TRIPLE TREAT

 Markos Simopoulos, Andrew Allan Hiers, Lucas Levy, Santiago Ballerini, Chelsea Lehnea, and Ricardo José Rivera

A newly unearthed bel canto opera would have been sufficient cause for celebration. Preceding such a worthwhile offering with a thrilling recital of art songs by the composer of said opera, and a highly illuminating lecture/demonstration by Will Crutchfield made for a night of entertainment and education that has left us dizzy with excitement.

Let us begin with the final offering, the opera Anna di Resburgo by early 19th c. composer Carolina Uccelli, whose name seems to have been lost to operatic history because of  journalistic errors in the spelling of her name and the date of her premature demise. (We will be extra careful not to make any journalistic errors here.) Although there were women writing art songs at that time, a woman daring to write an opera was unheard of and roundly criticized; its acceptance was largely due to the support she received from Rossini and Mayr.

Her first opera, Saul, has been lost (although, who knows, Crutchfield might someday find it) but her second and last, Anna di Resburgo, premiered in Naples in 1835, unfortunately right on the heels of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, with which it shared a Scottish location and a mystical graveyard scene.

The story, based on clan rivalry, involves the unjust conviction of a nobleman for the death of his beloved father. The actual murderer was a rival nobleman whose son reaped the benefits of said murder and who was obliged to live with the knowledge of his father's crime, revealed at the father's deathbed. This role gives the baritone, Ricardo José Rivera, the role of a lifetime, that of a man who is forced to confront his conscience and alter fate. Mr. Rivera seized the role by the throat (keeping his own throat relaxed and open) and created a character for whom we could feel compassion. That his singing filled the Rose Theater with glorious sound seemed an added bonus.

Also fulfilling her role as the loyal wife of the fugitive accused murderer, soprano Chelsea Lehnea aroused our sympathy. With a huge and polished instrument, she fought for her husband and for her son, a boy she had left with a landowner (the fine tenor Lucas Levy) and his daughter (excellent soprano Elisse Albian, well remembered from Opera Lafayette). As a clever ruse to remain close to her son, she had herself hired by the landowner as his nursemaid. We might add that the child actor, Olivia Trinchera Citterio, performed excellently and, unlike so many child actors, did nothing to steal the show and everything to portray a good child who loved his caretakers.

In the role of the runaway nobleman we had tenor Santiago Ballerini. whose short physical stature was overcome by his large vocal stature. We particularly enjoyed the pianissimo passages that had us leaning forward in our seat.

Led by Primo Violino Elisa Citterio (Olivia's mother?) and by Maestro al Cembalo Lucy Tucker Yates, The Teatro Nuovo Orchestra was a pleasure to hear, as usual. The Teatro Nuovo Chorus, led by Derrick Goff, served admirably. Stage Direction by Marco Nisticò was basic and rather challenging since Ms. Lehnea is a full head taller than Mr. Ballerini which made for some awkwardness that may have had no creative solution. We realize that one is meant to ignore such issues but we cannot tell a lie. It looked uncomfortable for Ms. Lehnea.

And now let us move onto the first part of the evening, a recital of songs composed by Uccelli, songs of great musicality, charming melody, and textual variety, accompanied and narrated by pianist Timothy Cheung. Singers were all Resident and Studio Artists of Teatro Nuovo.  Soprano Francesca Federico opened with "Non invan su questa sponda" which she sang with clear pure tone and perfect vibrato. 

In "Si tu m'aimais", mezzo-soprano Liz Culpepper handled upward and downward leaps with aplomb and had a killer trill. Tenor Jeremy Brauner created quite a character in "Il menestrello" as a charming wandering minstrel, employing expressive and dynamic variety. In "Frena le belle lacrime" soprano Laura Nielsen was remarkable for some lovely melismatic passages and moved easily from legato scale passages to staccato passages with excellent accompaniment by Mr. Cheung.

In "La preghiera" tenor Juan Hernández evinced a sweet Italianate tone and got our admiration for the tender "money note", avoiding the temptation to force the sound. We do love duets and there was a very cute one for two women admiring a handsome young boatman. It was charmingly performed, and not just sung, by soprano Francesca Lionetta and mezzo-soprano Sedona Libero.

Tenor Ai Chaim Ra has an unusual instrument well suited to the lovelorn poet of "Il rimprovero". and used dynamic variation well. Mr. Cheung's accompaniment augmented the sorrowful mood. Baritone Robert Garner, whom we have long admired, ended the program with a drinking song entitled "Orgia", letting loose with unrestrained expansiveness. 

Following this superb song recital, Mr. Crutchfield enlightened the huge audience with his account of the composer, drawing attention to a number of her unusual musical inventions. We utilized his teachings to listen for the unusual patter song in Act II, and the flute solo accompanying the graveyard scene. We were able to identify the unusual walking bass line in the funeral march, as well as the manner in which the duet utilized the form of a canon to increase anxiety. These are details we might have overlooked since we tend to get wrapped up in the drama. 

