OPERA INDEX COMPETITION WINNERS RECITAL

Lawson Anderson, Brittany Nickell, and Michael Fennelly

We have often written about the generous dispersal of funds by Opera Index, and the care with which the young singers are selected for awards. The excellence of last night's recital at the National Opera Center came as no surprise. Luminaries of Planet Opera gathered to hear the "stars of tomorrow"; but we call them "stars of right now". They were introduced by President Jane Shaulis.

Soprano Brittany Nickell impressed us as a graduate student at Manhattan School of Music with her large and stunning instrument. Bass-baritone Lawson Anderson burst onto our radar screen just two years ago and dazzled us with his Mozart and Wolf, Borodin and Gounod. We heard potential in his Wotan but he didn't sound quite ready.

Well, hello Wotan! What progress he has made recently, coached by Valentin Peytchinov! We haven't enjoyed a Wotan since James Morris retired the role and we are sure that Mr. Anderson has received some input from Mr. Morris.  Truth to tell, if his casting were announced today we would be first in line for tickets!

Mr. Anderson has a dark mature sound and did a fine job in "Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge", creating a mood of authority.  As he invited Fricka to join him in their new home at the end of Das Rheingold, we thought "We'd follow him anywhere". We did follow him all the way through "Wotans Abschied", observing his gorgeous German, fine phrasing, and smoky tone.  But what we admired most was his ability to create an entire panoply of moods by means of gesture and vocal coloration. 

Wotan has been out-argued by Fricka and must punish his favorite daughter Brunhilde by depriving her of immortality. He must convey anger, sorrow, love, regret, and everything in between. Personally we cannot enjoy The Ring Cycle unless we have come to care deeply for the all-too-human Wotan with all of his flaws.  Morris succeeded and so did Mr. Anderson.

We were very impressed by the orchestra! Well, it was "just" Michael Fennelly playing his own arrangements of Wagner's score on the piano but it sounded like the Full Monty!

We were glad Mr. Anderson also included a few selections from Schubert's Winterreise which we so enjoyed hearing him sing in toto just two weeks ago. He also reprised an aria from Borodin's Prince Igor--"Ni sna, ni otdyha" in enviably fluent Russian.

Mr. Anderson is magnificently versatile and gave the audience a good taste of his Mozart. He made a fine Figaro expressing his rebellion against the Count in "Se vuol ballare" from Le Nozze di Figaro, and a very seductive Don Giovanni in "La ci darem la mano". His Zerlina was Ms. Nickell.

We wrote about this compelling soprano when she was studying at Manhattan School of Music and also witnessed her performance in a Marilyn Horne master class. We love her brilliant upper register with a fine vibrato that seems to contribute overtones upon overtones. What is special is that there is no loss of power at the lower end of the register, but rather a seamless quality from top to bottom. 

We had previously heard her "Robert, toi que j'aime" from the Meyerbeer opera Robert le Diable and admired her facility with French; we were delighted to hear it again. We heard impressive Verdian inclinations in "Come in quest'ora bruna" from Simon Boccanegra. Recalling her fine performance in Conrad Susa's opera The Dangerous Liaisons, we formed the opinion that Ms. Nickell is more of an opera singer than a lieder singer, although that may come along later.

The three Duparc songs she offered last night were finely rendered with delicacy and sensitivity and a lovely pianissimo; but it seemed to be an effort to hold herself back to fit the Gallic model--like driving a Lamborghini in city traffic. Of the three chansons, we preferred "L'invitation au voyage" in which the composer had more text and more time to develop his compositional ideas with dynamic variety. And Mr. Fennelly's piano was again, a revelation.

We thought that the Strauss songs were a better fit for Ms. Nickell's sizable soprano. We heard the timely "Frühling" and "Beim Schlafengehen" with its lovely piano interludes, from Four Last Songs. We thought that sleep was used as a metaphor for death. Even better was "Wie umgibst du mich mit Frieden" from Die Liebe der Danae, an opera we have never heard.

There is one aspect of performance that we hope Ms. Nickell will work on, and that is acting.  Offstage she has a lovely warm smile but onstage there was a constant expression of distress on her face. Of course we do not know what she was thinking or feeling during the performance but we wanted more variety.

