GETTIN' RELIGION

 Lachlan Glen and Michelle Bradley

We give very little thought to religion other than an idle curiosity about what other people derive from it.  But last night concert gave us a glimpse of how deeply held beliefs can affect an artist's performance, suffusing it with intensity, passion, and light.  It was the encore of Michelle Bradley's divine performance when she sang "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".  Words fail us and that's rather unusual.  Let's just say we "got the feels".

The entire hourlong concert was way too short.  Ms. Bradley, a bright light on the world's opera stages, possesses a rich dramatic soprano of consummate flexibility and phrasing that likely took countless hours of practice to achieve such perfection--but seemed as natural as speaking. Not only is she a gifted artist but a charming raconteur, sharing intimate thoughts about her selections.

We continue to grow in our appreciation of Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs. One can perform them or one can reveal them. The range of moods of the monk-poets encompasses the deepest spirituality and also some naughtiness.  Our favorite is always "Scholar and Cat" with its lighthearted good humor and sensitivity to the poet's relationship with and respect for his cat Pangur. We only wish that Ms. Bradley had included the naughty one!

In terms of a challenge for a large voice, there is nothing like Richard Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder. The texts are filled with references to the natural world and the mood is elegiac. We know well the collaborative piano artistry of Lachlan Glen but we had never heard him recite poetry before. He read a translation of each song with expressivity and fine rhythm.  He also alerted the audience to listen for the birdsong which was cleverly produced by an unseen flutist. A delicate violin accompanied for a brief period.

The final piece on the program was "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's Tosca. Before last night, we thought of this aria as a showpiece, the highlight of the opera, the moment we are all waiting for with bated breath. The manner in which Ms. Bradley performed it, we realized how deeply religious Tosca is.  The aria is in many ways a prayer.  

In describing her deeply religious feeling and beneficent behavior Tosca cannot believe that her god would abandon her. She is begging for help. What we are left to imagine is how she then reconciles her beliefs with her murder of the evil Scarpia. It is more evidence of Ms. Bradley's artistry that we learned more about the character and experienced her in a new light.

Mr. Glen has a true knack for bringing new people into the fold of classical voice. He chooses only the finest artists to perform, keeps the program brief enough so that newbies could not possibly get bored, and includes socializing with wine and food.  Acquaintances are greeted and friendships initiated. After such a long Covid-fueled hiatus, it was a special treat to get together once more with opera lovers.

© meche kroop

LARGER THAN LIFE

Ken Noda, Will Liverman, and Michelle Bradley at the Morgan Library

Soprano Michelle Bradley and baritone Will Liverman are two artists whose careers we have been following for some time and whose performances we have been reviewing. Ms. Bradley has dazzled us with her sizable voice heard through the Lindemann program and Mr. Liverman has been on our radar screen since he won an award from Opera Index. Mr. Noda has been one of our favorite collaborative pianists for many years.

What a pleasure to have all three onstage at the same time yesterday at the George London Foundation recital series, held at the Morgan Library. The recital hall there has very lively acoustics which have been helpful to smallish voices but these acoustics kind of overwhelmed us when applied to such large voices, voices which easily fill the farthest reaches of The Metropolitan Opera House.

We heard a varied program of opera and art songs, with a generous helping of Christmas music as encore pieces. Given the size of the voices we preferred the operatic arias to the art songs. Ms. Bradley's voice is perfect for Wagner, Verdi, and Strauss. We greatly enjoyed "Es gibt ein Reich" from Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos which we just reviewed Friday night in an evening of scenes at Manhattan School of Music.

Ms. Bradley's upper register has power and brilliance but the depth in her lower register betrays her mezzo-soprano roots. She was every inch an abandoned princess waiting for Death. Later in the program Strauss' Ständchen was delivered with delicacy and romance, a nice contrast.

We adore Verdi's La Forza del Destino and wish it would be produced more often. Still, we grab any chance we get to hear Leonora's "Pace, pace, mio Dio", even though we know that poor Leonora will never get the peace she longs for. Ms. Bradley performed magnificently in this aria and Mo. Noda's piano limned the forceful theme with urgency.

