NEW, NEWER AND NEWEST MUSIC

Michael Barrett, Naomi Louisa O'Connell, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Jesse Blumberg, Chelsea Shephard, Amy Owens, and Steven Blier

Our admiration of and affection for a group of young singers swayed us toward reviewing last night's New York Festival of Song. It was indeed a challenge for our 19th c. ears to relate to a program of late 20th and 21st c. music. We love opera, we love stories, we love lieder that tell us a story. So much contemporary vocal music is abstract and offers settings of texts that we would not enjoy reading for their own merits. The music inspired by these texts does not seem to add much.

Steven Blier's program played to a packed house and comprised works of three generations of American composers. The earliest one was Paul Bowles, the next was William Bolcom, and the newest was Gabriel Kahane.

It was a triumph of singing and acting on the part of the artists that overcame our feelings of being lost in abstraction. Our happiest moments came when the material offered a relatable dramatic situation. 

Paul Bowles' Picnic Cantata is a daffy almost surrealist tale about four women planning and executing a picnic. The four women singers appeared dressed in mid 20th c. summer dresses. Their voices harmonized beautifully.

When mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O'Connell sang the aria "The Sunday paper is full of news", she related the sad story of a married woman in love with a married man, writing to an advice columnist. She filled the story with pathos and sympathy so the accompaniment by Mr. Blier and Mr. Barrett began to make sense.

In that cycle, we also enjoyed "In sun and shade", in which the lyrical piano line seemed to express the image of a warm day spent  in nature with the kites flying. Some interesting sounds were provided by percussionist Barry Centanni.

Our favorite part of the evening was William Bolcom's Suite from Dinner at Eight which was receiving its world premiere. The opera itself, with libretto by Mark Campbell, will receive its premiere next month at Minnesota Opera; we expect it will be a great success. It is based on a play from 1932 written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. 

Accompanied by both pianos, soprano Chelsea Shephard used her ample vocal artistry and dramatic skills to portray Millicent Jordan who is planning a dinner party in the opening aria "Lobster in aspic", endowing the role with imperiousness, anxiety, and the best kind of humor--the unselfconscious type.

Mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms was stunning and convincing as the retired actress Carlotta, reminiscing with Millicent's husband Oliver in "Our town".

Versatile baritone Jesse Blumberg was convincing as Oliver Jordan in the troubled aria "You think you're safe", as he faces the failure of his business in The Great Depression.

Soprano Amy Owens, remembered as a charming Zerbinetta at the Santa Fe Opera (summer 2014), gave a moving performance of "My love will see us through"--sung by the Jordan's daughter Paula to her troubled alcoholic lover.

Ms. O'Connell invested Lucy, married to a cheating doctor, with all the ambivalence of a woman who stays with her man despite the pain he causes her. The work ended with the entire ensemble raising their voices in hopeful harmony in "The party goes on" (even without the guests of honor and the lobster aspic).

A world premiere was on the program as well--Gabriel Kahane's Six Packets of Oatmeal, commissioned by NYFOS. The text was a "poem" by Galway Kinnell which was not at all poetic, just the ramblings of an isolated man who fantasizes about imaginary companions joining him for breakfast. Although Mr. Blumberg sang it beautifully, we kept thinking about Schubert's Winterreise as a far more artistic depiction of isolation and mental illness. 

There were some mighty strange sounds emanating from the piano and something we did enjoy was Mr. Barrett's demonstration of how plucking the strings under the lid of the piano could produce some strange overtones. But the text was too idiosyncratic for our taste.

A shorter piece by Mr. Kahane from 2006 was of more interest to us. "Half a box of condoms" from his Craigslistlieder was sung by Chelsea Shephard and offered ample chuckles.

(c) meche kroop

MARILYN HORNE SONG COMPETITION WINNERS-2013

Tracy Cox

Maureen Zoltek

Opera America did well to inaugurate their Emerging Artist Recital Series in collaboration with the Music Academy of the West's 2012 Song Competition Winners.  Marilyn Horne herself was present to introduce the two lovely ladies who performed a recital worth boasting about.

Accompanied with consummate artistry and sensitivity by collaborative pianist Maureen Zoltek, dramatic soprano Tracy Cox let loose with a huge creamy voice, eminently suited to the Verdi and Strauss that she performed side by side in the first half of the program.  Ms. Cox broke the "one set, one composer" mold and inventively paired a song by Verdi with one by Strauss, counting on a unity of theme to bind them together.  Verdi's "In solitaria stanza" was paired with Strauss' "Die Nacht", one of our personal favorites.  "Stornello", one of our favorite Verdi songs was performed with convincing humor and paired with Strauss' "Die Verschwiegenen".  "Il Tramonto" by Verdi was well-matched with Strauss' "Heimkehr".  Strauss' charming "Muttertanderlei" stood in opposition to Verdi's  tragic "La Seduzione".  Two "drinking songs" closed the first half of the program--Strauss' romantic "Heimliche aufforderung" and Verdi's "Brindisi" in which the wine itself is the love object.

The second half of the program included Mark Carlson's setting of four sonnets by Pablo Neruda, of which our favorites were "Cuando yo muera" and "Reposa con tu sueño".  The very dramatic "La Dame de Monte Carlo", Poulenc's setting of Jean Cocteau's text, gave Ms. Cox the opportunity to demonstrate her acting chops which are significant.  The closing work was fun; Gabriel Kahane's setting of some very amusing Craigslist ads; one was of a very neurotic man seeking female companionship and the other was of a person seeking a roommate and offering a very cheap rent if only the roommate would tolerate his rather peculiar affliction.  Ms. Cox made the most of these songs to the delight of the audience.

Ms. Cox has a stage presence as commanding as her voice.  She knows just when to widen her eyes or wrinkle her nose and yet nothing is studied or artificial; it all seems to come out of her connection with the material.  Her connection with the audience is equally impressive.  Her huge voice just fills up the room, making all the molecules of oxygen vibrate.  There is a thrill in the listening and we hear Wagner in her future.  Could this be the Wagnerian we are all waiting for?

© meche kroop