FOUR SCENES-FOUR MOODS-FOUR LANGUAGES

Finale from Falstaff  performed by Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater

After our delightful evening at Juilliard last night it seemed like time to show Manhattan School of Music some love.  MSM has a great deal of depth in its vocal department, one of the top training programs in the world, and attracts talented young singers from all over the USA and worldwide. Over 40 countries are represented. Their list of alumni looks like a Who's Who of the opera world.

Last night the MSM Opera Theater, of which the esteemed Dona D. Vaughn is Artistic Director, presented four opera scenes, apparently chosen for variety of mood and language, and to show off the special skills of the current crop of graduate students. There wasn't a disappointing voice to be heard.  As a matter of fact, the vocal glories were abundant.

In place of orchestral accompaniment, we had four hands at two pianos--a pair belonging to Jorge Parodi and another to Scott Rednour. Maestro Vlad Iftinca conducted sans baton; he clearly was involved with every singer and every phrase, using both hands to bring out everyone's best.

What made the evening so enjoyable, aside from the splendid singing, was the professionalism of all concerned. Director Laura Alley never fails to honor the piece and does not torture the libretto to fit into a self-serving "concept".  The pieces were staged with a minimum of props but nothing was missed. Costumes were not lavish but were appropriate and tasteful. We ourselves prefer creativity and imagination over distracting extravagance.

The program opened with "The Presentation of the Rose" from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, one of our favorite operas. The nouveau riche Herr Faninal (resonant baritone Shuo Yang) is excited about his daughter's marriage into nobility. Young Sophie (crystalline voiced soprano Yesul Yeon) considers her obligations as a wife, whilst her chaperone Marianne (lovely mezzo-soprano Madalyn Luna) tries to keep Sophie's exuberance in check.

Octavian arrives in the person of the marvelous mezzo Hongni Wu in travesti who falls instantly in love with the beautiful Sophie. The two singers created marvelous chemistry together which made the scene work beautifully.  Even if you never saw the opera you could tell that Sophie will never ever marry the old Baron Ochs to whom she is affianced. The duet between Ms. Yeon and Ms. Wu told us everything we needed to know. We observed that Maestro Iftinca was in love with both of them!

An abrupt change of mood took place for the second scene which we believe was actually the entirety of Ned Rorem's 1951 opera A Childhood Miracle. The libretto by Elliott Stein was based on a creepy Hawthorne story in which two little girls (convincingly portrayed by mezzo-soprano Charlotte Merz and soprano Kristina Brost) play in the snow and build a snowman (tenor Elijah Graham) which comes to life.

Their mother (mezzo-soprano Monica Talavera) is sitting indoors with her sister Emma (mezzo-soprano Polixeni Tziouvaras) doing needlework and gossiping. Father (bass-baritone Andrew Henry) is upset to see his daughters with a strange man and insists that he come indoors where he melts. The daughters run outside into the snowstorm and turn into snow, or something else which wasn't exactly clear.

It is our opinion that magic realism is best done by Latin Americans, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Perhaps some Victorian touches would have helped.  The story seemed more tragedy than miracle. Still, the singing and acting were exemplary and Rorem's writing was more musical than most 20th c. writing. Thanks to English diction coach Kathryn LaBouff, every word was clear.

The mood turned again to a more somber contemplative scene from Gluck's Iphegénie en Tauride. Gluck's music gave us plenty of variety, expressing the mood of the ocean from calm to stormy. If the lovely mezzo-soprano portraying Iphegénie (Yunlei Xie) has not had ballet training we would be rather surprised since her physical movement was as graceful as her phrasing. 

In this scene of prayer for protection, she is surrounded by a chorus of Priestesses and we were impressed by the unison feature of their singing and movement. French coach Elsa Querón must get some credit! There is a lot of depth in this chorus and evidence of intense rehearsal. The two chief priestesses were sung by sopranos Si-Yeon Kim and Sasha Gutiérrez Montaño. The staging here was particularly lovely with the chorus dressed in black and carrying candles.

The final work on the program was the final scene from Verdi's Falstaff, fortunately not updated to the 1950's, as it is in "the big house". We think José Maldonado absolutely owns the role of The Fat Knight. His voice is as expansive as his girth and his acting conveyed every nuance of terror, humiliation, abject self-realization, and finally humorous self-acceptance.

The cast seemed to be having as much fun onstage as we experienced in the audience. We cannot deny that we enjoyed seeing ill-behaved men getting their comeuppance at the hands of some aggrieved women, nor can we deny drawing an analogy with the present day politics.  Plus ça change!  It is so much more fun when the director doesn't shove it down your throat.

