will always be the melodic "Die Nachtigall" we also enjoyed the gemütlich atmosphere of "Im Zimmer".

Mr. Dover's immense contribution was to bring out the connection between the vocal line and the piano part. We also enjoyed his fine pianism in a later set of Rachmaninoff songs.  In "At night in my Garden" he established the mood of the sad weeping willow even before Ms. Lee began to tell the tale. His playing of the prelude of "In the silence of the secret night" was lavishly romantic.

As far as Ms. Lee's Russian diction, our Russian-speaking companion declared it very good.  Surely it sounded just fine to us!

The other artists on the program also excelled.  Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel formed a perfect partnership with collaborative pianist Lachlan Glen; they seemed to inhale and exhale in unison and we would swear that Mr. Glen was singing along in his head!

The most challenging work on the program was Schumann's lengthy ballad "Belsatzar" and Mr. Cedel confirmed our confidence in him as a master storyteller. The tale he told was one written by Heinrich Heine about an evil king and some mysterious handwriting on the wall. We still have goosebumps.

Mr. Cedel has a wonderful instrument of depth and amplitude with a finely textured vibrato, so different from the burly type. This allows him to sing more delicate songs like those in his first set which he performed with refinement and polish, achieving expressiveness with an economy of gesture.

We have never heard a man sing Mahler's  "Liebst du um Schönheit" and never even thought of it, but Mr. Cedel's delivery was heartfelt and meaningful. We loved Mr. Glen's pianistic passion in Schumann's "Requiem", quite a change from the delicate sensitivity displayed in the other songs.

This perfect pair closed the recital with a trio of Mahler songs. We have never had a problem relating to Mahler's output so we just relaxed and enjoyed "Um Mitternacht" with the haunting minor thirds in the piano. Mahler was surely inspired by Friedrich Rückert's poetry.

In "Urlicht" the piano and voice both reflected a depth of spiritual feeling. The pace was leisurely but the colors shifted rapidly. The final song was "Revelge" a story of the horrors of war told in march tempo. Mr. Glen's piano became wild and passionate. Mr. Cedel's performance was chilling in its effect. We believe that Mahler wanted us to feel horrified and the artists succeeded admirably.

All four artists have earned awards and recognition here and abroad. But what really matters to the audience is how they perform onstage at that particular moment. No one left disappointed.

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DEUS EX MACHINA

Andrew Stenson and Ying Fang  (photo by Marty Sohl)

The production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide was so outstanding we do not know whom to credit first.  Undeniably, conductor Jane Glover had a hand in it, or should we say "two hands" as she used them in balletic fashion to guide Juilliard415 (Juilliard's period-instrument orchestra) through Gluck's lean expressive score.  From the very first theme of the overture, heard at key moments later in the opera, we knew we were in good hands.  We want to call her Jane Goodhands, no "gloves" necessary.

Gluck can be said to have revolutionized opera in the mid 18th c.  By eliminating many excesses of the baroque, he paved the way for Mozart's genius.  By selecting libretti with authenticity of emotion, psychological insight, and sincere simplicity, he engages the listener who can examine his or her own predicaments and find resonant parallels.  Who has not struggled with desires that conflict with duties?  In this case, the libretto by du Roullet was based on the Racine play of 1674.  The opera premiered in 1774 in Paris.

Still, it is the singers themselves that carry the opera and we found the performances to be beyond criticism.  Each and every singer, drawn from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and Juilliard Opera, was astutely cast, vocally perfect and dramatically affecting.  Were it not for the unexpected happy ending (unexpected because we had not read the synopsis beforehand) we would have gone home in tears.  Thankfully, due to the intervention of the goddess Diane, the innocent Iphegénie gets to live and to marry her beloved Achille.

Soprano Ying Fang made a perfect Iphegénie, using her expressive limpid voice, face and body to convey the nobility of character that enables her to express both despair over losing her young life and submission to her fate as a sacrifice.  At one point, convinced that Achille had been unfaithful (a ruse), she summoned up quite a lot of outrage.