In the Duparc we wanted a more languorous interpretation and we wanted to see Zerlina's flirtatious side. We believe that holding different images in mind during the performance could only spill over to a better palette of vocal colors, something that Ms. Horne, if we remember correctly, also brought up in the master class. Now we just remembered something from Ms. Horne's wise advice which Ms. Nickell seems to have followed. She was advised to "enjoy the melisma". Listening to her Strauss, we surely did!

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OPERA INDEX GALA

Michael Fennelly, Brittany Nickell, Tamara Banjesevic, James Ley, Bryan Murray, Courtney Johnson, William Guanbo Su, and Jane Shaulis

Sunday evening was special for many reasons. The Opera Index Gala is a golden opportunity to socialize with fellow opera lovers in the beautiful Essex House on Central Park South. Most of the luminaries of the opera world were in attendance. 

It is also a chance to witness the future of opera by hearing six stellar singers who filled our ears with music in between salad and steak.  Trust us! With talent like this, one needn't worry about the future of opera.

Mistress of ceremonies was Opera Index President Jane Shaulis who did a fine job keeping the evening moving along briskly and giving due honors to the lovely Mignon Dunn, recipient of the Opera Index 2018 Distinguished Achievement Award. Both women possess the gracious and dynamic presence so specific to great singers.

Opera Index is a nonprofit volunteer organization with a mission to advocate for opera and support its artists. The six singers who so delighted us at the gala were among a group of sixteen young artists who received a total of $55,000. in awards. You too, dear reader, can be a member of this fine organization for the paltry membership fee of $45/year. Members have a number of activities to enjoy and share with other opera lovers.

As is our wont, we will focus on the singers and the songs, not on the amounts of the awards. The recital opened with the sparkling soprano Tamara Banjesevic who enchanted the members with Juliette's paean to life "Je veux vivre" from Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. She let loose volleys of joy in fine French as she left the stage and circulated between the tables just as Juliette might have done at her birthday party.

Baritone Bryan Murray evinced oceanic depths of feeling in his performance of "Mein Sehnen mein Wähnen" from Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt. His mellifluous baritone was well suited to the requisite sincerity of expression. His fine phrasing, superb German diction, and dynamic variety made for a splendid performance.

Soprano Courtney Johnson's performance of "Come scoglio" from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte revealed a vocal firmness that echoed Fiordiligi's firmness of character (at least at this point of the opera). This firmness extended from the bottom to the top of her register, allowing the wide skips of this difficult aria to be successfully negotiated. An impressive ease in the fioritura was icing on this delectable cake.

James Ley has the sweetest tenor which he put to good use in "Vainement, ma bien-aimée" from Edouard Lalo's rarely performed opera Le roi d'Ys. (Interestingly, one of the luminaries in attendance at the Gala was Eve Queler who conducted her Opera Orchestra of New York in a concert version of this opera in 1985!) Although this opera is in no way comedic, this particular aria is a love song sung by the knight Mylio to his lady love and Mr. Ley's light touch and delicate French were perfect, as was the accompaniment by pianist Michael Fennelly, who can always be counted on for taking his lead from the singer. 

Bass William Guanbo Su is one of those young basses whose advanced vocal development belies their youth. Considered a late maturing fach, it is tempting to mentally cast him in all kinds of marvelous roles with a lengthy and enduring career. He sang "Vi ravviso", Count Rodolfo's Act I aria from Bellini's La Sonnambula and he totally convinced us that he was a man returning to the beautiful land of his childhood. It was a completely wonderful performance.

Closing the entertainment portion of the evening was soprano Brittany Nickell who employed her fine instrument with intense expressivity in "Robert, toi que j'aime" from Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. There was ample brilliance at the top and Mr. Fennelly's piano matched the singer's urgency. We particularly admired the very fine vibrato which suited the aria perfectly.

Having heard six such excellent singers at the Gala, and a few more at the November Membership Party, we commend the judges for their fine choices. We would have happily exchanged our steak for more music! But we suppose that the belly demands its due as well as the ears and the heart.

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MARILYN HORNE MASTER CLASS AT CARNEGIE HALL

             Brittany Nickell

Wee Kiat Chia

Noragh Devlin

Alexandra Smither

 As part of The Song Continues 2017, Marilyn Horne led a standing room only master class at Carnegie Hall. Four young singers and four collaborative pianists got to show their stuff and pick up some very valuable tips from Ms. Horne, who is concerned that song recitals are an endangered species. When Ms. Horne was a young artist, she gave song recitals in all fifty states! She feels that it's important for young artists to know the song literature and how to perform it.  We couldn't agree more.