We liked all of the above far more than Barber's Hermit Songs which we have heard a bit too often this year. Still, every singer gives her own interpretation and we liked the contrast between the joyful "The Heavenly Banquet" and the sorrowful "The Crucifixion". "The Desire for Hermitage" was quietly moving.

Mr. Liverman was at his best in "Heiterkeit und Fröhlichkeit" from Albert Lortzing's 1842 comic opera Der Wildschütz. We were so taken with Mr. Liverman's performance that we put Lortzing's opera on our "must see" list. We believe that this joyful song is sung by the Count.

Another favorite was "Grigory's Aria" from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, an 1899 tragedy in which Grigory tries every trick in the book to win Marfa who is in love with another man but also chosen by the tsar as his bride.  You just know this will not end well. Our Russian speaking companion pronounced Mr. Liverman's Russian to be excellent. We are grateful to be introduced to some wonderful music, so well sung by Mr. Liverman, and hope someday to see this potboiler onstage!

In contrast, the Quatre Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire by Francis Poulenc seemed downright lighthearted with surreal poetry and plenty of irony in both voice and piano.

We are not crazy about Ralph Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel which seem to be a favorite of baritones. We found ourself listening more to Mo. Noda's piano which produced some amazing ripples in "Let Beauty Awake" and some gorgeously modulated arpeggi in the lively "The Roadside Fire".

This banquet of music was served with a seasonal dessert. Mr. Liverman accompanied himself on the piano with a jazzy arrangement of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" which incorporated riffs from other carols. Ms. Bradley's encore was a gospel arrangement of The Lord's Prayer.  

The final encore was sung a capella. Both singers took turns singing verses of "Silent Night" with a gospel inflection. The third verse was sung in glorious harmony with both artists joining voices. Several audience members were overheard commenting that the encores were their favorite part of the program.

(c) meche kroop

LAST OF THE LINDEMANN

Valeriya Polunina and Michelle Bradley

Not to worry, it is only the last Lindemann recital for this season; we have every reason to believe that this valuable program will survive any cuts in governmental funding. We have often written about the value of this partnership between The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School. The young artists chosen for this program get access to the resources of both institutions and performance opportunities aplenty.

We have been observing the progress of these rising stars for some time and think of the Lindemann Program as a finishing school for opera singers.  Of course, training never ends and even famous superstars take lessons!

Last night's program included mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez, bass Sava Vemic, soprano Michelle Bradley, and coloratura soprano Hyesang Park. They are all well known to us and have given us abundant musical delights over the past few years.

Ms. Verrez, as a native speaker of French, was the perfect artist to perform Ravel's Sheherazade, which she translated herself. It truly does make a difference when a singer has that kind of in depth understanding of the text. In this cycle, Ravel's music captures the fantasy and eroticism of Tristan Klingsor's text. The poet was quite an armchair traveler!

Ms. Verrez has an unassuming presence and does nothing to call attention to herself, but rather submerges herself into the music, allowing the listener to see through her eyes all the imagery of the song. Judicious word coloring paints an aural picture. It goes without saying that the voice is a magnificent one and the phrasing is just what one hopes for in chanson. Ms. Verrez is always a consummate musician.

Her collaborative pianist Giuseppe Mentuccia did justice to the lavish accompaniment. In "Asie"; his fingers raced up and down the keys, adding to the air of exoticism.  In the haunting postlude to "La flute enchantee", Ms. Verrez' absorption sustained the mood. We enjoyed the feeling of unfulfilled longing in "L'indifferent".

Bass Sava Vemic chose a set of songs about death which he also translated himself. Schubert's "Der Tod und das Madchen" begins with some portentous chords in the piano expressing the fear of the young woman.  The work gave Mr. Vemic the opportunity to sing in two different colors. In the second verse, Death reassures the maiden of his gentleness and the change of color was arresting. He had to dig down deep for a really really low note.