The old Dottore Caius (Mr. Graham) gets married to Bardolfo (tenor Samuel White) disguised as Nannetta (soprano Hee So Son) who gets to defy her father's choice and marry the man she loves--Fenton (tenor Philippe L'Esperance). But not until they get to sing a beautiful duet. We have admired Mr. L'Esperance's voice on prior occasions.

The role of Ford was sung by baritone SeokJong Baek who always turns in a fine performance. Soprano Celeste Morales made a fine Alice whilst Meg was sung well by mezzo Elizabeth Harris. Mezzo Michelle Blauman did justice to the role of Mrs. Quickly and bass-baritone Matthias Villwock took the role of Pistola.

The staging was great fun, especially when the huge Falstaff is rolled around the stage with the entire cast prodding him with sticks. If Falstaff isn't fun we feel we've been shut out of something that Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito intended. This scene left us grinning from ear to ear.

The evening was perfect, although we could have enjoyed a few more scenes. The time seemed to fly by.

(c) meche kroop

SURE BEATS COCKTAIL HOUR

Dominik Belavy, Nicolette Mavroleon, Samantha Hankey, Caitlin Redding, Nathan Haller

In terms of "attitude readjustment", nothing beats a Liederabend at Juilliiard. One's workaday stress ebbs away and one becomes flooded with positive emotions.  The music itself is always wonderful and fulfilling but the artists who perform it fill one with gratitude that a fine institution like Juilliard exists to hone their skills and bring them to the point of stage worthiness.

Yesterday's program was headlined by tenor Nathan Haller who has everything one could wish for in a tenor, with none of the common tenor problems.  He is an unfussy singer who manages to sustain his energy throughout the song and to involve the listener in the text.  The tone gleams like silver and there is no sign of strain.  He achieves variety through dynamics and phrasing. Every word could be understood.

He performed four songs from Schubert's Schwanengesang--well chosen for their variety of mood--expertly accompanied by the intuitive collaborative pianist Valeriya Polunina.  In the lighthearted "Liebesbotschaft" we could hear the babbling brook in her piano.  The portentous opening of "Kriegers Ahnung" was in marked contrast. Mr. Haller was even effective in the very lowest part of his register.  He dramatically conveyed the horror and eeriness of "Der Doppelgänger" and moved on to the joyfully lilting "Die Taubenpost".  It was a noteworthy performance.

A pair of Strauss songs were performed by baritone Dominik Belavy, accompanied by HoJae Lee.  Mr. Belavy was listed on the program as a baritone but there was a great deal of depth in his lower register.  Perhaps there is a bass-baritone in the making. He evinced a round tone with a pleasing vibrato and has an easy stage presence. We were astonished to learn that he is only 19 years old.

The romantic "Traum durch die Dämmerung", for example, lies rather low for a baritone but Mr. Belavy was undaunted. The sad "Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden" was sung expressively.  Unlike most very young singers, Mr. B. knows how to use his body.

We were delighted by mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey's performance of Trois Chansons de Bilitis by Debussy.  Her elegant stature and poise contributed to the long elegant French lines and Gallic atmosphere.  Edward Kim's accompaniment was correspondingly light and delicate.  Our only suggestion would be to make the words of this beautiful text better understood.  French seems to be rather more challenging in that regard, not just for Ms. Hankey but for most American singers.

Brahms' folk-like setting are deceptively simple but honestly charming.  Mezzo-soprano Caitlin Redding performed five of them with her excellent piano partner Martha Mingle.  Ms. Redding did her own translations and her expressive singing showed a comfort with the text. The unhappy "Mädchenlied" is one of our favorites; we had hoped for better diction to accompany the quality of her singing but we missed a lot of the phrases.  For some reason, the final lied "In stiller Nacht" was better understood.

Soprano Nicolette Mavroleon was also overcome by the German diction.  Her voice soars into the upper register with great passion and sounds best in the melismatic passages when unimpeded by the words.  Other than that her performance of Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder was vocally exciting.  The low-lying "Frühling" was followed (naturlich) by "September".  The set closed with the lovely "Beim Schlafengehen".  Kristen Doering was a fine piano partner.

What a splendid hour we passed at Juilliard.  Sadly, one gets this opportunity but once a month.  Yesterday's program was coached by the marvelous Vlad Iftinca who seems to know just how to pair up singer with pianist.  We wish we could end every workday in such fine fashion.