Two of the four singers were well known to us from Manhattan School of Music where we reviewed their performances on the opera stage. We were impressed with them then (and hope you will use the search bar to read those reviews from the past three years) and were delighted to hear them perform in recital mode.

Soprano Brittany Nickell has a generous sound and seems to have quite a future singing roles that call for a sizable voice. Last night we heard her sing two songs by Strauss, one very familiar one from Vier Letzte Lieder--"Im Abendrot". She was coached to make her consonants crisper and her vowels more accurate. Variations of color and dynamics were addressed. We loved the advice to "enjoy the melisma" on the word "milder".

Ms. Horne's comment about "Schon sind, doch kalt die Himmelssterne" was that it was one of Strauss' "B songs" and that every set should include both well known songs and lesser known ones.  That's a point to which we have never given much thought, but it does make perfect sense.  Ms. Nickell should have a lot of Strauss in her future.  Her collaborative pianist was Nathan Raskin.

Mezzo-soprano Noragh Devlin has been reviewed by Voce di Meche four times previously and we have always appreciated her richly textured instrument and convincing dramatic gifts. She brought all this to bear on her performance of Mahler's "Um Mitternacht", with  CP Katelan Terrell gamely trying to create the orchestration on the piano. Ms. Devlin is a true mezzo and her coaching involved the advice to start pianissimo and to "belt" at the end. She was advised to take more breaths and even to take a breath between "Mitter" and "nacht" at the end, in order to give full measure to the climax.

Soprano Alexandra Smither elected to perform Schumann's setting of Goethe's "Kennst du das Land", which has been set by all the important composers of lieder in the 19th c.  Ms. Horne's coaching brought out all of the pathos, especially in the places where she was advised to take her time.  Ms. Smither was accompanied by Madeline Slettedahl.

We love the counter-tenor fach but we confess to being rather confounded by the choice of material made by Wee Kiat Chia. Xavier Montsalvatge's "Cancion de cuna" from Canciones Negras involves a mother lulling her baby to sleep. We have no problem with gender bending but it seems to work better as a source of humor. Mr. Chia was coached to feel the rocking rhythm in his body.

His other choice was Robert Schumann's "Ich grolle nicht" from Dichterliebe. He was coached to keep the sound forward, to watch out for double consonants, and to keep the momentum--advice that was also given to the other singers on the program. His CP was Zalman Kelber. We speculated that Mr. Chia wanted to do something different and we always applaud risk taking. But for our ears, we would prefer to hear him in some Handel!

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DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Brittany Nickell, Abigail Shapiro, Timothy Murray, and Anna Dugan (photo by Carol Rosegg)

What an ambitious task was taken on by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater; we are happy to report that Conrad Susa's opera Dangerous Liaisons was given a terrific production by their young singers and their artistic team. It was sheer theatrical magic to convert an epistolary novel, written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos in 1782--and to make it visually and dramatically interesting.

We have not read it but we well recall the 1988 movie which we have seen more than once. The scandalous tale of dissolute pre-Revolution France also inspired several stage adaptations, the most notable being that by Christopher Hampton, several films, and a ballet which we wish we had seen.

In 1992, the San Francisco Opera gave the commission to Conrad Susa and the opera was presented with Thomas Hampson as Valmont, Renee Fleming as Madame de Tourvel, and Frederica von Stade as Madame de Merteuil. It has been rarely produced since then but was seen in New York about seven years ago, when DiCapo Opera gave it a production that critics found static and boring. This production was anything but static and boring.

The story is a cynical one, the tale of a malicious pair of aristocrats who get their jollies from seducing and manipulating others. We are told nothing of the background of Vicomte de Valmont to explain his need to deflower virgins and seduce married women.  As far as his "friend with benefits",  Madame de Merteuil, our only clue is that she feels shortchanged in her role as a woman.  She protests that men get what they want while women take what they can get.

