BEL CANTO SUNDAY

Jodi Burns

Adam Ulrich

Kyle Guglielmo

For those of us who adore bel canto arias, Sunday afternoon's recital was quite a treat.  The chief attraction seemed to be lyric soprano Jodi Burns whose bright resonance and liquid trill combined with a sense of emotional abandon served to illuminate Gounod's "Je veux vivre" from Roméo et Juliette.  The accuracy of her descending scale passages were notable.  No less notable was the control of volume in "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" from Bizet's Carmen.  Micaela's aria is written to be moving and moving it was.  In "O mio babbino caro", she floated her high notes beautifully and once again exhibited exquisite control of volume.

Baritone Kyle Guglielmo (do we anticipate a role here?) showed a lot of personality and a pleasant voice in Papageno's suicide aria from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.  His duet with Ms. Burns was charming.  In "Ah, per sempre io ti perdei" from I Puritani he demonstrated fine phrasing of Bellini's long melodic line. He handled the tricky fioritura of "Come un'ape ne' giorni d'aprile" from Rossini's La Cenerentola.  His unaffected approach to "Joey, Joey, Joey" from Loesser's The Most Happy Fella made the character completely believable and contributed to our conviction that the work is indeed an opera, as really good American musical theater should be considered.

Tenor Adam Ulrich sang "A te o cara" from Bellini's I Puritani with a fine legato and a sweet sound; however the performance was marred by some forcing of the top notes, especially at higher volumes, a flaw we noticed also in his other selections.  We wanted to hear him float his high notes and we wanted to see him loosen up as he did in "Caro elisir" from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore".  Perhaps holding the prop in his hands gave him a dramatic context within which to perform, or perhaps he really was swigging some wine, because he is a different singer when he loosens up.

The three artists were accompanied by Sean Kelly and worked extremely well together in the trio from L'elisir and in the encore, the Act II trio from Fille du Regiment.  It was an altogether delightful way to spend a late summer Sunday afternoon in New York.  Thanks to sponsor Ed Rosen!

(c) meche kroop

A JOURNEY TO REMEMBER

Wilhelm Müller

Wilhelm Müller was but a quarter-century in age when he wrote the impassioned poetry of Die Schöne Müllerin; Schubert set the twenty poems within a couple years.  Neither would live to a ripe old age and neither does the hapless hero in this tale.  The eponymous mill-maid is not the major player here but she leads to the downfall of the tragic young man who seeks his fortune in the early 19th c.  He leaves home and wanders the countryside, guided by a rushing brook.  He winds up finding work at a mill and falls for the miller's daughter who, at first, seems to encourage him and later switches her affections to a hunter.  Perhaps she was won over by a brace of pheasants; our poet doesn't tell us.  Within the cycle of songs our poor hero goes through some very intense feelings--reveling in the joys of la belle nature, enthusiasm for his new job, wanting to please the miller, trying to impress the daughter, the excitement of being in love, the anxiety of not knowing whether his love will be returned, the exaltation of believing it is, the rage at being replaced in her affection, the despair of loss, and finally the peacefulness as he settles on the embrace of the brook and an early death.

Gifted American tenor William Ferguson took us on this journey last night and didn't miss a single emotion.  We belong to the subgroup of lieder fans who want all the drama.  We further belong to the subgroup that believes this cycle about youth should be sung by a young man.  This past year we have heard it magnificently sung by tenor Paul Appleby and baritone Jesse Blumberg.  Mr. Ferguson's magnificence was no less.  We felt ourselves sharing his joy, his exaltation, his rage and his pain.  Fortunately we did not wish to commit suicide at the end so we mopped the tears from our eyes and congratulated him on a very fine performance.  Mr. Ferguson informed us that he learned the cycle ten years ago and hasn't sung it since.  We hope he will sing it again soon.  We felt sad for the hero but happy for Mr. Ferguson's success in tackling this intensely dramatic work and doing it justice.

The lack of translation may have hampered those without a knowledge of German but we understood every word due to his fine diction.  Although not a native German speaker, we did notice that, like most American singers, there is a bit of confusion regarding the pronunciation of the final "g" and "ch"; but we can't say it hampered our enjoyment.

The reknowned Brian Zeger was, as one would expect, a major contributor as piano partner.  Schubert was perhaps the first composer to put the piano in such an important position.  One could hear the brook rushing along just as one could hear the mill wheels turning.  Could there be any finer piano writing or playing?  We think not!

(c) meche kroop

SONGS OF LOVE AND LONGING

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The second installment of Schubert&Co's extensive production of Schubert's lieder output (600 + songs) focused on the poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and what poetry it is!  One could sense Schubert channeling the voice of this poetic genius of the sturm und drang school.  We are happily in an irony-free zone here and free to revel in innocence, love and sehnsucht. 

