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| Nathaniel Nasa and Maria Fernanda Brea |
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| Michal Biel and Xiaomeng Zhang |
It is the height of irony that this is the second time that the same two young singers had recitals scheduled simultaneously--once at Manhattan School of Music and yesterday at Juilliard. What can a poor reviewer do in such cases? We have been enjoying and writing about both artists for years and didn't want to shortchange either of them. Until we figure out how to clone ourselves, we pursued the least negative course of action. We ran back and forth from one recital to the other and managed to hear some of each one.
We first heard baritone Xiaomeng Zhang when he gave his graduation recital at Manhattan School of Music two years ago, impressing us with his linguistic skills and bel canto artistry. Since then we have seen him on the opera stage at Juilliard a few times--as Giove in Cavalli's La Calisto, as the diplomat in Jonathan Dove's Flight, and also in Viktor Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis. He has continued to grow in artistry over the past two years whilst working on his Artist Diploma.
Yesterday's program included several of the works that he performed at his graduation recital, giving us the opportunity to observe changes. His voice remains flexible in the bel canto, witness his delightful rendering of Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale (bouncing off the delightful guest artist, soprano Meigui Zhang in "Pronto io son"). Yet it has also deepened and showed a great deal of breadth in the lower register. We can't wait to see which roles open up for him in the future.
This newish resonance served him particularly well in Ravel's final work Don Quichotte a Dulcinee which, he pointed out, was left unfinished--an inheritance for Jacques Ibert. Michal Biel's superb pianistic collaboration emphasized the pungent rhythms of "Chanson romanesque" and both artists achieved a soulful reverence in "Chanson epique". Show me a singer who doesn't love a good drinking song and I'll show you a dud! It's a counterpart to an actor's "death scene". Mr. Zhang made the most of "Chanson a boire".
Mr. Zhang gave an unfussy performance of the melodic "O del mio dolce ardor" from Christoph Gluck's Paride ed Elena, and a highly expressive account of Bellini's "Vaga luna che inargenti" with its long lyrical lines. We enjoyed the expressiveness in Verdi's "Non t'accostare all'urna" with its profoundly bitter text.
Paolo Tosti's "Non t'amo piu" was rendered with high emotionality as befits the ironic lyrics.
We almost got to hear Schubert's "Erlkonig" from the beginning but we didn't quite make it. What we did hear of our favorite Schubert song was quite good and we can see that Mr. Zhang has worked on varying the coloration of the four different voices. We can't be sure because of not hearing the entire song but we think more work needs to be done on differentiation.
