VIVA LA FRANCE

Stanichka Dimitrova, Tami Petty, Michael Brofman, Spencer Myer, Mario Diaz-Moresco, Paul La Rosa, Timothy Fallon, Adrian Daurov, Chieh-Fan Yiu, and Yezu Elizabeth Woo

Last night's entry in Brooklyn Art Song Society's French season held a number of surprises. The first surprise was that we actually enjoyed the pre-concert lecture in which composer Daniel Felsenfeld held our attention by actually speaking, not reading a paper. He assured us that he would not merely recapitulate the program notes (which were excellent on their own terms, as written by Founder and Artistic Director Michael Brofman).

He lived up to his promise and prepared the audience for the concert by demonstrating the famed "Tristan chord" and how it does not resolve for four hours more or less! He spoke extemporaneously about Wagner's effect on French music and about the importance of text in the French chanson. He clearly loves poetry and infected us with his enthusiasm. He pointed out that in the time of Chausson and Duparc, poets were lauded, not ignored. He emphasized the importance of what we would call word coloration.

The program to follow surprised us also. We are accustomed to hearing French chanson performed rather quietly with long even lyrical lines and very little drama.  At times, it has seemed almost effete with variety coming solely through word coloration. Last night's performances were uniformly highly dramatic. This is not meant as criticism. This opera lover adores drama! We have never insisted on stylistic purity.

The program featured works by Ernest Chausson and Henri Duparc, united by generation, friendship, and their absorption of the influence of Richard Wagner. Their oeuvres are limited but their influence on French music was great. The piano writing is always dense and complex.

The program opened with a half dozen songs, some familiar, some not so. Tenor Timothy Fallon began with the oft performed "L'Invitation au Voyage" by Duparc which he sang with warm ringing tone and fine phrasing. We liked the timbre of his voice and the variations of dynamics. The song is sensual (Of course! The text is by Baudelaire.) giving Mr. Fallon multiple opportunities for word coloring. Spencer Myer's piano articulated the lovely arpeggi we so love. There were more arpeggi, this time descending ones, in the gorgeous Nocturne by Chausson.

Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco has a lovely warm tone as well and seems to alternatively feel the music within and convey the text without.  He was particularly expressive in Duparc's "Sérénade". Later in the program we loved his performance of Duparc's "Sérénade florentine" in which his tenderness was perfectly matched by Mr. Myer. Similarly we felt that same tenderness in the famous "Phidylé", of which we never tire.

We are coming to enjoy chamber music with voice more and more these days and are learning to appreciate the voice as a member of a group--another instrument, so to speak. The excellent PhiloSonia String Quartet was on hand, joining soprano Tami Petty for a performance of the very sad "Chanson Perpetuelle" of Chausson. The sound of her voice merged with the voices of the instrumentalists.

The group comprises violinists Stanichka Dimitrova (a most musical name which we have been saying out loud all night) and Yezu Elizabeth Woo, violist Chieh-Fan Yiu, and cellist Adrian Daurov. This highly dramatic work is no less than an operatic aria in which a woman, bereft of her lover, contemplates her suicide.

We understand that in chamber music, it is acceptable for the singer to use a score but we were happy to hear Ms. Petty sing two songs by Duparc, accompanied only by Mr. Myer's excellent piano. Duparc's setting of the Mignon story, "Romance de Mignon",  is radically different from that of the many Germans who set the story of the girl stolen by gypsies and encountered by Wilhelm Meister in the tale by Goethe. 

She also performed another lament by a bereft young woman "Au pays où se fait la guerre", this one by Duparc. We wonder whether the two composers were competing to express the way a woman feels!

There was one more singer on the program whose performance irritated us more than delighted us. Baritone Paul La Rosa has a dark voice that would perhaps be better suited to some of Schubert's lieder, "Der Atlas" for example. The bio in the program notes informed us of some light hearted roles in his repertory and that he has a reputation for comic flair.

We would want to see and hear that before making up our mind but he seemed singularly unsuited to this repertory. His stage presence seemed self-serving rather than in service to the music, with distracting posturing. Heavy handed dramatics could have been reduced by 95% to good effect.

Furthermore, his connection was to his music stand, not to the audience. To watch him trying to act while turning pages and looking down was so painful that we gave up listening and focused our attention on Mr. Brofman's lovely piano. The delicate sadness of Chausson's "Le temps des lilas" came through in the piano, if not the voice.

Mr. Brofman's piano thoroughly limned the rolling waves of Duparc's "La vague et la cloche", the text of which is a frightening nightmare. The program ended with another Baudelaire text set by Duparc, "La vie antérieure", which is filled with erotic longing--heard in the piano but not in the voice.

Mr. Brofman has developed a large and enthusiastic audience for art song and no one else seemed to mind what bothered us and our musically knowledgeable companion.  The applause was generous. Just sayin'.

