A GIFT FROM UPSTATE

 

Kayo Iwama, Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, Evan Katsefes, Michael Adams, Benjamin Truncale, and Leonor Vasconcelos

Having focused for so many years on Manhattan's three music conservatories, it was enlightening to see how much talent there is coming from upstate--Bard College Conseservatory of Music to be exact. Thanks to the Gerda Lissner Young Artist Showcase, we were privileged to be in the studio audience at The Greene Space of  WQXR for a most engaging recital.

As the recital progressed we noticed that all the students of the Bard College Vocal Arts Program shared a number of features in common. All of them had an admirable facility for language and all of them were so expressive that our attention was riveted throughout. We heard four of the advanced students in the program (two sopranos and two tenors) and a highly successful graduate, not to mention renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe who, as artistic director, seems to be getting enormous rewards from guiding young singers--a pleasure we fully understand. 

There was quite a lot of French mélodie on the program and every one of the young artists conveyed a fine understanding of the Gallic style--a gentleness and subtlety, a delicacy that matches the sentiments of the poetry. Our favorite of this group was Pauline Viardot's appropriately titled "Havanaise" performed by Leonor Vasconcelos who switched easily from the legato slow section to a spirited fast section marked by bel canto style fioritura. Ms. Vasconcelos has an animated stage presence and made generous use of facial expression and gesture to tell the story. We were enchanted.

Similarly, soprano Michael Adams evinced great depth of feeling and a delicate vibrato in her performance of Fauré's "C'est l'extase", evoking images of nature and romance at once.

Soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, a graduate of Bard's Vocal Arts Program, introduced us to a pair of songs by Adela Maddison, a student of Fauré heretofore unknown to us; we do love discovering "new" music (new to us) much more than we appreciate "New Music" (recently composed). As Ms. Fitz Gibbon introduced the work, one could tell how invested she is in such discoveries and how personal is her investment. We are ill equipped to place value on a composition but we can say that the music and its performance did not pale in comparison with the rest of the songs. We felt as if we shared in the singer's discovery.

Benjamin Truncale gave a lovely performance of Duparc's "L'invitation au voyage", evincing ample vocal coloration and dynamic variation in setting the sensual mood of Baudelaire's text. We observed that his gestures were non specific and he was telling the story vocally, unlike the women who used specific gestures to amplify the storytelling.

Tenor Evan Katsefes moved easily from the fine French of Fauré's "L'hiver a cesse" to the German text of Hermann Alllmers "Feldeinsamkeit" which had been set by Brahm's a few years earlier. It was an interesting exercise on Ives' part but we prefer the Brahms.  He also moved easily into the English of Florence Price's. "Hold Fast to Dreams".

There were many more treasures in the generous program but let us move on to the surprising ending which took us into the world of 20th century German kabarett. Ms. Vasconcelas  demonstrated a great facility for cabaret in her performance of a very early Schoenberg song called "Gigerlette". This was so charming we wished that Schoenberg had never gone on to give birth to the 12-tone system!

Ms. Fitz Gibbon performed Kurt Weill's "Berlin im Licht" and Ms. Blythe, whose dusky mezzo is perfect for German, gave us a jazzy arrangement (by Ryan MacEvoy McCullough who accompanied her) of Holländer's "Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte". It was a gloriously expressive performance, somewhat marred however by the presence of the loathed music stand.

It is clear that the vocal training at Bard emphasizes the text and the singers appear to have done their own translations.  The motto seems to be "speak it before you sing it" which seems to be responsible for the excellent performances which gave us such pleasure. The superb piano accompanists for the evening were Kayo Iwama and Mr. McCullough. Bravi tutti!

© meche kroop

A 17th CENTURY RAVE

 Curtain Call at Manhattan School of Music's Production of Purcell's The Fairy Queen

The proverbial blood, sweat, and tears that go into a theatrical production were nowhere in evidence at this romp seen and heard at Riverside Theater. The results were the evidence! It was difficult to tell who was having more fun last night, the audience or the student performers from Manhattan School of Music. Spirits were high and laughter was abundant.

Henry Purcell wrote some mighty gorgeous music for this "masque" which  was first presented in 1692. Although our knowledge of British history is rather meager, we understand that the entertainment known as a "masque" was very popular under the reign of Charles I and it was a rather lascivious entertainment in which royalty participated, comprising music, dance, theater, art, singing...what Richard Wagner might have called a gesamtkunstwerk.

The Protestant Reformation ended all such excess but The Restoration brought with it the reign of Charles II and the flourishing of the arts. For a deeper discussion of this topic we refer you to the following website...https://www.hrp.org.uk/banqueting-house/history-and-stories/the-masque/#gs.8uvkhk

Purcell made use of some of Shakespeare's text from Midsummer Night's Dream but the author of the libretto remains unknown. Much of the work seems to have gotten lost for a long period, but with the rise of interest in the counter-tenor fach, the work, or most of it, has been located and reassembled. If you were expecting a telling of the Bard's tale, you would have been disappointed. His play would seem to have been just a jumping off point with some of the characters making an appearance and just hints of the story being told.

Director/Choreographer Felicity Stiverson made some felicitous choices (sorry about that, but we just couldn't help ourself) and created an evening of fun that made use of the depth and breadth of talent found in MSM's Undergraduate Opera Theater. An inventive set was devised by Michael Ruiz-del-Vizo with a thrust stage in the center, a lounging area to the left and a bunch of cocktail tables and chairs to the right.

Artists entered and left up and down the center aisle of the auditorium. Everything worked just fine, especially having the excellent musicians, conducted by Jackson McKinnon, upstage behind a scrim. The opening showed imagination with a lone young man seeking admission to what might be a private club or disco and being given a hard time at the door--a scenario everyone has experienced in their lifetime.

Jessica Crawford's costume design was colorful and reminiscent of the 70's which, except for familiarity by means of film and television, might have been as remote from the memory of anyone in the audience as would have been costumes of the late 17th c. We saw bright neon mini-skirts, platform boots, sequined gowns and lots of motley outfits.

There was a gloss on celebrity worship with singers using fake microphones. And that brings us to the singing which was just fine all around. There was an ensemble spirit to the evening and it would be difficult to point out some of the individuals in the cast, since many the roles were allegorical, as was the custom of the time.  Isaac Hall portrayed the inebriated fellow who wound up with Bottom's donkey ears.  Jalynn Stewart portrayed Titania, Evan Katsefes played Oberon, and Yancheng Zhang had the role of Puck.  But everyone else portrayed multiple roles.

In the second act, we heard a couple of lovely arias, one accompanied by the violin and another accompanied by the trumpet. Most impressive was the duet for two women and if they care to step forward and identify themselves, we will be happy to add their names to the review.

Since we always need to find something to pick on (nothing is perfect) it would be the placement of the disco ball which obscured the titles. However, the singers were quite successful at making the text clear so it wasn't really a problem.

With such merriment, one would never complain that the work was updated. It was actually a clever and delightful way to present something that might have seemed antiquated and irrelevant.

© meche kroop