Similarly, her intended husband Achille, as performed by tenor Andrew Stenson, conveyed rage at Agamemnon, tender love and protectiveness toward his bride and also had to exhibit outrage at being falsely accused of infidelity.  He accomplished all this without compromising his warm appealing tone.

As the conflicted Agamemnon, baritone Yunpeng Wang limned the character of a man torn between love for his daughter and duty to the gods who demanded the sacrifice. Mr. Wang has a round sturdy baritone that can sound authoritative when necessary to control others, angry when confronting the recalcitrant gods and yet tender when thinking of his child.

Mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez was stunning as the mother Clytemnestre.  She has a true rich mezzo sound with a great deal of depth.  In the closest thing to a mad scene that one might see in a pre-19th c. opera, she nearly loses it in her rage at her husband--all without losing her magnificent phrasing and tone.  At her entrance she is all regal dignity and it was upsetting yet understandable to watch her decline into near madness as she wished to substitute her life for her daughter's.

As the high priest Calchas, bass-baritone Brandon Cedel demonstrated why he has been winning prizes everywhere.  His lordly tones expressed the matter-of-fact information that Iphegénie must be sacrificed.  It was in different tones that he announced toward the end of the opera that the goddess Diane had arrived.

As Achille's friend Patrocle, baritone Takaoki Onishi gave his usually fine performance, lending truth to the saying in the theater world that "There are no small roles".  

All of the singers mentioned so far are familiar to us as we have watched their growth from one year to the next.  But last night we heard two singers for the first time and enjoyed their performances enormously.  Serbian bass Sava Vemić made a fine showing as Arcas, Agamemnon's lieutenant who is responsible for conveying messages important to the plot.  His rich substantial sound made us want to hear more of him.  As Diane, soprano Liv Redpath had the enviable role of the "deus ex machina" making everyone happy.  It will make us happy to hear her again.

As Three Greek Women, Angela Vallone, Kara Sainz and Mary-Elizabeth O'Neill made a fine showing as well.

Although billed as a "concert version" the young artists, performing onstage in front of the musicians, acted up a storm.  The only features missing were costumes and sets; we never missed them due to the persuasive acting and fine singing.  David Paul directed the enterprise, a collaboration of The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School.

Finally, let us not forget to mention the fine French diction.  Even the chorus, positioned on the sides and at the rear of the orchestra made the language comprehensible.  There is only one more performance on Saturday at 2:00.  Miss this at your own peril.  Don't say we didn't tell you!

(c) meche kroop

THREE GENTLEMEN OF LINDEMANN

Brandon Cedel, Lachlan Glen, Benjamin Bliss

When you put three artists from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program onstage together, you get an hour of bliss--Bliss, Cedel and Glen that is!  All three conspired to amaze and delight us with their respective gifts.

We consider Lachlan Glen to be he finest pianist of his generation.  After a year of his Schubert recitals we are constantly amazed at how many other composers he has mastered, how many different styles at which he excels  and how readily he responds to every singer with whom he collaborates.  He is not only versatile but original.

Take for example last night's Purcell to whom he gave some  improvisatory flourishes; no one can say whether old Henry would have approved but our ears were tickled and we can honestly say that we have never enjoyed Purcell more.  The songs chosen by him and tenor Benjamin Bliss have graced many a program and have sounded rather similar and, dare we say, a bit boring.  But last night they sounded exciting in a way that baroque songs rarely do. 

Mr. Bliss has a lovely clear sound, impressive legato and flawless diction.  He sings with a depth of feeling, using facial expression and gesture to mine every nuance of the text.  "Come All Ye Songsters" from The Fairy Queen is a fragile thing and Mr. Glen's delicate fingering matched Mr. Bliss' pianissimo singing.  "Music For a While" from Oedipus was swoon-worthy with a secure crescendo at the beginning and some impressive singing in the upper register at the end.  Just hear how Mr. Bliss leaned into the appoggiature!   The lavish ornamentation in "Sweeter Than Roses" from Pausanias was reflected from singer to pianist and the word coloring for "freeze" and "fire" surpassed what one would hear in Mozart's "Non so piu".

