BRING ON THE SPRING

Gerald Martin Moore and Erin Morley

We entered the Park Avenue Armory windblown and rain soaked, but, like one of the many flowers celebrated in the program, we blossomed by means of the warmth and sunshine projected by superstar soprano Erin Morley and her collaborative pianist Gerald Martin Moore. We rarely review the very famous, and Ms. Morley is deservedly world famous; however, when we have written about singers at the beginning of their careers and followed those careers along, we take great pleasure in bearing witness to their artistic growth. We first wrote about Ms. Morley over a dozen years ago, and we wrote very enthusiastically. She has retained that youthful ingenue glow and now seems even more refined in technique.

At this point one can leave behind observations about the glimmering tonal quality, the ease with fioritura, and the highly engaging audience presence. One can focus on the building of a recital with a valid theme and the choice of material to support it. Given the intimacy of the Board of Officers Room at the Park Avenue Armory we were up close and personal with two luminaries of the opera world. We have special names for special stars. For example, Nadine Sierra will always be, for us, The Diva Next Door. Ms. Morley's tag became Le Rossignol after we heard her at The Santa Fe Opera in 2014 as Le Rossignol in the eponymous Stravinsky opera. If you would like to read many more reviews, Dear Reader, you can enter her name in the search bar on the right.

The theme of last night's  program focused on the beauties of nature, predominantly flowers, birds, butterflies, and such. There were songs in German, Russian, French, and English, mainly from the 19th century with a commissioned piece by Ricky Ian Gordon representing the 21st century. It was truly a garden of riches.

Every concert, well almost every concert, has one piece that leaves us speechless and in this case it was Camille Saint-Saëns' "Le rossignol et la rose", which was new to us. It amounts to a vocalise in which the singer must represent an earnest nightingale courting a somewhat indifferent rose--at least that was our interpretation. Ms. Morley 's ardent nightingale performed every vocal trick in the bird book, importuning the rose to open, reflecting back to a Bizet song on the program "Ouvre ton coeur" which could be seen as a human counterpart to the vocalise. That just happened to be our second favorite piece on the program. We loved it for its powerful rhythm and melodic strength.

We loved the youthful passion with which Ms. Morley invested Brahms' "Meine Liebe ist grun" and the sweet gentleness of Schumann's "Der Nussbaum". Alexander von Zemlinsky's "Voglein Schwermut" brought in a note of haunting melancholy by means of vocal color and some Oriental arpeggios in the piano. Alban Berg's "Die Nachtigal" always fills us with a sense of mysterious anticipation and is the only Berg song we have ever liked.

There were some lovely songs in Russian as well. Rachmaninoff's "Lilacs" was performed with appropriate delicacy and Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Rose Enslaves the Nightingale" is a sad lament of heartbreak with an interesting Oriental flavor. Now, Dear Reader, if you are thinking that this work influenced our interpretation of the Saint-Saëns vocalise, you are probably right! Since the latter was written about 35 years before the former, it is possible that Rimsky-Korsakov was also influenced by the Saint-Saëns piece.

The evening opened with a few selections from a Ricky Ian Gordon cycle Huit Chansons de Fleurs , a commissioned work that Ms. Morley premiered last year at the Kennedy Center and subsequently recorded. The interesting background of its commissioning, if told before its performance, might have made us appreciate it more. 

The second encore of the evening was Olympia's song from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman which can be considered Ms. Morley's signature piece. We never tire of her performance with its stunning fioritura and convincing bodily gestures. No one can equal her facility with coloratura; it is indeed one of the Seven Wonders of the Operatic World.

We might add that Gerald Martin Moore's sensitive partnership added greatly to the success of the evening as did Ms. Morley's warm engaging spirit. We walked out into the same wind and rain but it felt like sunshine.

© meche kroop

 

THE DIVA NEXT DOOR

Bryan Wagorn and Nadine Sierra

We rushed uptown to the Park Avenue Armory from our afternoon at the Morgan Library where we heard seventeen young singers competing for the generous awards given by the George London Foundation.  Only a glutton for vocal music could retain energy and enthusiasm. But the artistry of Nadine Sierra and her piano partner Bryan Wagorn ensured that our attention never flagged. 

