NINETEEN YEARS OF CAREER BRIDGES

 Honoree Adam Guettel and 2023 Award Rccipients

Career Bridges has been providing assistance to young opera singers for 19 years, far longer than we have been writing about them. Career Bridges provides mentoring, support, and performance opportunities to singers at the early stages of their careers, assistance lasting for three years, bridging the period between education and professional life.  Co-Founders David Schuyler Bender and his lovely wife Barbara Meister Bender are unique in being a beautiful "power couple" who are busy putting good into the world. Their goals are consonant with our own and we are proud and pleased to spread the word.

Tuesday night we were thrilled to be in attendance at this year's gala, held at 

The Metropolitan Club. Guests comprised not only luminaries of the opera world, donors who fund the program, and a number of voice students who no doubt hope to have Career Bridges' help in their future.

Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award was Joan Dornemann, famed vocal coach and Artistic Director of The International Vocal Arts Institute (of which we are a great fan). Many of us know her from her work at The Metropolitan Opera. We recall first meeting her as she conducted a coaching of Olga Makarina for her role as Mimi. Hearing her speak about getting her start as a prompter was most engaging.

Honored with a Distinguished Achievement Award was composer/lyricist/teacher Adam Guettel whose 2005 musical Light in the Piazza has remained in our memory. His projects are many and eagerly anticipated.

The young singers, accompanied by Musical Director Ted Taylor, were of uniformly high quality. Strangely there was only one male but we will put the ladies first. Let's begin with the sopranos, of which there were eight. They were all excellent in the same way--polished performers whose vocal technique was notable. If some of them sounded too much like each other, they will soon develop their own individual colors. That's what advanced training accomplishes.

Natalia Gonzalez-Santaliz performed "Chacun le sait" from Donizetti's La fille du regiment with a bright perky sound,  making a fine Marie. Seongeun Park made a lovely Nanetta, impressing us with her trill in "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio" from Verdi's Falstaff. Abigail Raiford exhibited the requisite bell-like tones in "Ou va la jeune Hindoue" from Delibes' Lakmé. We enjoyed the precision in  the affecting upper register of the devilishly difficult "O zittre nicht" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, performed by Kira Kaplan.

Other sopranos chose arias that showed off voices with a bit more heft. We are not familiar with Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar' Bride but Hana Lobel-Torres sang the aria "Ivan Gergeitch" with an interesting vibrato and texture. The same could be said for Kristin Gillis' performance of "Glück, das mir verblieb" from Korngold's Die tote Stadt, which she made her own. 

The huge but flexible soprano of Marieke de Koker was just right for "Tacea la notte placida" from Verdi's Il Trovatore. This stunning performance was a bonus and not in the program. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.

We also liked the mezzo-sopranos and their choice of material. Maggie Renée gave a highly dramatic performance of the witch's aria from Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, calling to mind Jamie Barton's Jezibaba in Dvorak's Russalka. (It's so much fun to perform evil characters!)  Junyue Gong's Carmen benefitted from good pacing and a sense of time and place in the "Seguidilla". "O ma lyre immortelle" from Gounod's Sapho was sung with deep feeling by Chelsea Laggan. Tackling some Wagner was Shanley Horvitz, singing "Geliebter! Komm' sieh' dort die Grotte" from Tannhaüser. We liked her German and the seductive quality.

Our sole male voice belonged to baritone Kevin Godinez who gave Ford's aria "È sogno? O realtà" from Falstaff an excellent reading. The evening ended with Mr. Godinez leading the ensemble in a rousing performance of  "The Impossible Dream" from Leigh's Man of La Mancha. This choice was rather ironic since it seems to us that the night' young artists have possible dreams, made possible by Career Bridges.

Let us not forget to share one final performance--that of Meghan Picerno who sang one of our favorite arias--"Glitter and Be Gay" from Bernstein's Candide, a marvelous work that has been fought over by both Broadway camp and opera camp. We call it an opera.