Three songs by Franz Liszt were revelatory.  We generally associate that composer with passionate turbulent music and were amazed by his "Wie singt die Lerche Schön" which is in a tender vein and gave Mr. Bliss an opportunity to demonstrate a fine portamento.  In "Es rauschen die Winde", Mr. Bliss expressed the internal sorrows of loss while Mr. Glen's piano evinced the storm without.  We had never heard Liszt's setting of Heinrich Heine's "Im Rhein, im schönen Strome" but it is a thrilling one and Mr. Glen's fingers were flying from one end of the keyboard to the other in an orgy of arpeggiation.  Mr. Bliss' German was flawless.

Bass-Baritone Brandon Cedel just keeps getting better and better.  His deep round sound is balm to the ear and his fortuitous choice of Schumann's Liederkreis  gave him the opportunity to show a wide expanse of emotional tone.  The loneliness of "In der Fremde" was followed by the sweetness of "Intermezzo".  We particularly enjoyed the menace of "Waldesgespräch" with the seductive rider and the vengeful Lorelei.  In "Die Stille" Mr. Cedel conveyed the gentle rapture of love and Mr. Glen's delicate touch in "Mondnacht" was a thing of great beauty and joy forever, to coin a phrase.  Similarly he conveyed the rushing stream in "In der Fremde".

"Zwielicht" conveys the same fear of loss as Strauss' "Die Nacht" and Mr. Cedel and Mr. Glen gave the song a poignant ending as they did in "Im Walde" when Mr. Cedel descended to his lowest register.  Happily the cycle ended with a sanguine verse about love fulfilled and Mr. Cedel's voice opened up with joy.  We have only one small quibble about Mr. Cedel's otherwise fine German.  Like many singers, he seems timid about final "ch"s as in "ich" and "dich".  That would be a simple thing to correct and then we could say he was perfect.

© meche kroop


 

MET + JUILLIARD = MAGIC

Pureum Jo, Mario Chang, Alexey Lavrov and Ying Fang in L'Elisir d'Amore (photo by Nan Melville)

A satisfying synergy results when The Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program partners with The Juilliard School.  We fondly recall the operas of seasons past and were sufficiently delighted by last night's entry, a concert of comic operas.  One of the major delights was hearing how the fine Juilliard Orchestra responded to the baton of our beloved James Levine.  Indeed the orchestra occupied the stage with the singers performing in a shallow space in front which unfortunately drowned out the voices on occasion.

We enjoyed lengthy scenes from four comic operas, two famous ones flanking two lesser known entries. The program opened with Act I of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, known in English as The Abduction from the Seraglio, a seraglio being a harem.  Tenor Andrew Stenson made an appealing Belmonte, arriving at Pasha Selim's landhaus to find his dear Konstanze (the always excellent Ying Fang).  Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green turned in an hilarious performance as the gruff Osmin who denies entry to Belmonte.  Tenor Benjamin Bliss portrayed the wily servant Pedrillo in as fine a portrayal of this role as we have heard.  Baritone Jake Alan Nelson seemed to be the only undergraduate on the program but was excellent in the role of Pasha Selim.

Igor Stravinsky's one act satire Mavra brought Daniel Stewart to the podium to conduct the arresting score, notable for its unusual combination of instruments, heavy on the winds and light on the strings.  He was highly successful at bringing out the idiosyncratic harmonies and unpredictable rhythms.  It has been a bit over a year since we saw Mavra performed by the Mannes School of Music and we are compelled to say that the staging and costumes made it seem funnier than last night's performance.  The work was performed in English which we found unsatisfying due to the verbal accents colliding with the musical accents.  Nonetheless, Mary-Jane Lee sang beautifully as Parasha, the wayward daughter of the bourgeois Mother who is moaning about the loss of her cook.  What a pleasure to hear the divine Margaret Lattimore in that role with another fine mezzo-soprano Lacey Jo Benter as The Neighbor.  Mr. Bliss reappeared as the Hussar who gains access to the house by donning drag and getting hired as the new servant.

