GERDA LISSNER FOUNDATION AWARDS RECITAL

The generosity of the Gerda Lissner Foundation in its support of young singers is extremely praiseworthy.  It was a pleasure to hear President Stephen De Maio being acknowledged by charming host Brian Kellow (Features Editor at Opera News) for all of his hard work.  This year's honoree was the beloved Bass-baritone Eric Owens.  The long list of awards testified to the success of the venture.  That we got to hear a baker's dozen of them sing yesterday was a major delight.  Some of them were new to our ears and others have been enjoyed on numerous past occasions.  All were excellent; the judges chose well.

We have space to mention a few of the highlights.  Soprano Deanna Breiwick tickled everyone's fancy with "Quel guardo il cavaliere" from Donizetti's Don Pasquale.  This young woman has beauty and stage presence as well as fine technique; she knows how to create a character and how to get a song across.  Her trill gives one a thrill.

Soprano Ying Fang, who gives a recital this afternoon at Juilliard, showed off some mighty fine embellishments and secure control of dynamics in "Prendi per me sei libero" from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.  We simply cannot get enough Donizetti, especially when sung this charmingly.

Continuing in the bel canto style, bass-baritone Jeongcheol Cha showed impressive flexibility and legato in "Vi Ravviso" from Bellini's La Sonnambula; tenor Juan Jose De Leon won us over with his "Si, ritrovarla, io giuro" from Rossini's La Cenerentola.  Bass-baritone Evan Hughes had all the right qualities for Dandini's aria "Come un'ape" from the same opera.

Massenet's "Letter Scene" from Werther was sung by mezzo Jennifer Johnson Cano with a rich tone, fine French diction and moving involvement with the text.  The grand finale comprised two arias from Leoncavallo's I Pagliaci sung by two of the Top Prize winners, both baritones.  Well known to us from recitals and several other competitions, consistent winner Takaoki Onishi once again dazzled us with his rich full sound, his variety of color and his depth of feeling as he sang Silvio's aria "E fra quest'ansie".  Truth to tell, we would have eloped with him in a minute!  Equally convincing was Anthony C. Evans who sang the prologue in mighty praiseworthy Italian and drew us in as any carnival barker might have.

We also heard some excellent work from tenor Noah Baetge and soprano Marcy Stonikas who took Wagner out for a whirl; tenor Dominick Chenes, soprano Chloe Moore, counter-tenor John T. Holiday, tenor Anthony Kalil and tenor Jonathan Winell were all a pleasure to hear.  Accompanists for the recital were Jonathan C. Kelly and Arlene Shrut. We predict excellent careers for all and wish everyone well.

© meche kroop

FUN PASQUALE

Deanna Breiwick, Tobias Greenhalgh, Jeongcheol Cha

What fun we had at Juilliard last night where Donizetti's comic masterpiece Don Pasquale was presented by artists from Juilliard Opera and Juilliard Orchestra.  The story is right out of the commedia dell'arte tradition--a foolish old man wants to marry and gets his comeuppance.  In most productions, we feel great sympathy for the disinherited nephew Ernesto who is so in love with the poor  Norina that he refuses to marry the rich bride his uncle favors, thereby provoking the uncle to seek a bride and produce an heir.

But, in this case, Jeongcheol Cha created such a sympathetic character that our sympathies shifted toward him and less toward the slacker nephew, portrayed by Javier Abreu, a rather unprepossessing fellow who appeared unworthy of the beautiful and spunky Norina, performed by Deanna Breiwick.  The crafty Doctor Malatesta, portrayed by the too young and too handsome Tobias Greenhalgh, initiates a plan to show Don Pasquale how awful marriage is by presenting Norina as his convent-raised sister Sofronia, the perfect wife.  Naturally as soon as the fake marriage contract is signed, Norina proceeds to go through the Don's fortune and to demolish his self-esteem with her wanton ways.  There was a very moving moment when Norina realized how she has injured her future father-in-law; remorse was written all over Ms. Breiwick's lovely face.

Mr. Cha's sturdy bass-baritone served him well in the bel canto style; Mr. Greenhalgh who, in spite of his matinee idol looks and youth, created a dashing image of a doctor who manages to pull off the stunt with panache; his baritone was most pleasant to the ear.  Ms. Breiwick, whose gorgeous golden locks were hidden under a dowdy brown wig, used her lustrous soprano and superior technique to illuminate the coloratura passages with distinction.  Just listen to that liquid silver trill!  Mr. Abreu has a sweet but small tenor and failed to enlist our sympathies for his character.

In a bit of luxury casting, some of Juilliard's finest singers composed the ensemble.  In Swinging Sixties wigs and costumes we had fun trying to recognize them.

The conductor Stephen Lord and the director James Robinson were imported from St. Louis; we were not impressed.  Donizetti's music must sparkle like a diamond and what we heard sounded more like a rhinestone.  Not bad, just a bit lackluster.  The Juilliard Orchestra has sounded better on other occasions.

As far as the direction goes, we saw no reason to place the story in the 1960's, a decade no more relevant to our lives today than the time period in which Donizetti and librettist Giovanni Ruffini placed the action.  This anachronism left us in a disjointed frame of mind when horses and coaches were mentioned.  We were not outraged as we are when serious classics are trashed, just mildly irritated.  There should be a point and there isn't one.  To make matters worse, there were even more contemporary touches like the personal trainer and the green juice drink that didn't belong to the 60's at all.  That being said, these funny bits were....funny.

Set designer Shoko Kambara created a beautiful set for the Don's home with overstuffed furniture and burnished wooden walls that made us think we were going to see an epoch-valid production.  When Norina has the home redecorated, everything appeared to be of the art deco period, another anachronism.

