THREE TENORS...WAIT FOR IT...FOUR TENORS

David Gvinianidze, Johnathan McCullough, Zoya Gramagin,  Olga Lisovskaya, Nina Mutalifu, Yulan Piao, Giovanni Formisano, John William Gomez, WooYoung Yoon, and Tianchi Zhang

You will never hear us complain when we get more than we bargain for. We came to hear "Three Tenors" and we heard four, the fourth being Tianchi Zhang, a welcome last minute addition to the program. We were impressed by the sweetness of his sound at last year's Talents of the World concert and he lived up to his promise. We also got to hear some splendid sopranos and two baritones. L'abbondanza!

Let us address the tenors first. We loved the variety of the selections (opera, operetta, canzone Napolitane, and English Christmas songs). We enjoyed the opportunity to hear four tenors side by side, the better to appreciate their diverse colors. We became aware of the two very different aspects of the tenor voice that appeal to different people.

Many people in the sizable audience at Weill Recital Hall seemed enamored with high volume "money notes" which, to our ears, sounded pushed-- to the point that our own throat felt constricted in sympathy. What we personally appreciate is a floated high note for which we generally hold our breath lest we interfere with the delicate tickling of our ears.

The "tag team" presentation of famous arias on the program, with each tenor singing a different verse, seemed to yield a feeling of competition between the tenors resulting in a great deal more pushing than we would care to hear. The occasional pianissimi seemed like gems among boulders. We felt puzzled that the audience seemed to be more impressed by volume, even at the expense of beauty of tone; but then, they also applauded between the cantabile and the cabaletta. Has our own taste become too epicurean? We think not. We hold to our position.

We are always learning and our "take home" from last year was that singers should play to their strengths. Our "take home" this year is that putting tenors in a competitive situation, no matter how friendly, brings out the worst in them. We admit that the gestures and facial expressions, as each tenor yielded to the next, were entertaining but it was at the expense of the music.

Solos were more to our liking. Mr. Zhang overcame our indifference to song in English with a beautifully enunciated performance of d'Hardelot's "Because" and overcame our loathing for the music stand with a performance of "Silent Night" in Mandarin. This was a new experience for us and showed the beauty of the language itself and the simplicity of the melody without all the accrued baggage. Still, our vote goes to "De' bollenti spiriti" from Verdi's La Traviata for Mr. Zhang's Italianate legato phrasing and sweet resonant tone.

WooYoung Yoon's facility with language served him well in "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" from Lehár's Das Land des Lächelns and in "Ah, lève-toi soleil" from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. We enjoyed his ringing tone and expressive gestures as well as his ardent delivery. There were times when we thought that more variety of dynamics and color would have taken the performance from a 9 to a 10.

Giovanni Formisano had his best moment in, of all things, "Maria" from Bernstein's West Side Story. The lower tessitura and pianissimo passages gave us a better appreciation of his strengths and we wondered whether he was meant to be a baritone. One would have expected him to be at his best in his native tongue but, well, there it was--perfect English, ardent delivery, and lovely sound.

John W. Gomez' high point was "No puede ser" from Sorozábal's La tabernera del puerto, a favorite zarzuela of ours. He performed it with the requisite passion. We enjoyed the variety of colors and dynamics.

We weren't expecting sopranos but were thrilled to hear them. Zoya Gramagin made a spectacular Carmen, singing Bizet's seductive "Habanera" with conviction as well as interestingly textured tone. We thought of her as a falcon, which is what the French call a darkly colored dramatic soprano. Whatever you call her voice, it was a pleasure to hear, well-centered and even from the lower register to the top.

We first heard Nina Mitalifu singing in Italian with Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance. Then we heard her sing in Uighur for the Eurasia Festival and were so impressed that we asked her to sing her Uighur songs at one of our Around the World in Song concerts. Since then, we have heard and admired her singing in Russian and French. 

Last night we loved her waltzy "O Paris gai séjour" from Lecocq's Les Cents Vierges, an opera completely unknown to us. There was ample variety in the central section to show off what she can do with her magnificent instrument. (What can't she do!) The sinuous melismatic passages included a fine trill and the return included some graceful coloratura.

She performed quite charmingly as Zerlina with baritone Johnathan McCullough as the lustful Don Giovanni. Mr. McCullough came to vivid life in this scene; he was a lot more involved than he was in Hamlet's aria from the Thomas opera. We like more drama in our drinking songs!

We only got a tiny taste of the artistry of soprano Yulan Piao but enough to admire her sparkling well-focused instrument. Her perfect blending with Mr. Yoon's tenor in "Tanzen möchte ich" from Kalman's The Csárdás Princess has a reason; Mr. Yoon and Ms. Piao are indeed newlyweds. Ms. Piao did look and sound every inch a princess.

Baritone David Gvinianidze, Founder and President of Talents of the World, was joined by soprano Olga Lisovskaya, Director of Talents of the World, for the festive and rhythic "Spagnola" by Di Chiara. They are obviously far more experienced artists and were uniquely able to modulate their voices to the size of the room. It was a spirited and winning performance.

Accompanists for the evening were Stanislav Serebriannikov and Bradley Pennington, both of whom rose to the challenge of accommodating many different styles of music and many different voices.

Talents of the World will have a Christmas Ball on Sunday night and we hope you will join us for a night of revelry, singing, and dancing. There will be some vocal superstars on board and special guest Aprile Millo.