Benvenuto Cellini may not have the most interesting plot but Berlioz' muscular music is riveting and Maestro Levine marshalled the forces of the large orchestra to great effect.  The brief appearance of superb bass-baritone Brandon Cedel was nearly submerged in the huge avalanche of sound.  But Ms. Fang's focused upper register cut right through in Teresa's aria, as did Anthony Kalil's terrific tenor as the eponymous hero.  Their love duet was, well, lovely.  Baritone Yunpeng Wang provided comic relief as the rejected lover Fieramosca, eavesdropping and slithering along the floor.

The program ended with a scene from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, the scene in which Nemorino purchases his love potion from Dulcamara and proceeds to get inebriated.  Tenor Mario Chang excelled as the unfortunate imbiber with Mr. Green, in cloak and top hat, employing his big booming bass as the wily Doctor D.  Nemorino's rival was sung by baritone Alexey Lavrov who put his own stamp on the role of Sergeant Belcore.  Soprano Pureum Jo sang the role of Adina's friend Gianetta and Adina herself was performed by Ying Fang whose bel canto technique is impressive, filled with thrills and trills and pinpoint scale passages.

Although our preference would have been for a fully staged opera we were pleased to have the opportunity to hear some of our favorite young singers essaying new territory.  And as we said at the start, the orchestra blew us away.

© meche kroop

A CHAMPAGNE KIND OF EVENING

Lindemann Young Artist Development Program Concert at The Juilliard School

Could an evening have been more bubbly, more sparkling?  No way. Our admiration and affection for the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program is no secret.  Although Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, introduced the young artists on last night's program as "works in progress", we beg to differ. This is a group of extremely talented and highly trained artists; any opera house would be honored to have them onstage.  Indeed they have already sung in many venues around the world.  If they lack anything it is "name recognition" and we all know that big names sell tickets. Do we mean that there is no room for growth?  Of course not!  Artists should always keep growing and expanding.

Last night's program was well designed and gave the Patrons of The Met an opportunity to see these young artists in a varied program of scenes which were presented in an interesting format with each scene blending seamlessly with the one before and after.  The opening scene was from Mozart's La Clemenza Di Tito, conducted by Daniel Stewart and directed by Stephen Wadsworth.  Soprano Mary-Jane Lee was perfect as the seductive and manipulative Vitellia with mezzo Cecelia Hall in the pants role of Sesto, the object of her manipulations.  The duet between the two was marked by gorgeous harmonies; the fioritura was perfect.  Mezzo Samantha Hankey was equally effective as Annio.  Ekaterina Deleu accompanied the recitativo on the harpsichord and Nimrod David Pfeffer gave excellent support on the piano.

Ms. Hall remained onstage for the next scene from Handel's Orlando in which she sang the role of the eponymous hero.  The bass role of Zoroastro the Magician was magnificently handled by Brandon Cedel singing "Sorge infausta una procella" with Bryan Wagorn doing his customary fine work on the piano.  And how we enjoyed Benjamin Bliss' sweet tenor in "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte!

Two bel canto scenes followed.  Ms. Hall reappeared, this time in a stylish gown, as Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere Di Siviglia.  David Paul directed this very funny scene in which Rosina and Figaro get to demonstrate the many facets of their relationship.  Baritone Yunpeng Wang made a marvelously funny and sly Figaro drawing laughs from the audience.  Mr. Stewart conducted and Mr. Pfeffer accompanied.

In a scene from Donizetti's Don Pasquale, bass Ryan Speedo Green made a sympathetic titular character while baritone Alexey Lavrov performed the role of the wily Dr. Malatesta.  Both men demonstrated superlative flexibility in the patter verses.  The scene was well directed by Mr. Wadsworth and finely conducted by Mr. Stewart.  Ms. Deleu accompanied effectively.

