OPERA INDEX COMPETITION WINNERS RECITAL

Lawson Anderson, Brittany Nickell, and Michael Fennelly

We have often written about the generous dispersal of funds by Opera Index, and the care with which the young singers are selected for awards. The excellence of last night's recital at the National Opera Center came as no surprise. Luminaries of Planet Opera gathered to hear the "stars of tomorrow"; but we call them "stars of right now". They were introduced by President Jane Shaulis.

Soprano Brittany Nickell impressed us as a graduate student at Manhattan School of Music with her large and stunning instrument. Bass-baritone Lawson Anderson burst onto our radar screen just two years ago and dazzled us with his Mozart and Wolf, Borodin and Gounod. We heard potential in his Wotan but he didn't sound quite ready.

Well, hello Wotan! What progress he has made recently, coached by Valentin Peytchinov! We haven't enjoyed a Wotan since James Morris retired the role and we are sure that Mr. Anderson has received some input from Mr. Morris.  Truth to tell, if his casting were announced today we would be first in line for tickets!

Mr. Anderson has a dark mature sound and did a fine job in "Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge", creating a mood of authority.  As he invited Fricka to join him in their new home at the end of Das Rheingold, we thought "We'd follow him anywhere". We did follow him all the way through "Wotans Abschied", observing his gorgeous German, fine phrasing, and smoky tone.  But what we admired most was his ability to create an entire panoply of moods by means of gesture and vocal coloration. 

Wotan has been out-argued by Fricka and must punish his favorite daughter Brunhilde by depriving her of immortality. He must convey anger, sorrow, love, regret, and everything in between. Personally we cannot enjoy The Ring Cycle unless we have come to care deeply for the all-too-human Wotan with all of his flaws.  Morris succeeded and so did Mr. Anderson.

We were very impressed by the orchestra! Well, it was "just" Michael Fennelly playing his own arrangements of Wagner's score on the piano but it sounded like the Full Monty!

We were glad Mr. Anderson also included a few selections from Schubert's Winterreise which we so enjoyed hearing him sing in toto just two weeks ago. He also reprised an aria from Borodin's Prince Igor--"Ni sna, ni otdyha" in enviably fluent Russian.

Mr. Anderson is magnificently versatile and gave the audience a good taste of his Mozart. He made a fine Figaro expressing his rebellion against the Count in "Se vuol ballare" from Le Nozze di Figaro, and a very seductive Don Giovanni in "La ci darem la mano". His Zerlina was Ms. Nickell.

We wrote about this compelling soprano when she was studying at Manhattan School of Music and also witnessed her performance in a Marilyn Horne master class. We love her brilliant upper register with a fine vibrato that seems to contribute overtones upon overtones. What is special is that there is no loss of power at the lower end of the register, but rather a seamless quality from top to bottom. 

We had previously heard her "Robert, toi que j'aime" from the Meyerbeer opera Robert le Diable and admired her facility with French; we were delighted to hear it again. We heard impressive Verdian inclinations in "Come in quest'ora bruna" from Simon Boccanegra. Recalling her fine performance in Conrad Susa's opera The Dangerous Liaisons, we formed the opinion that Ms. Nickell is more of an opera singer than a lieder singer, although that may come along later.

The three Duparc songs she offered last night were finely rendered with delicacy and sensitivity and a lovely pianissimo; but it seemed to be an effort to hold herself back to fit the Gallic model--like driving a Lamborghini in city traffic. Of the three chansons, we preferred "L'invitation au voyage" in which the composer had more text and more time to develop his compositional ideas with dynamic variety. And Mr. Fennelly's piano was again, a revelation.

We thought that the Strauss songs were a better fit for Ms. Nickell's sizable soprano. We heard the timely "Frühling" and "Beim Schlafengehen" with its lovely piano interludes, from Four Last Songs. We thought that sleep was used as a metaphor for death. Even better was "Wie umgibst du mich mit Frieden" from Die Liebe der Danae, an opera we have never heard.

There is one aspect of performance that we hope Ms. Nickell will work on, and that is acting.  Offstage she has a lovely warm smile but onstage there was a constant expression of distress on her face. Of course we do not know what she was thinking or feeling during the performance but we wanted more variety.