Brahms' "O Tod, wie bitter bist du" also shows two sides of Death--bitter to some and welcome to others.

Our favorite songs came from Mussorgskuy's Songs and Dances of Death, predominantly because Mr. Vemic's thrilling timbre lends itself so well to the Russian language. We just this week heard the composer's Songs of the Nursery and it was wonderful to hear another aspect of his artistry. We enjoyed "Serenada" but our favorite was "Trepak" in which 

Mr. Metuccia again provided fine collaboration on the piano with a rumbling accompaniment.

In this song, the pairing of text and music was so apt that we could not imagine the work being sung in translation. Here Death is both seductive and comforting, blanketing an old peasant in snow.

Soprano Michelle Bradley has a diva's presence and a large sound that thrills the ear.  She performed  Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs and performed them as mini-dramas that created the world of Irish monks and scholars. There is great variety in the text and consequently in the music. Ms. Bradley invested each with its own meaning. We particularly enjoyed the enthusiasm of "The Heavenly Banquet", the contentment of "The Monk and His Cat", and the knowing wink of "Promiscuity", the two lines of which Ms. Bradley invested with a world of meaning.

She altered her vibrato to put an evocative chill into "The Desire for Hermitage" which closed the set.  In this set the accompanist was Valeriya Polunina whom we have always admired for her ability to focus on the singer. The pair made a fine team.

Sadly, due to a prior commitment, we had to take our leave before hearing Hyesang Park whom we absolutely adore. We wish we might have cloned ourself.

(c) meche kroop

2017 GEORGE LONDON FOUNDATION AWARDS COMPETITION FINALS

Nora London and 2017 Award Recipients

Award recitals are such fun.  We get to see and hear the young singers we know and love; we get to witness the fruits of their long years of study; we get to participate in honoring them.  All award recitals are fun but the George London Foundation Awards Recital offers something special. The judging takes place at the end of the competition whilst we wait outside the hall at the Morgan Library and Museum. The finalists are there with us so we have the opportunity to speak with them about their selections, their preparations, their anxiety (or lack of), their training, even their gowns.

What a generous history has the George London Foundation!  And an even greater present since the ante was upped this year. $75,000 in prizes was awarded to the 18 singers. Every single finalist received an award. In our eyes as well, they were all winners. About half of them are known to us from prior recitals and competitions and the other half will, we hope, perform in New York City so that we can hear them again.

We have written every year about the foundation and the role of Nora London in perpetuating the memory of her husband, the famous George London. What better way to honor someone than to pass the torch.

As is our wont, we will not tell you the size of anyone's award, information you can find on the Foundation's website. We are more interested in the quality of the performance. Often, we agreed with the decisions of the judges; when we did not, we are prepared to admit that they recognized a quality or a promise that we missed. 

We surely agreed with them about soprano Michelle Bradley who gave an electrifying performance of "D'amor sull ali rosee" from Verdi's Il Trovatore. Here is a true Verdian voice with an expansive top and plenty of strength in the lower register. We loved the variety of color and dynamics and the lavish expressiveness.

Bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum impressed us with the devilish demeanor with which he invested Mefistofele in "Vous qui faites l'endormie" from Gounod's Faust.  The lovely French lines were punctuated with mocking laughter. Sympathy for the Devil indeed!

Aaron Blake's sweet tenor drew us into Edgardo's suffering in "Tombe degli avi miei" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The resonance was just right for the character and the portrayal was more than usually affecting. We felt his pain.

Some of the choices of arias seemed a bit strange to us but, as we learned, the judges selected from the artists' lists the one they wanted to hear. We observed an emphasis on 20th c. works, some of which we had never heard, some of which we had heard and disliked, and one which we actually had enjoyed at Juilliard. In any case, one can love the singer and not love the song!

For example, baritone Shea Owens did a beautiful job with "Batter my Heart" from John Adams' Doctor Atomic. We truly loathed the opera BUT Mr. Owens made the aria meaningful and intense. Happily he made every word count.