Ms. Hall returned for two stunning arias sung in fine French.  She was saucy and sultry as Elle in Messager's "J'ai deux amants" from L'Amour Masqué and convincingly angry as Concepción in Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole.  Mary Birnbaum directed both scenes and the amazing Lachlan Glen accompanied, as they did in Giordano's Andrea Chénier which followed.  The role of Carlo Gérard gave Mr. Wang an opportunity to show his serious side in this powerful deeply felt performance.  Not only can he be hilarious but he can be lyrically expressive.

It's been quite a while since we've heard Prince Andrei's philosophical musings in Prokofiev's War and Peace and we delighted in Alexey Lavrov's moving exploration of the Russian soul with Ms. Deleu on the piano.

Two scenes from Verdi operas followed.  Simon Boccanegra is one of our favorites and we thoroughly enjoyed the highly dramatic scene in which Boccanegra's nemesis Paolo (Mr. Green) produces great anguish in Gabriele Adorno (the wonderful tenor Mario Chang) by accusing the latter's lover Amelia (Ms. Lee) of cheating.  What tension they created!  Mr. Paul directed this intense scene and Mr. Glen kept the tension going in the piano.  Mr. Wadsworth directed the next scene from Ernani, another dramatically intense one; Mr. Green portrayed the unloved De Silva with Ms. Lee as his unloving fiancée.  Her two suitors in this scene of confrontation were excellently played by Mr. Chang as Ernani and Mr. Lavrov as the Emperor of Spain.

Tenor Anthony Kalil then sang one of the best tenor arias written by Puccini--"E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca.  Mr. Kalil sang it with heartbreaking passion and in true Italianate style. One could fairly smell the garlic!  Following that was the comic sextet from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in which Figaro discovers his parentage.  We enjoyed hearing Mr. Glen on the harpsichord as he accompanied Ms. Hankey and Mr. Green as the newly discovered parents, Mr. Wang as the foiled Count Almaviva, the adorable Ying Fang as the baffled Susanna, Brandon Cedel as Figaro himself, and a very funny Mr. Bliss as the notary Don Curzio.  Mary Birnbaum directed with a sure hand and Mr. Stewart conducted the  ensemble.

The final scene was from Haydn's L'Incontro Improvviso, an opera heretofore unknown to us.  Listening to the gorgeous trio of blended voices (Ms. Fang as the Princess of Persia with Ms. Lee and Ms. Hall as her two best friends) we were made to want more of this opera.

We must not fail to mention the presentation of a scene from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the scene in which both men have been mistakenly enchanted to desire the formerly rejected Helena and to reject Hermia.  No, there was no music.  We think we know why it was included.  It answered our mental question "How did these singers get to be such good actors?"  We imagine that they get superb instruction in the dramatic arts as part of the curriculum.  The scene was directed by Stephen Wadsworth and performed by Ms. Lee, Ms. Fang, Mr. Bliss and Mr. Cedel.

After the recital the audience joined the artists for champagne which perfectly matched the effervescence of the evening.

© meche kroop

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

From under the shelter of the Naumberg Bandshell (which we fought so hard to preserve from demolition some time ago) world-famous soprano Renée Fleming introduced seven dazzling young singers who kept the audience in their seats through an hour of rain and some competing cacophony from another recital taking place just behind at Summerstage.  There is no audience more dedicated than the New York opera fan!  The only disappointment of the evening was its brevity; just after the rain abated, the concert, in honor of the late Richard Tucker's 100th Birthday, was cut short without explanation. Everything we did get to hear was like a generous gift and it felt greedy to have wanted the rest of it.

With seven stars from the Tucker firmament, we could not choose the brightest. The Foundation sure knows how to pick 'em; each one had won an award from The Foundation within the past few years.  All of them are living up to their potential.  Accompaniment by Brian Zeger was just as wonderful as one might expect; he has a great instinct for letting the voice shine forth.