(c) meche kroop

MANNES DOES VANESSA

ACT III of Vanessa (photo by Eugenia Ames)

The Mannes Opera has given Samuel Barber's 1958 opera Vanessa as fine a production as one would want. Conducted by Artistic Director Joseph Colaneri (sans baton), the Mannes Orchestra played with impressive spirit. Situating the winds in the pit of the Gerald W. Lynch Theater (at John Jay College of Criminal Justice), with the strings above at floor level, made for a fine blending of sound.

Jay Lesenger's direction was highly effective.  Roger Hanna's sets were unfussy but served the action well.  Trunks of birch trees and snow falling outside the windows gave a great indication of locale (unspecified "Northern country" was turned into "northern Hudson River Valley, N.Y."--although we couldn't keep from thinking of Sweden and Ingmar Bergman). The furnishings suggested old money.  Nancy L. Leary's appropriate costuming was clearly early 20th c. at the beginning of the opera but changed to flapper costumes for obvious reasons which we hope to make clear.

For anyone unfamiliar with Gian Carlo Menotti's libretto (based loosely on the atmosphere of Isak Dinesen's stories), the tale concerns three generations of women of privilege virtually entombed in their secluded country home, seeing no outsiders save their old country doctor and their pastor. They are cosseted by servants.

Vanessa has been waiting for twenty years for her lover Anatol to return. She has covered the portraits and mirrors in the home, hoping to stall the passing of time. She has a fond relationship with her niece Erika but her mother does not speak to her. When Anatol finally shows up, it is actually Anatol's son who has come to meet the woman who so enchanted his late father and so enraged his mother.

Vanessa rejects him (the "false Dmitri") but Erika remains to dine with him and be seduced by him. Anatol is a fortune hunter and woos both women. Vanessa blossoms under his attention and Erika wilts under her wish to be loved more deeply than Anatol is capable of.

The Grandmother urges her to marry but Erika refuses to compromise her ideals to preserve her honor. The night of the ball at which Vanessa and Anatol announce their engagement, Erika goes to drown herself in the lake, having learned she is pregnant. She falls into a ditch, gets rescued, and recovers. She tells her Grandmother she is "no longer with child". Now the old lady withdraws her affection and conversation from Erika!

The happily wed couple leave for Paris, ostensibly on Vanessa's money. Vanessa has secretly left the house to Erika who must stay and look after Grandmother. Erika covers the mirrors once more and goes into seclusion.  Things will be different for her because she will live without hope whilst Vanessa lived with hope.

The central question is one of accepting a flawed reality or living imprisoned with false hopes and ideals.  Anatol, while an unlikeable character, represents a more modern view of romantic reality.  In his own words, "I belong to another age". The plot is provocative and leaves us pondering at the end why the old lady rejects her daughter, then her niece.  We will spare readers our theory and leave them to ponder on their own.

So...clearly, this is a fascinating and absorbing tale which held our interest as theater.  But it claims to be an opera so we must address the music. Erika's ACT I aria "Must the winter come so soon" is lovely and mezzo-soprano Rachel Weishoff gave it a lovely lyrical performance. The final quintet "To leave, to break" involved some stunning harmonies. We enjoyed the waltzes, especially when the drunken doctor dances at the party and sings about women. Beyond those events, this "opera" comprises sung dialogue, with the choppiness of English speech dictating the not very lyrical vocal line. Our 19th c. ears were not pleased, although we did enjoy some of the instrumental interludes, especially when we heard the soothing sounds of the harp, played by Yeon Hwa Chung.

Major roles were sung by different casts on the two nights. We were perfectly happy with the valid performances of the principles. Soprano Isabelle Freeman made a fine Vanessa and conveyed beautifully the emotional expansion of a woman in love who allows herself to feel loved.  As the unfortunate Erika, Ms. Weishoff was moving and convincing in her portrayal of ambivalence toward a man she both loved and hated. Carolyn Aguirre was a chilling presence as the silent Grandmother.

Tenor John Kun was adept at showing both the engaging side of Anatol, and also the smirking slimy side. Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco as The Old Doctor gave a performance that delighted us, a well rounded character that had only good intentions. The scene at the engagement party in which he breaks one of the two champagne glasses he is carrying brought a note of lightness to the grim story. It was funny that he couldn't remember whom the second glass was for.  This made him very human.

Mitchell Kasprzyk portrayed Nicholas, the Major-Domo, and Mathew Cossack played the role of A Footman. The scene at the party of fondling the fur coat was another note of lightness.

English diction, coached by Kathryn LaBouff, was so exemplary that Lily Arbisser's fine titles were rarely necessary.

So, we enjoyed the evening very much as theater, not so much as "opera". But this is just our particular taste. Those who are more appreciative of non-lyrical 20th c. music seemed to have loved the work.

(c) meche kroop