In the Duparc we wanted a more languorous interpretation and we wanted to see Zerlina's flirtatious side. We believe that holding different images in mind during the performance could only spill over to a better palette of vocal colors, something that Ms. Horne, if we remember correctly, also brought up in the master class. Now we just remembered something from Ms. Horne's wise advice which Ms. Nickell seems to have followed. She was advised to "enjoy the melisma". Listening to her Strauss, we surely did!

(c) meche kroop

DOWN HOME DIVA

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Jamie Barton at Zankel Hall (photo courtesy of Carnegie Hall)

Within our blog reside about ten encomia directed toward this arresting mezzo-soprano. What more can we say about her commanding stage presence, her chocolate stout timbre, her perfect phrasing, and her linguistic skills?

Let us just focus on last night's sold out recital at Carnegie Hall which drew torrents of applause, a standing ovation, and demands for encores. The particular encore that closed the recital was, interestingly, the same aria that we sat in the rain to hear at the Naumberg Bandshell in Central Park! The occasion was a celebration of Richard Tucker's 100th birthday.

Permit us to quote from the August 2013 review..."Mezzo Jamie Barton tackled "Acerba voluttà" from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur as if it were a piece of cake.   Her creamy lush voice and intense stage presence were a joy to behold."

Last night we were indoors and well sheltered from the elements. Moreover we were able to hear every dramatic phrase of this aria sung by the soon to be discarded Princesse de Bouillon, bearer of the poisoned violets. This was a real barn burner and far outweighed the rest of the program.

Ms. Barton always creates her own programs, this time in collaboration with her excellent pianist Kathleen Kelly. With the confidence of knowing that her audience will follow her wherever she goes, she makes every program unusual and interesting with the old and the new, the borrowed and the blue. She's one of those artists who could hold our interest if she sang the phonebook and there were moments when we thought she was.

Take for example Iain Bell's setting of text by e.e. cummings. The poetry has a certain amount of visual interest as the words are scattered upon the page but the music they inspired was not music to our ears. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and, since this was a world premiere, it generated a certain amount of excitement, especially as performed by Ms. Barton. We do not care to ever hear it again.

On the other hand, we absolutely loved what we considered to be the centerpiece of the program, which we have heard and enjoyed many times, but more than ever last night as Ms. Barton put her own original and highly dramatic stamp on it.  We are speaking of Joseph Haydn's secular oratorio Arianna a Naxos.

Poor Arianna (Ariadne) saved the life of Teseo (Theseus)  and sailed away with him only to be "ghosted". Although the work dates back to about 1789, the theme could not be more contemporary, as experienced by women attempting to date in the electronic age.  It was far more contemporary than Libby Larsen's setting of three mid-20th c. American women poets in Love after 1950, from which we heard three selections.

There was plenty of humor and irony and the musical styles varied from the bluesy sound of "Boys Lips" to the rock and roll sound of "Big Sister Says". Again, it was Ms. Barton's delivery that made them interesting.

Ms. Barton had a theme for the evening, wanting to present works that were somehow overlooked because of the gender of the composer or poet, or works that are not generally sung by a woman. She is good at breaking barriers, she is! 

Her delivery of Ravel's "Chanson à boire" from Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcinée was sheer glee and, indeed, the first time we have heard it sung by a woman. Singers love to play inebriation as much as actors love death scenes. And why shouldn't a woman enjoy getting tipsy and very very happy! We are thinking of "Je suis grise" from Offenbach's operetta La Périchole.

Henry Duparc's "Phidylé" was sung with initial delicacy and final expansion and gave us maximum aural pleasure, as did Richard Strauss' "Cäcilie".

If we have said nothing about the opening songs by Elinor Remick Warren, Amy Beach, and the sisters Boulanger, it is because we neither loved them nor hated them.

This recital was part of the excellent Jula Goldwurm Pure Voice Series at Zankel Hall. 