The audience was ecstatic, hearing gorgeous and inventive music so well performed and we left wondering why The Metropolitan Opera wastes so much money and risks losing their audience by producing non-musical polemic operas when what people want is "blood and guts". Give us romance, betrayal, loyalty, murder, assassination! And, above all, give us melody!

© meche kroop

RUSSIAN PASSION

Daniel Scofield and Zoya Gramagin in the final scene of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

We got even more than we expected last night when the Russian Opera Society and Spotlight Artist Management presented a night of mostly Russian music.  Following a warm welcome from Natalie Burlutskaya, Tchaikovsky's masterpiece Eugene Onegin--with a libretto adapted from Pushkin's verse novel--took us to another time and place, one in which morals and social expectations were completely different from our own--an era of courtship, advantageous marriage, loyalty, and dutiful self-sacrifice.

To convey all that in a fully costumed lengthy opera with scenery  and orchestra is to be expected, but to achieve all that in a one-hour piano reduction with only the highlights presented is nothing short of miraculous.  This miracle rested on the shoulders of some excellent artists, including pianist Alexander Chaplinsky who likely made his own reduction of the score, allowing all the instrumental lines to be heard and all of Tchaikovsky's emotional content to be felt. The piano became a condensed orchestra.

Zoya Gramagin has the Russian soul and ease with the language to allow her to focus totally on dramatic interpretation. Her lush soprano was perfect for the role.  Like Violetta in La Traviata, her character has to experience growth from the beginning of the opera to the end. After a deeply felt introduction on the piano which introduced the themes, Ms. Gramagin showed us a shy and introverted country girl who contrasted well with mezzo-soprano Vita Koreneva's ebullient and flirtatious Olga. Their duet was stunning in its harmonies and the difference in the two sisters' personalities was made clear in the music.

In Olga's ariosa Ms. Koreneva painted a picture of the flighty younger sister. The centerpiece of the evening was Tatiana's "Letter Scene" in which she demonstrated a panoply of emotions, taking us right back to our youth.  Oh, the agony of first love!  The anxiety, the desperation, the hopefulness--all there and going right to our heart. We have heard this scene often in competitions but rarely have we heard it performed this poignantly.

We have strong feelings about Onegin that may not be shared by everyone. We do not see him as shallow and careless of Tatiana's feelings.  He is only 26 and is trying to be a "Dutch Uncle" to a 13-year-old girl who is infatuated with him. If he were a "bad dude" he could have taken advantage of her but he didn't. He is just immature and not a good sport about visiting in the provinces. Baritone Daniel Scofield did a fine job of illuminating the sophisticated youth with a disdain for the provincial.

In the final scene of the opera he is bereft at finding this child all grown up (at 17 years of age!), sophisticated and alluring, but wed and unavailable. The change of her hairstyle and the addition of a fur cape were not even necessary; Tatiana's maturation was present in the voice and gesture. Ms. Gramagin's fine acting let us see the conflict between love and duty tearing her apart.  But, being a loyal young woman, she must reject him, even whilst admitting her love.

We were moved by her growth which could only be conveyed in such a brief period of time and in such an episodic nature by a major talent.  That is our opinion of Ms. Gramagin! We felt empathy for both characters and the sense of loss. No happy Hollywood ending and no operatic suicide. Just ineffable sadness.

The continuity was broken by the insertion of Lensky's aria which, in the context of the opera, is instrumental to the story.  Somehow in this very abbreviated version, it interrupted the flow of Tatiana's character development. Lucas Levy's Lensky needed more variety of emotion and dynamics. Mr. Levy's delivery was forceful and missing the bewilderment a 17-year-old might feel when he has acted rashly and gotten himself in over his head. In spite of a beautiful decrescendo at the end, we were not moved. We were already uninvolved.

After the intermission, we were treated to some fine piano solos by Mr. Chaplinsky and some upbeat music by an interesting duo called Musalliance, comprising Anna Kusner playing the guitar, supporting the treble line performed on the domra by the impish Peter Omelchenko. The domra is an interesting string instrument that sounds at time like a mandolin and at other times like a balalaika. Mr. Omelchenko is fleet with his fingering and made old standards sound completely new. We particularly enjoyed Schubert's  "Ave Maria" and Rimsky Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", as well as some Neapolitan songs. Ms. Kusner excelled in Agustín Lara's "Granada" in which she took the lead. We noticed some finely wrought rasqueados. The audience went wild.

It was a lovely evening brought to a fine finale by the entire cast singing the "Carol of the Bells", each artist taking a phrase in succession.

© meche kroop