It occurred to us that Ms. Sierra, not yet 30, would have fit right in with the demographics of the London competitors.  But Ms. Sierra won that competition eight years ago!  And performed a recital for them three years ago as well.  One might say that her star ascended very early. Indeed she was the youngest person to have won the Met National Council Award. And the awards just kept rolling in!

Ms. Sierra is now world renowned but she maintains the warmth, naturalness, and generosity of spirit that can bring an audience to its knees--and to its feet also, for a standing ovation. We have reviewed her performances more than any other singer.  Five years ago we called her "The Diva Next Door".  Earlier reviews have been lost but we have been impressed with her artistry from the very first time we heard her.

Last night she performed as part of a series held in the superbly restored Board of Officers Room at the Park Avenue Armory. The intimate space allowed us to feel up close and personal and its historic nature seemed perfect for a vocal recital.  And what a recital it was!

There was quite a bit of overlapping with a recital she and Mr. Wagorn presented three years ago at Pace University as part of a vocal series that sadly is no more. Our favorite part of both recitals was the Strauss. It seemed as if Richard Strauss wrote the songs with her in mind. The richness of tone, the musicality of phrasing, the artistry of the word coloring, and the intensity of involvement with the text all joined to give the feeling of newness to songs we have heard countless times.

Each song seemed like a mini opera and the listening gave rise to visual imagery, making each one a satisfying experience. "Zueignung" could not have been more passionate and "Allerseelen" could not have been more soulful, as Ms. Sierra caressed each word. The high notes floated up to the very high ceiling.

"Ständchen" was sung playfully and "Cäcilie" with passionate enthusiasm. Ms. Sierra invested "Morgen" with an ethereal quality and Mr. Wagorn's playing of the prelude set the stage perfectly.

Schubert's "Du bist die Ruh" was performed with delicacy and the kind of legato quality one expects in Italian, yet without any cheating of the consonants. The two artists matched each other's style in a most affecting manner.

Schumann's "Widmung" is a bit lower lying but presented no obstacle to Ms. Sierra. We could hear the composer's deep affection for Clara in every phrase.

We have heard Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs many times and have never warmed to them. In spite of the detested music stand, which Ms. Sierra did not seem to need, she was able to give them a full measure of artistry. As usual, the two we do appreciate--"Promiscuity" and "The Monk and His Cat" are not of a religious nature.

Our love for zarzuela was requited by the performance of "Me llaman la primorosa" from Gerónimo Giménez' 1901 El barbero de Sevilla, which is, yes, about some young singers performing the Rossini opera. This gave Ms. Sierra an opportunity to do the Musetta thing and the audience loved it. If there were one thing on the program that we'd want her to do without the music stand, this was it.  What a wonderful encore piece it would be.

Joaquin Rodrigo's mid 20th c. Cuatro madrigales amatorios was written in estilo antico and we always love hearing them for their solid Iberian flavor in the piano and the pungent text. "De dónde venís, amore?" was imbued with flirtatiousness.  In the final song "De los álamos vengo, madre" the final note was spun out like a silk filament and we held our breath.

We were not very familiar with the Turina songs which followed--settings of romantic text by Lope de Vega--but they were quite lovely.

Ms. Sierra is generous in sharing anecdotes with the audience and related how her Portuguese grandmother shared a musical language with her but not a spoken one. She sees her career as a fulfillment of the grandmother's journey. And so we were gifted with some songs in Portuguese.

Ernani Braga's "Engenho novo" is a rapid fire tongue twister that tickled our ears.  On the other hand, Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Melodia sentimental" is lyrical and romantic.  Both were composed in the mid 20th c.

Back came the music stand for Bernstein's "A Julia de Burgos" which we heard recently at New York Festival of Song.

Ms. Sierra expressed her gratitude to Marilyn Horne for jump starting her career and giving her worthwhile advice; she paid her tribute with an encore--Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer"--beautifully rendered in a very different timbre than the rest of the recital.

It was clear that the audience would not let Ms. Sierra off the stage without some opera and we heard a most enchanting performance of "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. What father could resist such a plea?

A word to the wise-- Ms. Sierra has just recorded her first album.  It should be a major success.

(c) meche kroop