Soprano Anna Dugan is splendid in this role, as is her counterpart baritone Timothy Murray. They managed to hide their sinister motives behind a veneer of courtly behavior, plotting under the watchful gaze of their fellow aristocrats. The opera opens at the grand estate of Madame de Rosemonde outside Paris. Mezzo Noragh Devlin sang and acted this role to perfection. She loves her nephew Valmont but suspects he is there more to do mischief than to see her.

Valmont is preoccupied by the seduction of a pious married woman Madame de Tourvel, convincingly played by soprano Abigail Shapiro. However, he is persuaded to do Merteuil's bidding by the promise of sexual favors.

Merteuil wants revenge against a lover who discarded her by getting Valmont to deflower the man's intended bride, the 15-year-old Cécile de Volanges, fresh out of a convent, and marvelously portrayed by soprano Janet Todd.

Meanwhile, Cécile has fallen in love with her harp instructor, the Chevalier de Danceny, convincingly played by Kiwi tenor Oliver Sewell. Her mother Madame de Volanges (the fine soprano Brittany Nickell) must break up this romance because Danceny is a commoner and the intended husband is a well to do aristocrat. She is worried about the wrong fox in this hen house!

Merteuil pretends to be Cécile's friend and confidant but betrays her and takes Danceny as her lover. Valmont rapes Cécile under the guise of instructing her in the art of love, and simulates friendship for Danceny.

Madame de Tourvel struggles against her urges but, religious woman that she is, sees the possibility of redeeming Valmont and he plays along until she weakens. He then cruelly dumps her under the tutelage of Merteuil who writes his lines for him. "It is not my fault", he keeps repeating, sounding every bit like our antique MacIntosh Blueberry when it crashed.

We have given enough spoilers but you can imagine how unfortunate the ending will be for all concerned.

Dona D. Vaughn's direction could not have been any better. It is too bad that DiCapo's production was perceived as static. This production was anything but. Erhard Rom's set comprised decorated vertical panels that slid from side to side, creating a lavish drawing room, various bedrooms, a woodland walk, and a convent. Several scenes took place side by side.  For example, Merteuil might be writing a letter at her desk on one side with Valmont reading it aloud in his own room on the other side.

Costume designer Tracy Dorman outdid herself as one can see in the above photo. Each design revealed something about the character and the color palette matched the season of the year in which the act took place. The overall effect, complimented by Dave Bova's wig and makeup design, achieved verisimilitude.

Since this is an opera, we must discuss the music. Frankly, Susa's music did nothing for us; but one must take our opinion with the following grain of salt. We rarely enjoy late 20th c. music. Susa's music is mostly tonal but there was no beauty in it; there was power and discordancy but it all sounded the same.

The libretto by Philip Littell (who never wrote an opera libretto before) comprised dialogue in rhymed couplets (good) but came across as doggerel (bad). The recitativi supporting the dialogue were jagged and unmusical. There were plenty coloratura vocalises but they seemed to be randomly inserted without characterological justification.

Perhaps the English language does not inspire beautiful phrases of music.  As a matter of fact, we conferred with our opera-loving companion during intermission regarding who might have created a better opera from this story. It should have been in French, inasmuch as the story is so quintessentially Gallic.  Gounod?  Massenet?

The problem with the vocal line was that the tessitura was uncomfortably high.  The singers handled it beautifully but it is not the most attractive range to listen to for two hours. It might appeal to those who enjoyed Thomas Ades' Tempest, which we did not.

Interestingly, the English diction was far better than expected, credit going to a lot of hard work on the part of the singers and Diction Coach Kathryn LaBouff who made sure every vicious word counted. Happily, there were surtitles in case one missed something.

Valmont and Merteuil each had a sort of aria, or rather a monologue, in which they explained something about themselves.  But the best parts musically were the trios and duets in which the various voices balanced beautifully.

George Manahan led the orchestra through a reduction of Susa's score created by composer-arranger Randol Bass. We can only imagine how this dense and difficult music must have sounded before it was reduced.

The final scene made use of a wonderful chorus, under the direction of Miriam Charney. Brittany Bellacosa portrayed Emilie, Michael Gracco played Monsieur Bertrand, and servants were played by Amy Yarham, Christian Thurston, and Ashley Alden. Father Anselm was Robert Orbach.

This same superb cast will perform the Sunday matinée and a different cast will perform Friday evening.  Having heard some of the Friday night cast at the opera preview, let us reassure you that their vocal and dramatic skills are just as fine.

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