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ELZA VAN DEN HEEVER

Elza van den Heever (photo by Dario Acosta)

Apparently, the 19th c. came late to South Africa but better late than never!  Last night at the acoustically amazing Weill Recital Hall we were fortunate to hear a set of songs by South African composers--songs about nature, mainly--contrasting the wonders of the veld with the tumult of the big city. The program was part of Carnegie Hall's UBUNTU--a celebration of South Africa. The songs were sung by the lovely soprano Elza van den Heever whom we much admired and reviewed when she sang Elisabetta in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at The Metropolitan Opera.  The songs are gloriously melodic and stood up well next to the lieder by Brahms and Schumann that were also on the program.

Ms. van den Heever, in her recital debut, held the stage with a great deal of poise and has a bright penetrating soprano that seems comfortable in the high lying tessitura of the Händel arias with which she opened the program.  Both "Mio caro bene" from Rodelinda and "Ah! crudel, il pianto mio" from Rinaldo offered her the opportunity to show the flexibility of her instrument in the lavish fioritura.  Likewise she moved easily from one emotion to another in the various sections of each aria.  Piano partner Vlad Iftinca similarly moved easily from one mood to another.

But it was in Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben that we were able to truly appreciate Mr. Iftinca's gifts, particularly in the postlude when the piano recalls the first meeting the young woman has with her husband to be.  Many women have protested Adelbert von Chamisso's poetry in which a woman has no life beyond childbearing and marriage; when her husband dies, her life is over.  But of course we recognize that this is an early 19th c. viewpoint and we don't care.  We love the music and hope that the singer will convey the woman's progress from adolescence to mature adulthood.

Ms. van den Heever accomplished this reasonably well, although the wonder of the young woman in "Seit ich ihn gesehen" did not come through as well as we'd hoped, perhaps due to the slow tempo.  Things picked up and by the time she got to the girl's wedding day in "Helft mir, ihr Schwestern" this rather reserved artist became excited and expressive, using her entire body, not just her voice and face.  It is clearly a matter of taste, but we prefer our singers to involve their bodies.  This expressive involvement was seen again in "An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust" in which the young woman expresses the joys of motherhood.  Likewise, her grief over her husband's death was quite moving in the final song "Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan".  And then came that stunning postlude!

The set of Fauré songs were beautifully sung.  Ms. van den Heever's quietness served her well here and these delicate gems were sung with lovely long lean lines, as French should be sung and rarely is.  We were particularly fond of the lilting "Les roses d'Ispahan" and "Clair de lune", in which Mr. Iftinca played the most gorgeous prelude.

A set of Brahms' songs was enjoyable, with more involvement of her personality.  We loved "O komme, holde Sommernacht" and the bittersweet "Die Mainacht".  

The set of songs in Afrikaans involved three composers: Stephanus Le Roux Marais, John K. Pescod, and Petrus Johannes Lemmer--all born in 1896 by strange coincidence. Perhaps in that year the planets were perfectly aligned for great music. We only wish that songs like these were being composed today.

We would like to see Ms. van den Heever let go a bit more so that the audience can share her involvement with the material. There is one other issue that hampers this lovely artist who has so much to offer. There was a problem with dynamic control. Her pianissimi were barely audible, her forte more like fortissimo; a smoother transition in dynamics would be welcome.

As encore, we heard Charles Ives' Memories--the pleasant memory of the opera house was given appropriate excitement and the nostalgic tune given appropriate melancholy.  A second encore was yet another song in Afrikaans, the name of which we did not hear.  

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ISABEL-BEL-BELLA

Isabel Leonard

Vlad Iftinca

It was a very personal and satisfying recital last night at Zankel Hall when Isabel Leonard and Vlad Iftinca collaborated in a way that honored Ms. Leonard's Argentinian-American heritage.  As a tribute to her Argentinian mother, the first half of the program comprised Spanish songs, some familiar and some new to us-- and happy discoveries they were.

Ms. Leonard has been thrilling us with her marvelous mezzo instrument, her musicality and intimate presentation since her undergraduate days at Juilliard.  She manifests the qualities that we so admire in any singer of songs; she invites the members of the audience to join her on a very personal journey, following the advice of James Levine who once, in a master class, advised her to sing songs she loves.  She addressed the audience with brief anecdotes and made good eye contact; she moved about the stage with ease.  We were instantly won over by these qualities.

Mr. Iftinca, well known from his work with The Metropolitan Opera and from his coaching at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program is a stylish pianist and preternaturally tuned in to his singer and supportive in every way.  Together they make a fine team and reportedly chose the program together.