Accompanied by the sensitive piano partner Lachlan Glen, who seemed to breathe right along with her, was emerging artist Raquel Gonzalez, presently pursuing her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School and previously much admired as an undergraduate.  This young woman is totally performance ready, poised and accomplished, able to connect with the material which she clearly loves and also with the audience.  All the songs were delivered with dramatic sincerity and superlative technique.  Her voice has a beautiful resonance and a ping at the top that tickles the ear.

We especially enjoyed the program opener, "Heidenröslein".  Ms. Gonzalez told the tale of the little rose who tried to defend herself from the lad intent on plucking her; she told it with much variety of mood from one verse to the next and somehow managed to subtly convey the sexual subtext.

Mr. Glen, as an added bonus, read to us from Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther to give us a flavor of the period during which emotions were strong--joy, longing and despair infused Goethe's work.  We particularly enjoyed Mr. Glen's pianism in "An die Entfernte" when the two hands alternate.  The longing for the absent lover was palpable.

The program ended with the highly melodic "An den Mond".  Due to artist indisposition, not all the Goethe songs were sung which gives us another opportunity in the future to hear more of the glorious partnership between two great artists--the poet and the composer.

(c) meche kroop

LET'S OD ON SCHUBERT!

Franz Schubert

The joint inspiration of pianists Lachlan Glen and Jonathan Ware, Schubert&Co. plans to present every single lied written by Schubert over the course of the 2012-2013 season.  Has this ever been done before?  Will it ever be done again?  No matter, it is being done NOW and we lied lovers in New York are the lucky beneficiaries.  The plan is to present the work according to the poet whose work he set.  What is obvious right from the start is that Schubert had a wealth of good poetry from which to choose, poetry that scans and rhymes.  We have noted sourly that contemporary poetry has made some pretty unsingable songs.

The series got off to a scintillating start with two fine rising stars of the vocal scene bringing to life a potpourri of songs set to different poets, an exception to the plan for the remainder of the series.  Australian soprano Simone Easthope has a sparkly champagne voice and some mighty fine interpretive skills which were shared by bass-baritone Evan Hughes whose voice made me think of deep dark coffee with a layer of cream on top.

Lindemann Young Artist Mr. Hughes opened the program with "Selige Welt" (Johann Senn); we thought that his second offering "An die Musik" (Franz von Schober) would have made a better opener since it is an ode to the art of music and defines the entire project.  Mr. Hughes' commitment to the art of music is evident in every phrase he sings; his involvement with the song and his communicative skills never flag.

The same could be said of Ms. Easthope whose interpretation of Goethe's poetry was outstanding as are her vocal skills.  We were particularly taken with "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (Claudius) which was performed by both singers, an unusual move which was effectively heart-wrenching.

Two of Metastasio's "Drei Gesänge" were sung by Mr. Hughes and it was a pleasure to see that his Italian is just as fine as his German.  Lachlan Glen was a consistently sensitive piano partner.

It was such a privilege to hear Schubert songs that are rarely performed but an even greater one to hear our favorites given new life.  Mr. Hughes' "Erlkönig" was stunning and resulted in some very prolonged applause by the attentive audience.  This also gave piano partner Jonathan Ware an opportunity to show his pianistic chops.  Ms. Easthope impressed with an absolutely lovely gradual crescendo in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister songs.  Who would not be brought to their knees by "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" and "Kennst du das Land"!

The series continues with two recitals Saturday.  Stay tuned!

A TOUCH OF ESPANA

David Shelton

Amaya Arberas

David Galvez

"Always leave them wanting more" could have been the motto for today's most enjoyable recital, given by Spanish coloratura soprano Amaya Arberas accompanied by Peruvian guitarist David Galvez and British pianist/violinist David Shenton.  The encore, composed by late 19th c. composer Ruperto Chapí brought the audience to their collective feet.  It isn't often that we New Yorkers get to hear zarzuela and we  hope that Opera Hispanica will remedy this lack.

We also loved the genuine Spanish flavor of Fernando Sor's "Si dices que mis ojos" and "Mis Descuidados ojos"  as well as Joaquin Turina's "Cantares".  An instrumental by Astor Piazzolla entitled "Oblivion" was performed by Mr. Galvez and  Mr. Shenton on violin, an instrumentation that evoked more subtleties than the bandoneon.

Ms. Arberas has a finely focused voice with a beautiful  fioritura, especially lovely in Mauro Giuliani's "Ad altro laccio" and the better known "Di tanti palpiti" in which she showed some lovely effects on the scale passages and some knockout embellishments of the vocal line in the final stanza. 

Ms. Arberas' French was quite lovely in Reynaldo Hahn's "A Chloris" and Gabriel Fauré's "Après un rêve".  We were less taken with one of her encores "If I loved you" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel; we found the Spanish accent to be not quite fitting.  We hope this marvelous recital will be a harbinger of more Spanish music to come.  Olé!