Glamor couple soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Stephen Costello led off with the love duet from Act I of Verdi's Rigoletto.  He was seductive and she was seduced, falling under the spell of his ringing tenor and bewitching us with her shy glances and clear bright voice.  They made it sound not only easy but spontaneous.

Wendy Bryn Harmer, fresh from the Seattle Ring, gave a soaring account of Carlisle Floyd's "Ain't it a Pretty Night" from Susannah.

Have we heard a better delivery of Mozart's "Dalla sua pace" from Don Giovanni?  We think not!  Tenor Paul Appleby's bright clear tenor and committed delivery were remarkable and San Diego is fortunate to have him playing Don Ottavio in the near future.  It is the perfect role for him.

Coloratura soprano Erin Morley let loose with some impressive singing in the challenging "Doll Song" from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman.  The devilish upward leaps were astonishingly accurate, even at the very top of the register. Moreover her fine acting garnered giggles from the audience, especially when Maestro Zeger "wound her up".

Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel delivered a fine "Vi ravisso" from Bellini's La Sonnambula.  His gorgeous legato phrasing and evenness throughout the register have surely secured him a place among the group fulfilling their promise.

Mezzo Jamie Barton tackled "Acerba voluttà" from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur as if it were a piece of cake.   Her creamy lush voice and intense stage presence were a joy to behold.

Although we love Ms. Perez and Mr. Costello together with their marvelous chemistry and blending of voices, we were also delighted to hear each one in a solo.  Mr. Costello sang "Parmi veder le lagrime" also from Rigoletto and Ms. Perez ended the evening with a passionate rendition of "Ah, fors'e lui" and "Sempre libera" from Verdi's La Traviata.  She employed her thrilling voice and acting skills to demonstrate Violetta's ambivalence about succumbing to romance.  We were totally won over.

Three cheers for The Richard Tucker Music Foundation for supporting young singers with awards and performance opportunities and for enriching New York's cultural life to such a great extent.  The Foundation was set up in 1975 to honor the late Richard Tucker and his memory is being well-served. Contributions to The Foundation are possible on their website.

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TRIFECTA

Mario Chang, Brandon Cedel and Ying Fang

Regular readers know by now how enthusiastic we are about members of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program of The Metropolitan Opera. Three of them presented a dazzling recital last night in the Jackie Robinson Park, making the trek to Harlem a mere...walk in the park.  Our rapt attention was rewarded with a flood of favorites, arias we know and love and of which we never can get enough.  Unfortunately, singing out of doors dictates amplification but the singers did well in compensating for the distortion.  But the superb accompaniment by Bradley Moore was made to sound pretty awful.

Beautiful and glamorous Ying Fang, whose development we have observed all through her years at Juilliard, brought her multiple gifts to several arias and duets.  She evinces a flexible and diamantine coloratura with a fearless upper register, making elaborate embellishments sound like child's play; scale passages, trills and fioritura are tossed off with ease and seeming spontaneity. There is no doubting her musicality and phrasing.  These gifts are accompanied by an abundance of personal charm that audiences respond to with delight and wild applause.  She used her acting skills within the context of each aria or duet to create a believable character--the flirtatious Norina of Donizetti's Don Pasquale, a not so naive Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Handel's heroines, a Gilbert and Sullivan soubrette ("Poor wand'ring one" from The Pirates of Penzance) and an impassioned Maria from Bernstein's West Side Story.  Each wonderful, each different in color.

Barihunk Brandon Cedel (isn't that designation getting over-worked?) has been winning awards left and right and tonight's performance showed us why.  He has a sturdy and sizable bass-baritone that he uses with artistry and to great advantage.  He slipped easily from the humor of Leporello's "Catalogue Aria" into the louche seductiveness of Don Giovanni in "Là ci darem la mano"; he had no problem seducing Zerlina or the audience.  We were all of us ready to "andiam"!  He had low notes to spare for "Vi ravviso, o luoghi ameni" from Bellini's La Sonnambula.  His performance of Copland's "Simple Gifts" was exactly that, unaffected and simple--simply moving.