Another example--we don't think we could sit through hours of Alban Berg, but Lara Secord-Haid gave a stunning and expressive performance of "Lied der Lulu" with its jagged vocal lines. Her German was enviable and crisp.

A couple works by Benjamin Britten put in an appearance. A most convincing performance of the "Mad Scene" from Peter Grimes was given by tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven. There aren't too many mad scenes for men in the operatic canon; this one is a doozy. We believed every word of it. Although it is more difficult to evaluate someone's voice in a piece like this, the artist was totally immersed in the dramatic intent. 

"I know a bank" from Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream was performed by countertenor Daniel Moody, who made the aria live with some superb acting, word coloration, and apt dynamic variation. He succeeded in creating an otherworldly character.

We do love countertenors and there were two of them. Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen performed "Dawn, still darkness" from Jonathan Dove's Flight. Having seen the opera recently at Juilliard (and enjoyed it) we were able to put the work in context and understand why the character was feeling such pain--pain that Mr. Cohen conveyed successfully.

Baritone Brian Vu sang Onegin's response to Tatiana's letter and he sang it in excellent Russian, an opinion we got from our Russian speaking companion. His voice has a lovely quality and he employed gentler colors than customary to create a kinder more avuncular Onegin, an interpretation with which we are comfortable. We never think of Onegin as a heel, but rather as a Dutch Uncle. Tchaikovsky surely gave him some wonderful music to sing.

More Russian was on hand from Rimsky-Korsakov. Baritone Will Liverman has a substantial sound that seemed just right for "Grigory's Aria" from The Tsar's Bride.

We were even treated to some Wagner as tenor Errin Duane Brooks sang "Siegmund heiss ich" from our favorite part of The Ring Cycle when Siegmund pulls his father's sword out of the ash tree in Hunding's hut. This always gives us goosebumps.

A tenor of a different type, Jonas Hacker sang "Salut demeure chaste et pure" from Faust--and he sang it in excellent French with a nice easy delivery. It was great to hear someone sing it without any straining.

We witnessed a high quality of singing in several women. Andrea Nunez generated a lot of coloratura excitement in "No, no, I'll take no less" from Handel's Semele. Her upper range was so scintillating we kept thinking "Queen of the Night".

Soprano Danielle Beckvermit sang "Depuis le jour" from Charpentier's Louise. We liked her French and the attractive resonance of her voice which has a nice bloom in the upper register.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Marino sang "Connais-tu le pays" from Ambroise Thomas' Mignon, another iteration of Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. I liked the pronounced vibrato which lent additional sympathy to a sympathetic character.

Soprano Lauren Margison sang one of our favorite Mozart arias--"Porgi amor" from Le nozze di Figaro. This one is a real heartbreaker!

Mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule invested Charlotte's "Air des lettres" from Massenet's Werther with a great deal of emotional power.  Her French was quite good.

Good English is even more difficult to find but mezzo-soprano Evanna Lai made every word understandable in "Things change Jo" from Mark Adamo's Little Women. It was a persuasive and lovely performance.

We heard 18 singers in two hours and enjoyed them all. We hope that the awards will further their careers so we can hear more of them.

(c) meche kroop

MARILY HORNE SONG CELEBRATION

Ken Noda, Gerald Martin Moore, Javier Camarena, Eugene Villanueva, Mario Chang, Valeriya Polunina, Michelle Bradley, J'Nai Bridges and Warren Jones

Whether we call it "Marilyn Horne's Birthday Week" or "The Marilyn Horne Legacy" or "The Song Continues 2017" it still adds up to be the exciting week in January when we get to celebrate the art of the song recital  Last night's "Marilyn Horne Song Celebration" at Zankel Hall (of Carnegie Hall) delivered the goods, bringing together four rising stars in the vocal firmament and superstar tenor Javier Camarena. The programming was superb and the audience was highly appreciative.

Several of the singers and collaborative pianists are well known to us and have been reviewed multiple times. Readers will recall how exciting it is for us to watch their growth over the half dozen years we have been writing. Among these singers, and standing out in our memory for having delivered a performance of perfection, is mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges whose constant appearances at award recitals stands as testament to her talent.