Ms. Barton deserves every accolade, every standing ovation, every prize she has gotten, and all that audience adulation.  She is every inch a star. We confess that of all the times we have heard her, our favorite moment was up close and personal at the Greene Space of WQXR when we felt like we got to know her in a more personal way. She is truly our Down Home Diva.

(c) meche kroop

VIVA LA FRANCE

Stanichka Dimitrova, Tami Petty, Michael Brofman, Spencer Myer, Mario Diaz-Moresco, Paul La Rosa, Timothy Fallon, Adrian Daurov, Chieh-Fan Yiu, and Yezu Elizabeth Woo

Last night's entry in Brooklyn Art Song Society's French season held a number of surprises. The first surprise was that we actually enjoyed the pre-concert lecture in which composer Daniel Felsenfeld held our attention by actually speaking, not reading a paper. He assured us that he would not merely recapitulate the program notes (which were excellent on their own terms, as written by Founder and Artistic Director Michael Brofman).

He lived up to his promise and prepared the audience for the concert by demonstrating the famed "Tristan chord" and how it does not resolve for four hours more or less! He spoke extemporaneously about Wagner's effect on French music and about the importance of text in the French chanson. He clearly loves poetry and infected us with his enthusiasm. He pointed out that in the time of Chausson and Duparc, poets were lauded, not ignored. He emphasized the importance of what we would call word coloration.

The program to follow surprised us also. We are accustomed to hearing French chanson performed rather quietly with long even lyrical lines and very little drama.  At times, it has seemed almost effete with variety coming solely through word coloration. Last night's performances were uniformly highly dramatic. This is not meant as criticism. This opera lover adores drama! We have never insisted on stylistic purity.

The program featured works by Ernest Chausson and Henri Duparc, united by generation, friendship, and their absorption of the influence of Richard Wagner. Their oeuvres are limited but their influence on French music was great. The piano writing is always dense and complex.

The program opened with a half dozen songs, some familiar, some not so. Tenor Timothy Fallon began with the oft performed "L'Invitation au Voyage" by Duparc which he sang with warm ringing tone and fine phrasing. We liked the timbre of his voice and the variations of dynamics. The song is sensual (Of course! The text is by Baudelaire.) giving Mr. Fallon multiple opportunities for word coloring. Spencer Myer's piano articulated the lovely arpeggi we so love. There were more arpeggi, this time descending ones, in the gorgeous Nocturne by Chausson.

Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco has a lovely warm tone as well and seems to alternatively feel the music within and convey the text without.  He was particularly expressive in Duparc's "Sérénade". Later in the program we loved his performance of Duparc's "Sérénade florentine" in which his tenderness was perfectly matched by Mr. Myer. Similarly we felt that same tenderness in the famous "Phidylé", of which we never tire.

We are coming to enjoy chamber music with voice more and more these days and are learning to appreciate the voice as a member of a group--another instrument, so to speak. The excellent PhiloSonia String Quartet was on hand, joining soprano Tami Petty for a performance of the very sad "Chanson Perpetuelle" of Chausson. The sound of her voice merged with the voices of the instrumentalists.

The group comprises violinists Stanichka Dimitrova (a most musical name which we have been saying out loud all night) and Yezu Elizabeth Woo, violist Chieh-Fan Yiu, and cellist Adrian Daurov. This highly dramatic work is no less than an operatic aria in which a woman, bereft of her lover, contemplates her suicide.

We understand that in chamber music, it is acceptable for the singer to use a score but we were happy to hear Ms. Petty sing two songs by Duparc, accompanied only by Mr. Myer's excellent piano. Duparc's setting of the Mignon story, "Romance de Mignon",  is radically different from that of the many Germans who set the story of the girl stolen by gypsies and encountered by Wilhelm Meister in the tale by Goethe. 

She also performed another lament by a bereft young woman "Au pays où se fait la guerre", this one by Duparc. We wonder whether the two composers were competing to express the way a woman feels!

There was one more singer on the program whose performance irritated us more than delighted us. Baritone Paul La Rosa has a dark voice that would perhaps be better suited to some of Schubert's lieder, "Der Atlas" for example. The bio in the program notes informed us of some light hearted roles in his repertory and that he has a reputation for comic flair.

