LOVE IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA

 Adriana Valdés and Juan del Bosco

With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, love in the time of social media is just as fraught as Love in the Time of Cholera. In an unusual and ultimately fulfilling exploration of "Love, Hate, and Songs", many genres and languages were involved. 

Thanks to Steven Blier and his NewYork Festival of Songs, we have come to realize that great songs can be found outside of the world of opera. Still, our personal preference is for songs in Italian and Spanish, the vowels of which permit the best experience of a singer's resonance. In the case of Latin American music, we hear no evidence of the loathed atonalism and prosy libretti favored by North American composers. Popular songs feel very related to art songs when they are performed unamplified.

Last night at Opera America, fans of soprano Adriana Valdés and tenor Juan del Bosco packed the room to the bursting point, enjoying this eclectic program. With the exception of songs about the beauties of nature, most songs have been written about love--wanting love, feeling loved, unrequited love, broken love, etc. The presence of cell phones in communicating with potential, present, or former lovers seems to add to the pain, as illustrated in last night's program.

Accompanied by the versatile pianist Tristan Cano, Ms. Valdés showed off many sides of her artistry, from Moss Hart's jazzy "My Funny Valentine" and Johnny Mercer's "That Old Black Magic" to The 17th c. "Yo soy la locura" by Henri de Bailly in it's stirring minor key and, in more familiar territory, "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" from Puccini's La Bohême.

Similarly, Mr. del Bosco moved our feelings with  the late 20th c."Cómo quien pierde una estrella", the first international hit of the Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez. This lament for lost love showed hints of Mr. Fernandez' origins in folk music and mariachi. We became a fan on the spot.

Ennio Neri's "Parlami d'amore Mariu" is a 20th c, Neapolitan song we always love to see on a vocal program and our tenor put heart and soul into his performance.

Also stunning were the tenor's forays into arias written by Giacomo Puccini. "Nessun dorma" from Turandot was particularly powerful. Counter-intuitively, the most powerful moment was when the artist brought his first "splendera" down to the pianissimo level before exploding into the grand climax. He also showed a more tender side in his duet with Ms. Valdés "O soave fanciulla". Playing into the 21st c. theme, our soprano became contemporarily seductive which the audience seemed to enjoy more than we did.

Returning to the theme of magic realism, the fourth leg of this stable table was Mr. Magic Chef who not only sings and cooks but also performs magic tricks involving cutting a rope into pieces which then reconstitute themselves. Baritone Ago D'Agostaro did a fine performance of the famous popular song "Volare" and also one in French--"La vie en rose". To his credit we understood his French as well as we did his Italian. His cabaret style brought interesting variety to the evening.

It was an unusually diverse evening, held together for us by the theme of magic. And isn't love magic?

© meche kroop

DONT MISS THIS DON

Carlos Monzon, Madison Marie McIntosh, Elias Notas, Alexandra LoBianco, Zhanna Alkhazova, William Browning, Kian Freitas, Benjamin Robinson

The Martha Cardona Theater was established four years ago by Daniel Cardona with a mission of producing opera for the people at affordable prices and providing opportunities for young singers.  We just now discovered them when we were invited to review their concert version of Mozart's Don Giovanni; in view of the excellence of this production we now consider ourselves a fan.  The eight singers were excellently chosen, as was the conductor Tyson Deaton and the accompanist Tristan Cano who capably dealt with the many different styles of music Mozart saw fit to  lavish upon this tale of a rogue who meets his end at the hands of the ghost of a man he killed in a duel--the Commendatore who was defending his daughter Donna Anna.  The libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte invests this tragic tale with a great deal of comedy, none of which was overlooked by the agile cast of singers.

Mozart's portentous opening chords are followed immediately by the humorous remarks of the Don's much-abused servant Leporello.  Baritone Carlos Monzon missed none of the wry humor and sang with an admirable depth and breadth of tone.  The Don then enters the scene, full of himself, with Donna Anna in hot pursuit; she is determined to learn the identity of her would-be attacker.  A glorious trio in perfect balance establishes the relationship of the characters.  Baritone William Browning made a fine Don both vocally and dramatically.  Soprano Alexandra LoBianco has a large and pleasing sound and created a sympathetic character; who could not feel for her grief at losing her father!  Her stalwart and loyal fiancé Don Ottavio (tenor Benjamin Robinson) is there to console her with his sweet voice.  The tenor has two fine arias--"Dalla sua pace" and the difficult "Il mio tesoro" in which he demonstrated fine breath control.  Donna Anna was remarkable in "Non mi dir".