Costumes by Amanda Seymour were colorful and apropos the period.  Still, we were left wondering why Norina, appearing as the modest Sofronia in a black dress, would be wearing bright shiny red stilettos.  In sum, this was a production in which one would do well to forget dramatic logic and just listen to the delightful young artists as they embark on what promises to be some very illustrious careers on the opera stage.

(c) meche kroop

MORE MÖRIKE PLEASE, HERR WOLF

Late 19th c. composer Hugo Wolf turned out songs as prolifically as Franz Schubert but "that's all he wrote".  Last night the Juilliard Songfest gave us the opportunity to hear dozens of his vocal settings of poetry by Edward Mörike sung by some of the finest talent at Juilliard.  The seven singers were coached and accompanied by Artistic director Brian Zeger who never fails to impress with his support of the singers.  The program was divided into three parts--On Nature, On Life and Death and On Love.

Soprano Deanna Breiwick was most impressive in "An eine Aeolsharfe" in which the phrases seemed to float in the air as the wind blew across the strings of the harp (the one in the poem, not onstage) accompanied by Mr. Zeger's delicate arpeggios.

Soprano Pureum Jo went from the amusing tale-telling of "Nixe Bisenfuss", accompanied by some rapid tinkly scale passages on the piano,  to the sorrowful "Das verlassene Mägdelein", easily taking us along with her complete involvement in the material.

Soprano Julia Bullock demonstrated the loveliest legato in  "Agnes" expressing the pain of an abandoned woman.  Mezzo Naomi O'Connell sang the somber "Denk'es, o Seele!" with considerable conviction.

Tenor Yujoong Kim was splendid in his sole selection "Verborgenheit"  ("Lass o welt") but left us wanting to hear more.  Baritone John Brancy was most impressive in the closing number, making the most of the humorous moments in "Nimmersatte Liebe".

Baritone Takaoki Onishi demonstrated his skills as a master storyteller in "Der Tambour", the story of a very young soldier who wishes his mother could join the campaign and look after him.  In a different vein, he fully conveyed the horror of "Der Feuerreiter".  As encore, we enjoyed the four lovely ladies singing "Auch kleine Dinge".

Each and every one of the singers sang each and every song as if they had lived it.  This was much more than a performance but more like an illustration of the art of lieder singing.  Bravi tutti!

(c) meche kroop

MORE ROMANTIC ANGST AT JUILLIARD

  In last night's Cosi Fan Tutte at Juilliard we were enveloped in romantic entanglements as experienced by two young couples.  In a fortuitous coincidence last night's Liederabend comprised Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch, settings of anonymous Italian poetry translated into German by Paul Heyse.  As presented by Vocal Coach Ken Noda, five different couples enacted (and we do mean "enacted") various stages in different kinds of romantic relationships.  This enabled 10 gifted young singers from the Institute for Vocal Arts and 5 collaborative pianists the opportunity to experience an entire spectrum of emotions from delight to despair, from triumph to abjection, from abandonment to enmeshment, from satisfaction to frustration, from scorn to adoration.  One of the glories of this style of presentation is that the singer not performing has the opportunity to react to the dramatic content of each song as sung by his/her partner.

Such a presentation of lieder moves it just a bit closer to opera and fortunately, all of the 10 singers are as gifted dramatically as they are vocally.  Soprano Ying Fang showed the pain of separation in "Mir ward gesagt" and brought much personality to the humorous "Mein Liebster hat zu Tische mich geladen"; tenor Yujoong Kim was ardently romantic in "Ihr seid die Allerschönste".  Soprano Pureum Jo put tenor Nathan Haller on notice in "Nein, junger Herr" for his woeful misbehavior; on his part, he expressed his reaction to her anger in "Wie soll ich fröhlich sein".

Soprano Raquel González and tenor Miles Mykkanen performed the next set of songs.  In "Wer rief dich denn?" Ms. González puts Mr. Mykkanen in his place with an ultimatum; in turn, Mr. Mykkanen defended himself movingly in "Was soll der Zorn, mein Schatz".  The following pair comprised soprano Julia Bullock who amusedly denigrated her lover in "Mein Liebster ist so klein" and baritone Takaoshi Onishi (who just won the Met National Council New York District Finals) after much futile praising of his lover finally turned things around in "Hoffärtig seid Ihr, schönes Kind".

The final set of songs was performed by soprano Deanna Breiwick and baritone Tobias Greenhalgh.  Ms. Breiwick had the audience laughing as she sang "Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen" in which the singer's dreams of having a musician as her lover are finally realized.  Collaborative pianist Lachlan Glen managed to evoke the halting violinist as Ms. Breiwick showed her bemused tolerance of his scratching away.  Mr. Greenhalgh wound up with most of the romantic songs and excelled at every one.

Aside from Mr. Glen, the other four collaborative pianists accompanied these pairs of singers with sincerity and sensitivity.  In order of appearance, they were Daniel Fung, Dan K. Kurland, John Arida and Dimitri Dover.  Their contributions to the success of the program were notable.

As if we were not sufficiently thrilled by the Liederabend, we spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how a stage full of pre-college instrumentalists could outplay some major big town orchestras we have heard.  The Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra conducted by Adam Glaser tackled Mahler's Fourth with great attention to dynamics and sonorities.  Christine Price performed the songs in the final movement.  We first heard this symphony in 1980 when Walter Weller conducted the NY Philharmonic.  Our young ears were seduced as soon as we heard the sleigh bells.  We returned for a couple subsequent performances and have loved this work ever since.  The young musicians truly honored the piece.  It was preceded by two lovely French works, "Fêtes" from Debussy's Nocturnes and Camille Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op.22.  Sarina Zhang played with power and delicacy as needed.  Her fleet fingers made the runs look like child's play.

All of the evening's music originated in the late 19th c., perhaps our favorite period.

(c) meche kroop