We would want to see and hear that before making up our mind but he seemed singularly unsuited to this repertory. His stage presence seemed self-serving rather than in service to the music, with distracting posturing. Heavy handed dramatics could have been reduced by 95% to good effect.

Furthermore, his connection was to his music stand, not to the audience. To watch him trying to act while turning pages and looking down was so painful that we gave up listening and focused our attention on Mr. Brofman's lovely piano. The delicate sadness of Chausson's "Le temps des lilas" came through in the piano, if not the voice.

Mr. Brofman's piano thoroughly limned the rolling waves of Duparc's "La vague et la cloche", the text of which is a frightening nightmare. The program ended with another Baudelaire text set by Duparc, "La vie antérieure", which is filled with erotic longing--heard in the piano but not in the voice.

Mr. Brofman has developed a large and enthusiastic audience for art song and no one else seemed to mind what bothered us and our musically knowledgeable companion.  The applause was generous. Just sayin'.

(c) meche kroop

HIDENORI INOUE RECITAL

Jonathan Heaney, Seok Jong Baek, and Hidenori Inoue

A Masters Degree recital marks the commencement of a singer's career, but, as often as not, the singer has already begun singing roles in small companies.  Such is the case with bass Hidenori Inoue whom we have heard and admired on a few occasions. His performance as the eponymous hero of Donizetti's Don Pasquale was a revelation and we later enjoyed his appearance with New Amsterdam Opera as Leonora's father in Verdi's Forza del Destino. And we will soon be hearing his Don Magnifico in Rossini's Cenerentola with A.R.E. Opera.  That's quite a range of roles!

Yesterday's recital at Manhattan School of Music was his first foray into lieder which thus demonstrated his versatility as an artist. Basses have a long "shelf life" as does Mr. Inoue's teacher James Morris. So it makes sense to try everything whilst one is young. The problem with lieder recitals for the basso fach is that most of the songs are dark in color and it is difficult to establish variety.

The three songs by Schubert that opened the program are a case in point--they are all grim. Jonathan Heaney's piano established the mood in the introduction to "Der Tod und das Madchen" and we would have enjoyed a more tender color from the maiden than we heard from "Death". We enjoyed the eerie tone and anguish of "Der Doppelganger" and found the German to be quite good. Overall we like the quality of Mr. Inoue's instrument and the appealing vibrato. And he has plenty of strength at the lower end of the register.

It was evident in the three songs by Henri Duparc than Mr. Inoue can sing with a more tender color, as he did in "Phidyle". It was also clear that he knew what he was singing about and we saw les abeilles and les oiseaux through his eyes. "Extase" was lovely but "La Vague et la Cloche" took us right back to "grim" with its disturbing nightmare.

After intermission, Mr. Inoue was back on more familiar territory. He is a natural on the opera stage and gave a superb performance of Fiesco's aria from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Although Fiesco is an enemy of the hero, Verdi's music and Mr. Inoue's performance stimulated our sympathy for the character who has just lost his daughter. He is filled with grief which he transmutes into anger at Boccanegra and at the Virgin. We enjoyed it so much that we were moved to listen to several of the great basses singing the same aria--Cesare Siepi, James Morris, and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Mr. Inoue can be proud of his performance!

Four songs by Aaron Copland were well handled and injected some variety into the program. "The Little Horses" has rhythmic variety and some notes at the top of the basso range which the artist handled well. His English is sung with only the slightest accent which didn't interfere with our understanding of the text. We particularly liked the lively and spirited reading he gave to "Ching-A-Ring Chaw".

The program closed with the marvelous duet from Bellini's I Puritani which we recently saw at The Metropolitan Opera.
We have heard the rousing "Suoni la tromba" often at award recitals because it it a stunning showpiece for baritone and bass. In this case the baritone was Seok Jong Baek, whom we always enjoy. The two artists shared a beautiful blending of tones.

Although Mr. Inoue's upcoming schedule will take him to Maine and to Oklahoma, we suggest you catch his upcoming performance in the afore-mentioned Cenerentola. We believe he is destined for great success and you will be able to say "I heard him when...".