© meche kroop

GERDA LISSNER AWARD RECITAL

 

Arlene Shrut, Mary Pinto, Midge Woolsey, Ethel Trujillo, Yvette Keong, Teresa Perrotta, Evelyn Saavedra, Shannon Keegan, Gregory Feldmann, Eleomar Cuello, Kevin Godínez, and Eric Ferring

Oh, how we have missed the Gerda Lissner Foundation annual awards recitals! So much has happened in the past couple years--the sad losses of Stephen De Maio who gave so much to the opera community in so very many ways, as well as serving as president of the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and of Brian Kellow, longtime host of the annual concerts.

But the Foundation goes on with some welcome additions and changes.  As host we had the lovely well known Midge Woolsey who is another champion of young singers. And the best news of all was the institution of a Zarzuela and Operetta Division.  Regular readers know how fond we are of zarzuela  and how delighted we have been to see this art form represented increasingly on recital programs. 

This division was chosen to replace the Wagnerian Division with the belief that young voices are better suited to Chapí than to Wagner. Thus we were fortunate enough to hear the lovely Mexican soprano Ethel Trujillo sing "Me llaman la Primorosa" from Giménez'  El Barbero de Sevilla.  This was a most apt showpiece for Ms. Trujillo's bright and well supported coloratura as well as for her ability to give herself totally to the character. There was a charming duet with the voice of the piano that we relished.

Costa Rican baritone Kevin Godínez gave us a powerful yet nuanced performance of "Junto al puente de la Peña" from Serrano's La Canción del Olvido, approaching his character with requisite confidence and presence.

Cuban soprano Evelyn Saavedra in a smashing red gown with a red flower in her hair and fan in hand created the character of a woman with two suitors in the well known "De España vengo" from Carné's El Niño Judio. Her splendid voice was matched by her acting and Hispanic presence.

In the Lieder Division, we were happy to reacquaint ourselves with baritone Gregory Feldmann and soprano Yvette Keong. Ms. Keong recreated the "Beautiful Dreamer" of Stephen Foster's masterpiece with effective word coloration. We loved her expressiveness and the naturalness of her gestures as well as the bright clear top and fine vibrato. Excellent enunciation made every word clear, a feature that is generally missing in sung English.

Mr. Feldmann delighted us with "Auf Der Brücke".  We can never get enough Schubert and Mr. Feldmann's unforced tone and dynamic variation did justice to the lied. The major/minor shifts were handled sensitively with different coloration and the German diction was perfect.

In the General Division, mezzo-soprano Shannon Keegan performed "Ô petite étoile" from Chabrier's opéra bouffe-- L'étoile, a charmer if we ever heard one. The aria has a delicate piano introduction but calls for the singer to crescendo into a powerful position. Ms. Keegan's voice has a most interesting texture and she used her personality to create a charming character. Her onstage poise was apparent when she gracefully silenced a premature applauder and continued the aria. It was a lovely moment.

We suppose every opera lover already knows the "legend" that Mozart wrote "Come scoglio" in Cosi fan tutte for a soprano he abhorred and deliberately made it challenging to defeat her.  We don't know if that is true or not but we do know that soprano Teresa Perrotta was undefeated! Oh, those challenging skips and demanding coloratura were no match for this brave Fiordiligi. We hope to see her this summer when we will be reviewing Santa Fe Opera.

Perhaps "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" is one of Erich Korngold's most famous arias. Baritone Eleomar Cuello filled "Pierrot's Tanzlied" from Die tote Stadt with longing and nostalgia by means of an emotional vibrato. He swelled to a powerful climax, sustained the mood throughout the piano interlude, and ended with a gorgeous pianissimo.

Eric Ferring's arresting quality is a sweet unforced tenor tone with beautifully floated top notes. Although several of the awardees sang two selections which we have insufficient space to discuss, we must mention Mr. Ferring's contrasting choices. The even legato of the tormented De Grieux from Massenet's Manon, sung in true Gallic style, was contrasted with a fiery performance of "Il tuo sangue" from Handel's Ariodante. The fioritura was cleanly articulated and was the perfect invigorating end to this thrilling concert.

Collaborative pianists were Arlene Shrut and Mary Pinto about whom we have nothing but good things to say.

What a pleasure to have this competition back!  Such a benefit for these highly gifted young singers and such a thrill for us opera lovers.

© meche kroop