© meche kroop 

REMEMBERING DMITRI

The cast of Talents of the World paying tribute to Dmitri Hvorostovsky

Dmitri Hvorostovsky brought us to tears twice.  Once when he sang Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlo at the Met, and once when he died prematurely. Honoring this legendary baritone was such a splendid idea! In a recital produced by Talents of the World at Zankel Hall last night, his friends and colleagues from all over the world joined together onstage for a generous program of operatic arias, Neapolitan songs, and Russian romances.

Baritone David Gvinianidze, president and founder of Talents of the World is much honored and also beloved from his hosting a TV show in his native Georgia. He took it upon himself to sing the aforementioned aria  "O Carlo, ascolta...Io morró", which must have been even more emotional for him than for us.

A duet from the same opera--"Dio, che nell'alma infondere" was sung in perfect harmony by tenor Raúl Melo (who actually sang this duet with Hvorostovsky) as the eponymous Don Carlo, and baritone Oleksandr Kyreiev taking the role of Rodrigo.

In a long and varied program such as this, we get the opportunity to hear singers in a variety of roles and languages. We have to say that we enjoyed Mr. Melo the most when he sang opposite another singer. For example, his duet with mezzo-soprano Nino Surguladze--the final scene from Bizet's Carmen--was riveting, not just vocally but dramatically.  We believed every horrifying moment, even minus sets and costumes. We enjoyed this more than his solo song--Leoncavallo's "Mattinata" in which he performed for the audience rather than getting the message of the song across.

Regarding Mr. Kyreiev, we enjoyed him most when he sang in his native tongue. The song was not on the printed program so we were unable to identify it but there was no mistaking Mr. Kyreiev's ease, which allowed the timbre of his voice to be appreciated, along with variety of color and dynamics.

His voice blended well with others but his solo aria "O Vin Dissipe la Tristesse" from Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet seemed unidimensional and needed more variety.  What singer does not love a good drinking song! It's the operatic equivalent of an actor's death scene. He could do so much more with it!

"The impossible dream" from Man of La Mancha revealed an excellent facility with English but was plagued by the same lack of variety noted in the Thomas aria.

Obviously Russian songs (here we must admit to the error of lumping together Russian, Ukrainian, and Georgian) bring out the best in Russian singers.  A highlight of the program was Mr. Gvinianidze's performance of "Tolko raz", a sentimental song about longing that was sung with great depth of feeling.

This same intensity of feeling was noted in the performance of "Core 'ngrato" by Giovanni Formisano, a tenor with such an Italianate sound that the scent of garlic permeated Zankel Hall! He also wowed us with Federico's lament from Cilea's L'Arlesiana.

Speaking of being wowed, we took great pleasure in the performance of baritone Junhan Choi. This artist impressed us with his sincerity in every role he sang. There was no trace of "showiness" but rather a dedication to the character he was performing.

He made a believable Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, singing the duet "Pronto io son" with soprano Olga Lisovskaya, who kept trying on faces and gestures with which to convince the titular character that she was an innocent convent girl. 

He absolutely shone in the warhorse "Largo al factotum", bringing new life to an overheard aria, showing a lot of personality and variation in color. Some of the embellishments sounded original to our ear and the tongue-twisting patter moved briskly along.

Ms. Lisovskaya is not only a wonderful singer but also a director, teacher, and producer, serving as director of Talents of the World. She made an excellent host for the evening and made a brief appearance as Oscar in a scene from Verdi's Ballo in Maschera in which Mr. Melo used his gorgeous instrument to portray Riccardo's anguish over his illicit love for Amelia.

Mezzo-soprano Nino Surguladze made several appearances, all of them excellent, giving evidence of her versatility. She made a fine Dalila, seducing Samson in "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from the Saint-Saëns opera. There was a lovely decrescendo to an almost whispered pianissimo, a distinctive timbre to her voice, and variety of dynamics that contributed to a highly expressive delivery.

We had never heard of El Salvadorean pianist William Gomez and we will be ever grateful to Ms. Surguladze for introducing us to his arrangement of "Ave Maria". The lovely melody sounds nothing like other contemporary music but neither does it owe anything to the Schubert setting. The sound of Spanish fell on the ear gently. There is even a humming section!

Her duet with Mr. Gvinianidze--Albinoni's "Adagio" was lovely.

Soprano Anni Kolkhida performed "Vissi d'Arte" from Puccini's Tosca, creating a nice spin in the upper register but not exhibiting enough breath support in the middle and lower parts of the register. Her dramatic skills emerged in "Mira, d'acerbe lagrime", her duet with Count di Luna (Mr. Gvinianidze) in which she tries to save the life of her lover Manrico. The pair also did well in Vincenzo Di Chiara's isolated hit song "La Spagnola".

There was also a strange iteration of Robert's aria from Tchaikovsky's Iolanta performed by Mr. Gvinianidze, Mr. Kyreiev, and Mr. Choi! Not bad, just odd.

Whenever you get a soprano, a mezzo, a tenor, and a baritone in the same room, you just know you will get the final quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto.  And we did. Mr. Formisano sang the Duke, Ms. Lisovskaya sang Gilda, Ms. Surguladze sang Maddalena, and Mr. Kyreiev sang Rigoletto.

The two pianists for the evening were Alexandra Naumenko and Victoria Ulanovskya, who played an improvisation dedicated to Mr. Hvorostovsky entitled "The world is empty without you".

We miss Dima and he is not replaceable, but our world will never be empty as long as there are singers and songs!

The proceeds of the concert will go to organizations researching childhood cancer, a superb way to honor an artist who gave many concerts to benefit children in need.

(c) meche kroop