Ms. Bridges has always had a flair for French with consummate skills at diction, phrasing, and the creation of long lyrical lines. Dressed in a slinky turquoise gown that made her look like a mermaid, her voice was as seductive as that of the Loreley of German fame, the one whose compelling voice lured sailors to their doom.  But in this case, the luring was toward acoustic delights. Her interpretation of Claude Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis was right on point. She captured the innocence of the young girl in "La flute de Pan", the developing sensuality of the young woman in "La chevelure" and the disillusionment of a mature woman whose love has gone sour in "Le tombeau des naiades".

Warren Jones' delicate touch served to add to the spellbinding performance, no less excellent in Ernest Chausson's melancholic song of regret "Le temps des lilas" and in two songs by Georges Bizet. We loved the long arching phrases of "Chanson d'Avril" and the "Orientalist" fantasy of "Adieux de l'hotesse arabe" who cannot seem to keep her young European lover. There are endless colors in Ms. Bridges' vocal palette.

Variety of vocal colors seemed to be exactly what was missing in the otherwise fine performance of Richard Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder by the powerful soprano Michelle Bradley, about whom we have also written before. This is a grand and glowing instrument with great promise and one that will take some time to get under firm control. The composer's swan song comprised the four last songs he wrote that were put together by his publishers. They are autumnal in quality and begged for more variety and gesture. Valeriya Polunina's accompaniment served her well with notable inclusions of the song of larks.

Warren Jones' piano contributed similarly to the performance of baritone Eugene Villanueva, whose talents are new to us. After hearing a set of Brahms songs and a set of Hugo Wolf songs, we have concluded that this fine young singer is far more interesting when he has a character to portray. And Wolf gives the singer plenty of characters! In "Der Rattenfanger", he gave the character a seductiveness of menace, not like Schubert's jolly ratcatcher!  Mr. Villanueva really got into the role and showed a great deal of personality.

A different sort of personality was called for in "Abschied" in which Morike's text describes an unwelcome visit from a critic whom the poet kicks down the stairs with great relish. Mr. Villanueva clearly enjoyed singing these characters and we enjoyed his performance. We would propose that the next time he sings Brahms' lovely "Von ewiger Liebe",  he might put himself into the mind of the cautious young man and the passionately committed young woman. We longed to hear the two voices colored differently. We enjoyed his voice most when he sang pianissimo.

Tenor Mario Chang is another singer we have been enjoying for several years; we were pleased that he chose several Spanish songs. Joaquin Turina's early 20th c. cycle Poema en forma de canciones begins with a selection for piano entitled "Dedicatoria" in which collaborative pianist Ken Noda established an Iberian flavor for the songs that followed, all expressing various ironies of love.

Mr. Chang has some beautiful technique at the ready and we heard a delicate decrescendo in "Nunca olvida". Similar to our critique of Mr. Villanueva, we longed to hear a different color for the woman who expresses her anxieties in "Los dos miedos".  The man narrating should sound different than the woman he is describing.

We heard another notable decrescendo in Tosti's "Ideale", a good choice for Mr. Chang. And we have heard him sing Miguel Sandoval's "Sin tu amor" before and consider it Mr. Chang's signature piece. There were a few times in his performance that he was pushing at the top of his register.  He does not always do this and when he does we wish he would lighten up. He has the notes  and higher doesn't always mean louder.

Such pushing was not heard in tenor Javier Camarena's performance of Liszt's Tre sonetti di Petrarca! So many fine singers have come out of Mexico and he is one of them. His guest appearance with collaborative pianist Gerald Martin Moore was pure pleasure. He has a gorgeous instrument and colors to spare--enough actually for the singers on the program who were deficient in that regard.

His delivery provided all the variety of dynamics one would wish for; he can achieve maximum volume without shouting or pushing his voice. One doesn't often here such an exquisite messa di voce. The depth of his feeling is operatic and we loved it. We are still hearing that long downward sigh in "Benedetto sia'l giorno" and a finely floated high note in "I' vidi in terra angelici costumi".