Tenor Mario Chang got better as the evening moved along.  At first he seemed to be pushing his forte in the upper register, causing him to go sharp. The amplification was not kind.  But when he got to Sorozabal's "No puede ser" from La Tabernera del Puerto he sounded like the Mario Chang that we know and love with his warm tenor in firm hand.  He finished the program singing a lovely romantic duet with Ms. Fang, "Tonight" from Bernstein's West Side Story, sending us off into the dusk with happy faces.

© meche kroop

METROPOLITAN OPERA NATIONAL COUNCIL GRAND FINALS

Brandon Cedel, Sydney Mancasola, Michael Brandenberg, Rebecca Pedersen, Musa Ngqungwana and Thomas Richards

The anxiety and tension among the finalists was matched by that of audience members.  Everyone had their favorites and celebrated when their choices were ratified by the judges.  But oh, how they lamented when the judges overlooked their favorites in favor of a singer they deemed less worthy.  One never knows what the judges are looking for but we know who we like.

Let it be said that the six "winners" were all superb but the four who weren't chosen were also winners.  Making it to the finals after the laborious nationwide process of elimination is a big win and we celebrate the four who were not chosen as well as the six who were.

The afternoon was glorious; hearing ten young artists in their 20's singing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, led by Maestro Marco Armiliato, as well as experiencing the hosting of the glamorous soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and the stellar baritone Eric Owens justified the price of admission.

No one could have quarreled with the choice of bass-baritone Brandon Cedel;  he showed a gorgeously textured vibrato in "Vi ravviso" from Bellini's La Sonnambula and spun out the luscious long phrases with fine style.  In the second half, he gave a passionate performance of "Aleko's Cavatina" from Rachmaninoff's eponymous opera.

Equally riveting was another bass-baritone Thomas Richards who sang Claggart's aria "Oh Beauty" from Britten's Billy Budd, getting every ounce of drama from the many colors of his voice as well as appropriate gesture.  In the second half of the program, he delivered a rolicking "La calunnia" from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, for which one did not need any translation.

Yet a third bass-baritone, Musa Ngqungwana, impressed with his "Riez, allez" from Massenet's Don Quichotte and later sang "Vi ravviso" which we preferred.  With so many bass-baritones on the program, we got to hear a few arias repeated.

The lone tenor, Michael Brandenburg, produced some lovely colors in "É la solita storia del pastore" from Cilea's L'Arlesiana and invested "Lenski's Aria" from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with a similar depth of feeling.

Soprano Sydney Mancasola seemed a bit wan in "Salut à la France" from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment, but more than made up for it in the second half with a "Caro Nome" from Verdi's Rigoletto marked by a brilliant vibrato.

Most astonishing of all was the 21-year-old soprano Rebecca Pedersen, still a sophomore at Brigham Young University.  She has a sizable voice and plenty of stage poise as she sang "Pleurez, mes yeux" from Massenet's "Le Cid" and opened up readily in the second half with a stunning "Stridono lassù" from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

While waiting for the judge's decision we heard Ms. Radvanovsky and Mr. Owens tell about their experience with the Met Finals many years ago.  Ms. Radvanosky gave a most exciting performance of "Pace, pace, mio Dio" from our favorite neglected Verdi opera La Forza del Destino.

We shall not end without some appreciate words for the five runners-up.  We greatly admired bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba's "Se vuol Ballare" from Mozart's  Le Nozze de Figaro.  Baritone Efraín Solís  had a marvelously accurate fioritura in an aria from Handel's Rodelinda.  Bass Matthew Anchel showed off some stirring low notes in "Il lacerato spirito" from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.  Soprano Tracy Cox showed a lovely messa di voce in "Morrò ma prima in grazia" from Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.

The National Council has been scouting young singers from all over the country for sixty years now and we wish them sixty more.

(c) meche kroop