(c) meche kroop

CHANSON FROM MANNES--AND A SPECIAL TREAT

Faustine de Mones, Jiin Jung, Dorothy Gal, and Brianna Han

Last night at Mannes School of Music we heard An Evening of French Music, performed by Voice Major and Collaborative Piano Students. We are familiar with evenings coached by Christina Stanescu who directs the Collaborative Piano Department at Mannes. The performances are always topnotch. The recital began with a singing of "La Marseillaise"!

Soprano Faustine de Mones is a native speaker of French while soprano Dorothy Gal is not. A native speaker of French might have been able to tell the difference; we could not. We have been listening to Ms. Gal for some time since she has studied at Glenn Morton's French immersion program L'Art du Chant Francais. She just keeps getting better and better.

She sang Debussy's "Beau Soir" with fine diction and lovely phrasing; the warmth of her instrument lent a special flavor to the text. She continued with Duparc's "Chanson Triste" during which we noticed the fine arpeggios of collaborative pianist Brianna Han who has a light touch on the keys, just right for delicate French chansons.

Moving from chanson to aria, the pair performed "Allons, il le faut...Adieu, notre petite table" from Massenet's Manon, an aria filled with regret and misgivings.  No misgivings about the performance however!  Quite lovely, especially when Ms. Gal's singing became more expansive. Additionally, the aria offered her the opportunity to express the feelings by means of dynamic variation.

While Ms. Gal is a rather self-contained artist, Ms. de Mones is quite expressive. She opened with Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin, set by Poulenc. The text is a bit more obscure but we enjoyed the suggestive conclusion of "Le garçon de Liège". Ms. de Mones also chose an aria from Manon--"Je suis encore tout étourdie" from Act I.  In this aria, Manon is still an innocent girl on her way to the convent and our singer succeeded in conveying the excitement of her first trip. This young lady has a lively personality and a winning onstage presence. Jiin Jung was her fine piano partner.

Tenor John Ramseyer (who left before the group photo) has a fine vibrato that lends an interesting texture to his voice. He kept up the long delicate line of Duparc's Phidylé right until the climax on "ton meilleur baiser"when he opened up his voice. We further enjoyed "Adieu, Mignon" from Ambroise Thomas' Mignon, an opera based on Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre, which also inspired settings by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, and Wolf. Mr. Ramseyer conveyed the sensitivity of a tender farewell.

And what was the special treat we alluded to in the title? The famous Thomas Grubb, educator, coach, collaborative pianist, and author of Singing in French: a Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire, performed L'histoire de Babar le petit elephant; he gave a dramatic reading of the text by Jean de Brunhoff, punctuated and enhanced by Poulenc's piano interludes. If we want to talk about impeccable French, this was it. His delivery was spellbinding.

We didn't always see the connection between the text and the music but definitely preferred the more lyrical interludes when Babar rode on his mother's back, when he was adopted by the old lady, when he remembered his mother, when he hosted his cousins, and when he bid farewell to the old lady. We also liked the dance music for his wedding and the peaceful music at the end when night fell.

Mr. Grubb's illustrious presence can be credited to the Art Song Preservation Society which is aptly named. Artists and audiences alike are well served by their activities.

(c) meche kroop

TRIPLE THE PLEASURE

Bryan Wagorn, Nadine Sierra, and Anthony Roth Costanzo

We get warm fuzzy feelings when we witness the meteoric rise of artists we've noted and admired since their student years. Such was the case yesterday when The George London Foundation for Singers presented two of their winners from 2010 at The Morgan Library. This series is consistently wonderful and The Morgan Library space is just the right size for vocal recitals.

We had not even begun writing about the vocal arts when we first heard soprano Nadine Sierra and counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.  It was even before they won their prizes in 2010.  But we knew enough about singing to have recognized their respective gifts and to have predicted the major careers that they have earned.

Maestro Wagorn has played for the best in the business and was the perfect choice as collaborative pianist; he is unfailingly in tune with the singers and matches their moods and the feeling tone of the text and music.