The songs were well-chosen to demonstrate a range of emotions.  The order in which they were sung was atypical and not organized by composer so that the audience applauded after each and every one.  We heard songs by Manuel De Falla, Federico García Lorca, Enrique Granados, Frederic Mompou, Xavier Montsalvatge, and Joaquín Valverde Sanjuán--a veritable banquet.  We have been hearing more and more Spanish music this year and are glad for it.  Some of them can be labeled (if you must label) as folk songs or zarzuela but it doesn't matter.  When sung by an artist they are all "art songs".  We particularly enjoyed it when Ms. Leonard used her lovely body in a little dance, as in Sanjuán's "Clavelitos", revealing her delightful personality.

Each song offered new delights, a graceful portamento in García Lorca's "Los Pelegrinitos", a soaring vocal line in the loving "Gracia mía", the wild dance of Montsalvatge's "Canto negro", a thrilling vibrato in De Falla's  "Preludios".  Mr. Iftinca brought out every flavor of Spain, particularly in the folk melodies of García Lorca.  There were no projected titles and one didn't want to take one's eyes off the stage but the mood of each song came through clearly, even if one did not understand the Spanish.  The two artists moved easily from irony to joy, from flirtatiousness to pensiveness, from heartbreak to anxiety.

The second half of the program comprised American songs, a tribute to  Ms. Leonard's American father.  Again, we heard songs one might label "cabaret" or "popular" but in Mr. Iftinca's hands and with Ms. Leonard's voice, they are all art songs.  Our personal favorites were Jennifer Higdon's "Hop and Toe Dance" (a New York premiere), Ernest Charles' "When I have sung my songs", Adam Guettel's highly accessible "How can I lose you?" and, above all Cole Porter's "Where, Oh Where".  Two world premieres were on the program and Ms. Leonard introduced the composers Glen Roven and Ben Moore.

As if this banquet were not enough, we were treated to three encores:  Rossini's "Canzonetta Spagnuola" with its thrilling trills and fleet runs, an hilarious aria from Offenbach's La Périchole, and "There's a place for us" from Bernstein's West Side Story.  Each one was graced by Ms. Leonard's unique communicative skills.  It is a rare art to be able to immerse oneself in the song and yet to retain one's own identity.

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STARS BEFORE DARK

The stars came out last night at Jackie Robinson Park long before the sky darkened.  And what stars they are!  The second of the Metropolitan Opera's two summer recitals put four of our favorite young artists onstage to the delight of the audience gathered around the bandshell.

Beautiful soprano Deanna Breiwick literally floated onstage in a magnificently becoming purple gown lending a great deal of glamour to the casual setting.  Her accurate coloratura and liquid trill were most evident in her charming selection from Donizetti's Don Pasquale, "Quel guardo il cavaliere"; the Verdi was its equal, "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio" from Falstaff.  Still, the "Glitter and be gay" from Bernstein's Candide won laurels as a crowd-pleaser.  It would be fair to say that the audience went wild.

Tenor Alexander Lewis sang "Avete torto" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi as if it had been written for him and graciously explained to the audience what the aria was about.  His "Dein ist mein ganzes herz" from Lehar's Das Land des Lächelns fulfilled the romantic promise of a summer night.

Baritone Edward Parks absolutely oozed charm when he opened the evening's festivities with Rossini's "Largo al factotum" from Il Barbiere di Siviglia.  We loved his "Figaro giu, figaro su".  On a more serious note he sang "Avant de quitter ces lieux" from Gounod's Faust with moving intensity.  And he closed the program with the Soliloquy from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.  Nowhere could a better case be made for appreciating the American musical on the same plane as opera.

We just love duets and the evening offered several.  "All'idea di quel metallo" from "Barber" offered the men an opportunity to show their dramatic chops while "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's  Don Giovanni did the same for Ms. Breiwick and Mr. Parks.  "Una parola, o Adina" accomplished the same for Ms. B. and Mr. Lewis.  Notably, Ms. B. moved flexibly from Adina's reserve to Zerlina's ambivalence.  The two men's voices blended beautifully in "Lily's Eyes" from Norman and Simon's The Secret Garden.

At the piano, Vlad Iftinca changed styles with admirable flexibility.  He is always a pleasure to hear.  Let it be noted that Italian, French and German were given perfect diction by all three singers.  This will go down as one of the best recitals of the year.  We will surely see and hear much more of these four talented artists in years to come.  Shall we call it "stardom threshold"?

(c) meche kroop