LOVE IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA

 Adriana Valdés and Juan del Bosco

With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, love in the time of social media is just as fraught as Love in the Time of Cholera. In an unusual and ultimately fulfilling exploration of "Love, Hate, and Songs", many genres and languages were involved. 

Thanks to Steven Blier and his NewYork Festival of Songs, we have come to realize that great songs can be found outside of the world of opera. Still, our personal preference is for songs in Italian and Spanish, the vowels of which permit the best experience of a singer's resonance. In the case of Latin American music, we hear no evidence of the loathed atonalism and prosy libretti favored by North American composers. Popular songs feel very related to art songs when they are performed unamplified.

Last night at Opera America, fans of soprano Adriana Valdés and tenor Juan del Bosco packed the room to the bursting point, enjoying this eclectic program. With the exception of songs about the beauties of nature, most songs have been written about love--wanting love, feeling loved, unrequited love, broken love, etc. The presence of cell phones in communicating with potential, present, or former lovers seems to add to the pain, as illustrated in last night's program.

Accompanied by the versatile pianist Tristan Cano, Ms. Valdés showed off many sides of her artistry, from Moss Hart's jazzy "My Funny Valentine" and Johnny Mercer's "That Old Black Magic" to The 17th c. "Yo soy la locura" by Henri de Bailly in it's stirring minor key and, in more familiar territory, "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" from Puccini's La Bohême.

Similarly, Mr. del Bosco moved our feelings with  the late 20th c."Cómo quien pierde una estrella", the first international hit of the Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez. This lament for lost love showed hints of Mr. Fernandez' origins in folk music and mariachi. We became a fan on the spot.

Ennio Neri's "Parlami d'amore Mariu" is a 20th c, Neapolitan song we always love to see on a vocal program and our tenor put heart and soul into his performance.

Also stunning were the tenor's forays into arias written by Giacomo Puccini. "Nessun dorma" from Turandot was particularly powerful. Counter-intuitively, the most powerful moment was when the artist brought his first "splendera" down to the pianissimo level before exploding into the grand climax. He also showed a more tender side in his duet with Ms. Valdés "O soave fanciulla". Playing into the 21st c. theme, our soprano became contemporarily seductive which the audience seemed to enjoy more than we did.

Returning to the theme of magic realism, the fourth leg of this stable table was Mr. Magic Chef who not only sings and cooks but also performs magic tricks involving cutting a rope into pieces which then reconstitute themselves. Baritone Ago D'Agostaro did a fine performance of the famous popular song "Volare" and also one in French--"La vie en rose". To his credit we understood his French as well as we did his Italian. His cabaret style brought interesting variety to the evening.

It was an unusually diverse evening, held together for us by the theme of magic. And isn't love magic?

© meche kroop

A NEW SPANISH LANGUAGE ORATORIO LOOMED LARGE OVER WEST VILLAGE AUDIENCE

El Caminante de Nazaret at United Methodist Church of the Village

Guest Review by Cullen Gandy:


I wish I could say that I enjoyed the new Spanish Easter “Opera in 5 acts” El Caminante de Nazaret, yesterday, but there were a few things that were just too imposing which prevented me from doing so. The evening spanned around three hours, and covered the same type of territory that one would expect to hear in any large scale oratorio; such as Bach St. Matthäus Passion, Mendelssohn Elijah, or Handel's Messiah. It was, in effect, a full rendering of the passion story. Start to finish. In Spanish, composed by Rafael Grullón.

The issues I had with the piece/production weren’t, for the large part, the singing that I heard from the soloists during yesterday’s performance. In fact, the evening featured some rather impressive and limpid voices.

The main soloists were pooled from a serious group of young singers. Among the principal voices was Linda Collazo, who played Mary Magdalene. Her voice was elastic and luxurious; opening up nicely through the top. A stentorian tenor Juan del Bosco played Jesus, who did most of the heavy lifting in terms of time spent singing. His voice was a force to be reckoned with, and it evoked dreams of Verdi’s Requiem or Aida. It is always great to hear healthy, full-throated singing. Baritones came to play, as well, in the voices of Pablo Garcia (Judas), Jose Maldonado (Pilate), and Frank Colón (Peter). Both Jose and Pablo had large, Verdian instruments to put on display, adding to the drama. Mr. Colón, while possessing a more slender instrument, engaged with the emotional intent of his struggle nicely, with gestures and thought out emotional response. Each one manifesting in his voice, to good effect.

My complaints didn’t necessarily extend to the effort surrounding the concert, either. It was refreshing to see a new-ish company shell out the money, and take the time, to hire and feature great local talent (including the awesome full orchestra). As a Juilliard grad myself, I was able to pick out a handful of outstanding musicians from my years there; hiding among the cadre. These are serious professionals, not amateurs.

The bulk of what bothered me about this performance had to do with how it was produced and how it was prepared. Whoever was in charge of the recording and amplification set-up for these concerts majorly dropped the ball. The whole concert sounded like a condensed recording, where loud and soft sounded none-too-different. Also, after the major climaxes of the heavier voices and ensembles, there was always a large feedback flare of the microphone. It was so loud, and happened so often, that it gave me and my girlfriend both headaches. It also threw the balance of the piece way out of whack. Someone thought it would be a good idea to mic this concert as though it were being performed in an arena outside, instead of inside a Methodist church with vaulted ceilings.