If you read through to the end you will learn about the wildest craziest encore we have ever heard.  But let's begin at the beginning. Ms. Sierra, appearing like a Greek goddess, sang a pair of songs that Franz Schubert wrote in 1825 for a play with a very complicated Shakespearean plot, entitled Lacrimas.  Typical of Schubert they are lavish with melody and Ms. Sierra caressed every word in an expressive but unaffected manor. "Lied des Florio" was replete with sadness while "Lied der Delphine" was in a more cheerful vein.  Both were lovely.

Mr. Costanzo followed with three of Henri Duparc's jewels.  Mr. Wagorn's rippling arpeggios and Mr. Costanzo's superlative French diction contributed to their overall success.  He floats his high notes like mist in the moonlight and can spin out a final note until it is a silken thread.  His breath control is non pareil and allows him to achieve wide dynamic variety.  His word coloring is painterly.

"Chanson triste" achieved a hopeful mood behind the melancholy.  "L'invitation au voyage" brought us to foreign shores, with the final word "volupté" leaving us stunned. Never mind that we just heard it the day before; he made it fresh.  In the terrific "Phidylé" we heard an astonishing messa di voce, one that had us holding our breath.

Ms. Sierra absolutely commanded the stage in her selection of songs by Joaquin Turina and Mr. Wagorn matched her Iberian charm, note for note. "Cuando tan hermosa os miro" and "Si con mis deseos" are love songs while "Al val de Fuente Ovejuna" is a charming tale, sung with charm, about a shy maiden hiding from an importuning man.

The first part of the program ended splendidly with a duet from Händel's Rodelinda, "Io t'abraccio".  The text refers to the pain of parting and the two singers were indeed spatially separated. We lack words to describe the deliciousness of the harmony and the way Baroque technique was used to indicate sobbing. By the end, we ourselves were close to sobbing.

Mr. Costanzo opened the second half of the program with what he does best. Even those who don't quite "get" the counter-tenor fach would have been brought to their knees by "Rompo i lacci" from Handel's Flavio. The wild flights of fioritura presented no obstacle to this intrepid artist, a master of the Baroque style.  Händel knew how to write for the voice and his arias have many sections of various moods and tempi. The slow section could have broken hearts but the fury of revenge in the fast sections could make you weak in the knees.

Ms. Sierra began her aria "Arpa gentil" from Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims from offstage to the sound of a harp produced by Mr. Wagorn's delicate arpeggios on the piano. She has mastered the Bel Canto style and made her embellishments as meaningful as they were perfectly precise.

We even enjoyed her English in a quartet of songs by Ned Rorem.  Our favorites were the sweet "In a gondola" which describes two different types of kissing and "Song for a girl" in which a 14-year-old girl sings of her innocence and how she expects to become more devious as she gets older.  Ms. Sierra sang them truthfully and with deep feeling.

Five songs by Franz Liszt were performed by Mr. Costanzo.  Our favorite was the peaceful "Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh" but we must say we prefer our favorite counter-tenor in the more fiery operatic material.

The recital ended with a brilliant duet in Latin--two selections from Giovanni Batista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in which the harmonies were a touch more dissonant than those of Händel and even more interesting.  The second feature that captured our attention was the fact that the two singers were singing different lines. It was nothing short of astonishing.

And now we get to the best part....the encores.  Ms. Sierra won everyone's hearts with "O, mio babbino caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. Only the most cold-hearted father could have resisted her importuning! This aria seems to have been written just for her!

Mr. Costanzo chose for his encore....drum roll please...."Summertime" from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. In an engaging introduction, he told the audience that the biggest obstacle to becoming a counter-tenor was a psychological one and that his parents were both psychologists.  When the first song he wanted to sing as a child was "Summertime" they encouraged him. This story made us smile.  A lot.  And we'd have to say we have never heard that aria sung like that before. And likely never will again.

And now, the crazy wild encore you have been waiting to hear about...the two artists sang "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni--with Ms. Sierra singing the Don and Mr. Costanzo singing Zerlina.  Such gender bending is fun but it also forces us to look at gender roles and expectations in a fresh way.  We were not alone in having our funny bone tickled.