Enter Donna Elvira, a role which requires a large sound; soprano Zhanna Alkhazova fulfilled the requirements of the role to perfection.  She has been seduced and abandoned by the Don and pursues him throughout the opera.  Her "Mi tradito" was superb as she did a fine job of limning the ambivalence Donna Elvira has toward her love object.  A high point of the opera is Leporello's delivery of the so-called Catalogue Aria in which he disabuses Donna E. of her romantic notions.  The Don has seduced thousands of women!  Interestingly, during the course of this opera he never succeeds; but oh, how he tries!

His next attempted conquest is that of the naive peasant girl Zerlina on the day of her marriage to Masetto.  Soprano Madison Marie McIntosh has the adorable appearance and bright young sound needed for this role and bass-baritone Kian Freitas was excellent as the ironic and suspicious Masetto.  Zerlina has two charming arias in which she succeeds in manipulating Masetto out of his moods--"Batti, batti" and "Vedrai carino".  The famous duet with the Don "La ci darem la mano" was well handled.  Bass Elias Notus had a commanding presence as Il Commendatore.

The diction was exemplary; at certain points the sur-titles went missing but not a word was lost.

There will be one more opportunity to experience this superb cast who will be performing the opera at Symphony Space on Thursday, December 12th.  Consider this event to be highly recommended.

© meche kroop

THREE HYSTERICAL WOMEN

Leading off Opera Manhattan's triple bill of one act operas was the 1959 solo piece by Francis Poulenc entitled La Voix Humaine, starring lustrous voiced soprano Kala Maxym as an abandoned woman speaking on the phone with her ex-lover.  The libretto, based on a 1930 play by Jean Cocteau, is a monologue in which a woman pretends at first that she has been out for the evening and is feeling fine-- but we soon learn that she is completely distraught following a suicide attempt.  Ms. Maxym convincingly portrays every shade of emotion in the piece with stunning vocalism, convincing acting and exquisite French diction.  We may not have fallen in love with Poulenc's music but we were dazzled by her performance which built to a fine climax as the woman's shaky composure unraveled.  The piece was directed by Sarah Frazer and Tristan Cano performed the piano score.

Just as "Elle" was undone by love, Madame Flora in Menotti's 1946 work  The Medium was undone by greed, alcohol and guilt.
For years she has run phony seances and taken money from believers desperate to contact their dearly departed loved ones.  To this purpose she has enlisted the services of her daughter Monica and a mute Hungarian gypsy boy named Toby whom she rescued from the streets.  While under the influence she begins to hallucinate the "ghosts" and blames Toby.  She becomes fearful and then hysterical with tragic results.  Director John Schenkel has staged this opera simply but imaginatively while Kathryn Olander did justice to the piano score.  Elizabeth Moulton was vocally and dramatically successful in the contralto role and sang a moving "Afraid, am I afraid?".  Soprano Megan Candio was equally fine as Monica and delighted the ear with "Monica's Waltz" and "Black Swan" in which Ms. Moulton's voice harmonized to great advantage.  Soprano Sheba Buckley sang the role of Mrs. Gobineau with fine lyricism and was quite convincing as a woman grieving a baby she lost long long ago.  Baritone Greg Kass portrayed the husband effectively but one was left wondering about the verissimilitude of an interracial couple in that epoch.  Mezzo Anna Petrie was excellent as Mrs. Nolan who tries to contact her daughter and is so ready to believe the "ghost" that Monica creates.  In the non-speaking role of Toby, Parker Scott acted well but appeared at least 20 years too old for the part as much as he tried to act like a youth.

The causes of Suor Angelica's decompensation in the eponymous 1918 opera by Puccini (libretto by Forzano) are family and society.  Having disgraced her aristocratic family by bearing a child without benefit of matrimony, the poor young woman had been hustled off to a convent to repent for the rest of her life.  Desperate for some family contact, she becomes overjoyed when learning that her aunt has come to see her.  But the aunt hasn't come for a pleasant visit; she has come to get Angelica to sign over her financial assets.  Angelica craves news about her young son and is told he has died.  As one can imagine the news is devastating.  Soprano Kristi Bulot succeeds admirably in the role whereas Anna Yelizarova falters as La Principessa, a contralto role.  Dramatically, in spite of her youth, she effectively portrays an elderly woman struggling with a cane to hold herself aristocratically erect; but she seems to have artificially darkened her voice.  All of the nuns sang well but at times reminded one more of sorority sisters.  We were especially moved by the sweet voiced Elana Gleason who portrayed Sister Genovieffa who missed her life as a shepherdess.  Italian diction was quite good.  Sarah Fraser directed and Tristan Cano accompanied at the piano.

Opera Manhattan excels at giving singers an opportunity to add new roles to their repertoire and also at giving the audience an opportunity to get "up close and personal".  St. Clement's Church has a fine theater and we urge you to attend the remaining performances and to fill it up.

(c) meche kroop