Not that the balance or blend presented in the piece was ever in danger of being good. The chorus suffered from a continual problem with blend and intonation. Many of the vowels were harsh, and individual voices stuck out everywhere. The microphone situation exacerbated this, by having random microphones pointed in careless directions among them. This made it so certain unpleasant individual voices from the smaller ensemble of disciples/choristers jetted out all the more.

I was initially encouraged by the overture of the piece, as it seemed to have a Romantic sensibility, worthy of the large voices under employ for the evening. However, as the concert went on, I realized that much of the concert sounded as if it were derived from various composers. At certain points in the program I would lean over to my girlfriend and say, “that sounds like…” Berlioz, or Mozart, or Verdi, or Beethoven.

While the composer did write in contrast with respect to tempi, time signature, and tessitura, all of the music (with very little exception) was sung syllabically. That means that each note was accompanied by one syllable of a word. This is a mechanism to get through text rather efficiently, but, at the same time, makes things sound homogeneous; especially if there is no break from it. The arias sounded much like the choruses, which sounded like the ensembles (what few duos, or other small ensembles there were). It made the music feel like I was listening to two and a half hours of very dramatic Spanish laundry lists, and it made most of the choruses feel monophonic…even when they were polyphonic.

There was narration over the music at regular intervals, too; spoken and amplified over the speaker in the hall, in English. It was so grating and loud that it startled me even when I knew it was coming. That is not to say that the narrators (either Elizabeth Arredondo or Emily Kitchens) did a poor job of narrating. They were actually quite emotive, and acted convincingly. I am sure that our narrator was a professional actress, from the way she payed attention to diction and inflection.

Lastly, the absence of an intermission until before the final (fifth act) was about two acts too late. Many audience members got up and walked around during some portion of the performance, because of how long it was. I understand why the intermission was placed where it was (because of the significance of the death of Christ on Good Friday), but at some point one must think logistically. If we have a group of largely over 50 year olds watching a three hour Easter marathon, they’re going to need a break. My girlfriend clued me in to that for good measure, as well.

For a summation, I say this — ditch the mics, iron out the balance (by adjusting the strength of the orchestra playing as needed), blend the chorus (and make sure they are singing uniform vowels and consonants at the same time), and give us another small intermission. Barring that, I wouldn’t recommend seeing this one yet. Too much left to iron out.

(c) meche kroop

ANOTHER WELCOME RIGOLETTO

Hasan Ozcan, Gennadiy Vysotskiy, Violetta Zabbi, Juan Del Bosco, Carlos Jimeno, Noam Katz, Galina Ivannikova, Kofi Hayford, Jeffrey Perez, and Jason Lim

Last night's search for summertime opera took us to the National Opera Center where the New York Opera Theater presented a concert version of Verdi's masterpiece Rigoletto, of which we never tire--although we have reviewed it several times this year and just recently at Amore Opera.

Verdi's melodies are incomparable and Francesco Maria Piave's libretto does a great job of storytelling.  Music and words combine to create well-rounded characterizations that require only good performers to inhabit them.  In a piano reduction, one might miss the orchestration but, in the hands of Music Director Violetta Zabbi, we were content. Even the storm scene in Act IV created enough meteorological verisimilitude.

The performers were, for the most part, excellent, especially in their Italian diction. Without titles, it is a great advantage to be understood.

The heartbreaking role of Gilda was beautifully performed by soprano Noam Katz who was assisted by her innocent and beautiful appearance. We admired the way she conveyed various emotional states by means of vocal coloring, facial expression and gesture.  Her bright youthful soprano and facile coloratura served her well.

The New York Opera Theater has a mission of role preparation and Ms. Katz' seemed well-prepared to go onstage anywhere with her Gilda; she is solid in her familiarity with the role.  Although the program did not include bios, we would think she has sung the role before. And probably several times.

Similar in commitment and preparation, baritone Carlos Jimeno made a very fine Rigoletto--although his tall dignified bearing would have required elaborate costuming to convince us! He exhibited a wide emotional range and his duet with Gilda was superb. He handled his tenderness toward her as effectively as his antipathy toward the courtiers.

In the role of the Duke, the tenor was indisposed and having insurmountable vocal distress. Fortunately, in Act II, Mexican tenor Juan Del Bosco took over.  His is a large voice that he might learn to harness and scale down when the performing space is small.  Scorca Hall has very lively acoustics! He sounded best when he sang from offstage and one could still hear him loud and clear.

He is a musical singer with fine phrasing and superb Italian diction; but like many tenors he pushes on his high notes when he might do better to float them. The upper reaches of the staff does not mean the upper limits of volume. Although he seemed to know the role well, he turned to the score on the music stand which interfered with his otherwise fine acting.

We loved mezzo-soprano Galina Ivannikova in the role of Maddalena.  She has a rich unique sound which one rarely hears in this fach. Her work in the quartet was outstanding. We wish to hear more of her!

Bass roles were well-sung. Kofi Hayford performed Monterone, a role which sat very well on his rich voice.  Gennadiy Vysotskiy was truly menacing as Sparafucile and employed the bottom of his register well.

As Marullo, Borsa, and Ceprano, we heard Hasan Ozcan, Jason Lim, and Jeffrey Perez respectively. Their voices harmonized well and when they stepped away from their music stands they sounded even better.  Regular readers will recall how we feel about singers being "on the book".

The performance came in at two hours, with a few judicious cuts in dialogue.  We didn't miss Countess Ceprano at all. In terms of a concert version, this one was just the way we wanted to hear it, minus the music stands.  We never missed the sets and costumes.  We were happy to hear new singers showcased.

(c) meche kroop