(c) meche kroop

YALE IN NEW YORK

Yevgeny Yontov, Miki Sawada, Evanna Chiew, Nicole Percifield, and Brian Vu

It is always an occasion when artists from the Yale School of Music visit New York City; last night at Weill Recital Hall songs from the collection of Frederick R. Koch were presented by three experienced graduate level singers and two collaborative pianists.

We were delighted to have the opportunity to hear more of expressive baritone Brian Vu whom we have previously heard only briefly and reviewed at various competition award recitals.  His first set comprised songs by Henri Duparc in which he got to show off his impeccable French diction and succeeded in involving us emotionally.  After a somewhat boring set of songs which preceded we were roused by the emotionalism of one of our favorite French songs, the mysterious "Le Manoir de Rosemonde".  The nightmare desperation of "La vague et la cloche" was equally compelling.  Miki Sawada's piano successfully evoked the raging ocean and the dreamer's desperation.

In another set he performed Robert Schumann's "Herbstlied, Op. 89, No. 3" and two songs by Hugo Wolf in perfect German.  As pointed out previously, if you want to write a good song you need good poetry and Heine's "Wie des Mondes Abbild Zittert" and Goethe's "Beherzigung" fall into that category.  Mr. Vu's mellow baritone and emotional involvement served him well and brought the songs to vivid life.  We are of the opinion that a lieder singer must be first and foremost a good storyteller. Mr. Vu definitely measures up to that criterion.  Our only criticism is that Mr. Yontov's piano, so evocative in the quiet passages, became rather heavy handed in the more passionate passages.

New to us was mezzo-soprano Evanna Chiew who performed three songs by Jean Sibelius with plenty of poise and stage presence.  Her very pleasing mezzo has a fine soprano-y bloom on top while the lower register remains firm and nicely textured. We cannot evaluate her Swedish diction but it sounded quite lovely

In another set of songs by Mahler, we were most impressed by the settings of texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  Given a fine performance, there aren't many songs that delight us as much and Ms. Chiew gave her all in her interpretation of "Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald" and the humorous "Selbstgefühl". Her German diction was excellent.  We would welcome the opportunity to hear more of her.

We were somewhat less impressed by soprano Nicole Percifield who sang Debussy's Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire.  A couple nights earlier we heard these same songs performed at Juilliard in an entire evening devoted to Baudelaire.  Consequently we had a pretty good idea of how intensely moving these songs can be when sung with total involvement.  But last night, unfortunately, they all sounded exactly the same and the blandness failed to engage us.

Ms. Percifield has a bright soprano with perhaps a shade too much vibrato but the fault lay more in a lack of involvement, a lack of gesture and a lack of involvement. Her French diction was excellent and she made use of dynamic variety but there was definitely something missing.  We had hoped to hear more of her later in the program to learn if perhaps that was just the wrong material for her but those five songs were all we got.  Perhaps we will have another opportunity in the future.