It was an altogether fine note and a fitting capstone for a week of celebration. Too bad we have to wait another year for a similar celebration.

Lovers of song will find other recitals in other venues--we recommend Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song for a different kind of song recital, and Joy in Singing for yet another. Watch the calendar at Opera America for more.

(c) meche kroop

THE DELICIOUS FRUIT OF THE LINDEMANN TREE

Dan Saunders, Michelle Bradley, Yunpeng Wang, and Kang Wang

Thanks to Mother Nature holding off on the threatened rain and thanks to the Lindemann Young Artist Program (and all the city agencies and foundations supporting the Summer Recital Series), a large audience at Jackie Robinson Park had the pleasure of hearing a thrilling recital of arias and duets last night. Our only complaint is the brevity. Not that the artists were stinting in their generosity; just that our ears were greedy for more!

The program was wisely chosen with well-known arias and duets that most people would have recognized. Even small children were held spellbound; even the page-turner got applause during the standing ovation.

Do we tire of these familiar numbers?  Oh no!  Each one is so well written that there is room for a great artist to tell us something new about the character who is assigned that particular piece of music. Although each Lindemann artist is uniquely gifted, there is a common thread among them all; they do not just "perform", but rather they inhabit the character so completely that our mind's eye supplies the sets and costumes and story leading up to the aria or duet.

However, in a generous touch that impressed us, each artist introduced her/himself and explained what was going on. In that fashion, audience members who were not familiar with the piece and who may not have understood the language were made to feel  a part of the proceedings.  No one could have felt left out. We hope those who were introduced to the joys of opera will proceed to investigate further.

Michelle Bradley not only has a thrilling soprano but she is a true diva, commanding the stage with real presence. Equally adept at the long French lines of "Depuis le jour" from Charpentier's Louise and the round delicious flavor of Italian, she made good use of her stature and ability to engage; the audience was completely carried away. She has a special gift for portraying young women in love, as seen in the afore-mentioned and also in "Mercè, dilette amiche" from Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani and in "Doretta's Song" from Puccini's La Rondine. Her voice, expansive with resonant overtones, swells magnificently from a firm center. Her encore piece "He's got the whole world in his hand" brought the audience to their collective feet.

Tenor Kang Wang has the sweetness and ease that we so love in the tenor instrument but do not always hear.  He never pushes and therein lies the aural pleasure we experienced. He excels at young men in love.  "Una furtiva lagrima" from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore  was given a tender timbre; "Lunge da lei...De'miei bollenti spiriti" was sung with heartfelt enthusiasm; encore piece  "No puede ser" from Pablo Sorozábal's zarzuela La Tabernera del Puerto was colored with incredulity.  "La donna è mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto required a bit more caddishness which we suspect is foreign to this lovely artist.

Baritone Yunpeng Wang was in top form. Every time we hear him he seems to grow in stature. He sang Figaro's "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia as if he were born to sing it; every expression and gesture served the character. He colored his voice completely differently as he portrayed Germont Père in "Di Provenza" from Verdi's La Traviata; although he was portraying a character twice his age, he channeled his own father and became completely convincing. 

Probably one of the less familiar numbers on the program was "O du mein holder Abendstern" (from Wagner's Tannhäuser), one of our very favorite baritone arias, and here given a beautiful interpretation by Mr. Wang. Accompanist Dan Saunders, fine throughout the evening, recreated the harp arpeggios on the piano and Mr. Wang's ornamentation on the word "engel" was exquisite. One senses the Italianate influence of Verdi on Richard Wagner but one can also appreciate Mr. Wang's crisp German diction and the depth at the very bottom of his register.

In Padre, Padrone, a film by the Taviani brothers, the hero hears this aria when he is a young shepherd in the mountains of Sardinia--and it changes his life. That's just the kind of aria it is. We imagined that Mr. Wang's performance changed some lives last night.