© meche kroop

APPLEBY APPEAL

Helmed by Artistic Director Joseph Illick, the Santa Fe Concert Association has taken advantage of Paul Appleby's presence in Santa Fe and presented him in an incomparable recital last Sunday. For his theme, Mr. Appleby chose "Serenades". One thinks of a serenade as a song designed to get the listener to join the serenader. Mr. Appleby did exactly that. His friendly unassuming manner invariably invites the members of the audience to join him on his journey. We loved the way he introduced each serenade; this was of great benefit to those in the audience who may have been less familiar with the songs than we are. His sweet ringing tenor was put to fine use in the opening song, Schubert's Standchen" from his cycle Schwanengesang. Accompanied by Mr. Illick himself, the tempo was taken rather slowly and this tender but passionate verse by Ludwig Rellstab took on a new darker meaning with the artists' emphasis on the major/minor shifts. On the other hand, Brahm's sunny "Standchen" was performed with lighthearted humor. Hugo Wolf's "Das Standchen" was the only one of the group that was retrospective; an elderly man observes with nostalgia a young man serenading his beloved. Strauss' more familiar serenade was filled with the anticipation of a joyful reunion. All four of these serenades were performed with a deep connection to the material, a responsiveness to the audience and a delightful intimacy that worked well with the small-sized hall at the Scottish Rite Center. Mr. Appleby's German was impeccable. His French was equally fine in the delicate "Serenade Florentine" by Henri Duparc--a song in an entirely different mood that Mr. Appleby conveyed beautifully with a complete change of color. Carlo Pedrotti's "Serenata" was of a different ilk, seductive as only Italian can be. Mascagni's "Serenata", on the other hand, was performed with a sense of mystery. There was nothing mysterious about Tchaikovsky's "Don Juan's Serenade". Here the singer must deliver Tolstoy's intense verses with true Russian passion. The poet is more demanding than seductive and ready to die in a duel for his love object. Mr. Appleby handled every one of these diverse moods with consummate artistry. The major work of the recital and perhaps the inspiration for it as well was Britten's "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings" the score of which Mr. Illick himself reduced for string quintet and horn. This cycle comprises a setting of a collection of poems by various British poets. There was a great deal going on within the instrumentalists which tended to distract from the singing. We were particularly taken with an opening horn call played on a "natural horn", the valveless ancestor of the modern French Horn, which displays a bright and distinctive sound. Played by Gabriella Finck, the stirring horn call was happily heard at the close of the piece--this time from up in the balcony. There was considerable pizzicato playing, not only in the strings but also on the horn. As an encore, Mr. Appleby sang an aubade--a song sung at dawn. The hero of Lalo's opera Le Roi d'Ys is making a full-throated address to his beloved in anticipation of their wedding. It was a fine conclusion to a stellar recital. We have observed Mr. A's growth as an artist over the past few years and have never heard him give a performance that was shy of excellence. We are looking forward to seeing him onstage at the Santa Fe Opera as he performs the role of Fritz in Offenbach's La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein. This recital is only the first program in SFCA's Festival of Song. Lest we leave you thinking that is all that SFCA does, let it be known that this worthy organization brings all kinds of notable musicians to Santa Fe, not to mention ballet and lectures. Moreover, they have established programs to bring art education to schools in the area and provide scholarships. The "City Different" is fortunate to have such an institution. Stay tuned for more reviews!

OUR FIRST TIME

It was our first time hearing Poulenc's "La Dame de Monte Carlo", a 1961 setting of a work by Jean Cocteau.  To hear it sung at all would have been a treat, but to hear this scena as performed by Adrienne Danrich was a revelation.  Ms. Danrich dressed for the part of a down-on-her-luck potential suicide who is keeping herself going by gambling at Monte Carlo; she threw herself completely into the part with her grandly expansive soprano and conveyed every nuance in the piece.  A triumph!She did equal justice to four Rachmaninoff songs, our favorite of which was "Child, You are Fair as a Flower".  Her a cappella encore "Lord, I just can't keep from crying" was incredibly moving.

Baritone Sidney Outlaw sang four songs by Brahms that gave a lie to the oft-repeated claim that Brahms' songs don't measure up to those by Schubert and Schumann.  One can especially appreciate the way the vocal line and the piano reflect one another.  There is nothing lightweight about "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer", another heartbreaker.  Switching to French, Mr. Outlaw sang the tender "Phidylé" and followed it with the intensity of "Le manoir de Rosemonde".  The songs of Henri DuParc are all little gems!  Mr. Outlaw's a cappella encore  "Fix Me Jesus" allowed him to really let loose and pour his feelings into song; this brought down the house.  A duet of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" was finely harmonized.

Mr. Bagwell's accompaniment is always exceptional.  Not only is he a genius at putting together a program and finding the right singers but his playing is always totally supportive of the singer.  The piano part of this afternoon's recital involved breezes, waves, warm fragrances and a galloping horse--all of which came through perfectly.  But it is in contemporary music that one listens more intently to the piano part (because the vocal lines are rarely lyrical) and Mr. Bagwell's playing did ample justice to the contemporary works on the program.  Drew Hemenger's setting of Langston Hughes' "Genius Child" seemed the most interesting of the set.

As the final concert of The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals drew to a close, we found ourselves anticipating more to come for the next season.  In the meanwhile, we hereby notify you to save next December 1st for a recital in commemoration of World Aids Day in the Great Hall of Cooper Union.

(c) meche kroop