Mr. Wang's encore piece was the "Champagne Aria" from Mozart's Don Giovanni in which he got to express his impressive versatility.

Several duets were presented which permitted various combinations of voices. "Au fond du temple saint" from Georges Bizet's "Les Pêcheurs des Perles" allowed both Wang's to join voices in perfect harmony.  From Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Ms. Bradley and Mr. Yunpeng Wang performed the realismo love scene between Nedda and Silvio. Ms. Bradley and Mr. Kang Wang created the joy of young love in "O soave fanciulla" from Puccini's La Bohème.

To have heard such a recital with so much talent onstage and all that great energy was one of the summer's greatest gifts.

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UNDER MS. HORNE'S WING

Michelle Bradley and Michael Gaertner

As part of Opera America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners of 2014 presented a recital at the National Opera Center. Ms. Horne and the Music Academy of the West foster young artists with high potential and soprano Michelle Bradley and collaborative pianist Michael Gaertner certainly demonstrated high potential last night. This was the final stop on a tour that these two artists were awarded along with cash prizes.

Ms. Bradley's voice somehow made us think of a sunflower--a sturdy stem with a huge bloom on the top. She is one of those singers employing an economy of gesture with much of her expressiveness showing mainly in her face. The most remarkable thing about her recital was her perfect English diction. We grow weary of complaining about otherwise fine singers whose English leaves us wondering what in the world they were singing about.  Not so here!

Toward the end of the recital, this talented duo performed a cycle previously unknown to us--Five Songs of Laurence Hope.  This is a pseudonym for Adela Florence Nicolson whose text was set by H.T. Burleigh. The poetry was exotic and interesting and Mr. Burleigh's music quite lovely. The voice and piano were equally fine and we particularly noted the exoticism in the piano. Mr. Gaertner is a fine collaborative artist--the kind that breathes with the singer, attentive and supportive. His presence is however suitably authoritative.  He commands the piano.

The sincerity of the spirituals which followed--"Give Me Jesus" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"-- was unmistakable and clearly the audience was touched by Ms. Bradley's communicative skills. Even more astonishing was her comfort while sitting at the piano accompanying herself in a work she wrote entitled "Trust".

Ms.Bradley has an ample voice, perhaps heading into the dramatic soprano fach. How well she negotiated the highs and lows of "Vissi d'Arte" from Puccini's Tosca.  And how we wished for some dynamic variety! 

This was true to a lesser extent in the difficult concert aria with which she began the program--Beethoven's "Ah! Perfido", which we had just heard Sunday. The woman singing the aria has been dumped by her lover and she is alternatively furious, imploring and pitiable. We heard a nice blend of chest and head voice on the low notes and an impressive flight of scales at the end. But we longed for more variety of color and dynamics.  We are sure this will develop in time.

A set of French songs followed and we didn't find them to be the best choice for the singer at this stage of her development. For one thing, the diction was wanting and so was the phrasing and Gallic style. Clearly the songs were learned phonetically.  In Fauré's "Notre amour", she lightened up somewhat to good advantage but variety of color in the description of love by Armand Silvestre begged for some distinction between "chose légère", "chose charmante", "chose sacrée", "chose infinie", and "chose éternelle".  A singer could have a field day coloring each verse!

Mr. Gaertner's piano was particularly fine in the arpeggios of Bachelet's "Chère nuit".

We found similar flaws of diction and phrasing in a set of Strauss songs. As many American singers do, Ms. Bradley cannot pronounce the "ch" sound.  We didn't hear it at all or we heard something like "ish". This could easily be corrected.

We did like the way she became more gentle in "Freundliche Vision" allowing some more expressiveness to come into the voice and we liked the change of color in "Cäcilie" when the middle verse of Heinrich Hart's text describes the dread of lonely nights. So what we are looking for is not out of her reach.

Hers is a large instrument and perhaps it will take considerable training to bring it under dynamic control and to produce more colors. We think it will be worth the work or we would not have coaxed ourselves into identifying the shortcomings.

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