CHABRIER ET SES AMIS

Vira Slywotzky and Jesse Blumberg

Is one allowed to have fun at a recital?  We certainly hope so. So many of them are serious affairs; we emerge feeling deeply moved (or not) but it isn't often that we leave grinning from ear to ear.  Before last night, Emmanuel Chabrier was just a blip on our radar screen but today we see him in an entirely new light, thanks to The Mirror Visions Ensemble who presented the work of Chabrier and his circle; it was a lighthearted oeuvre comprising his music (setting of texts by Verlaine and several other poets), his amusing and original letters (which were set by Christopher Berg a few years ago), and also works by Poulenc, Duparc, Chausson and D'Indy.

Chabrier, like so many gifted artists of the latter half of the 19th c., worked as a civil servant but had music as his first love.  He was a man of great wit, judging by a letter he wrote to his boss confessing that his absence from work was due to a trip to Bordeaux to realize his dream of seeing Tristan und Isolde.  This letter was set by Mr. Berg who is, like Chabrier, self-taught; his music is tuneful and nothing like the contemporary music which leaves us with clenched teeth.  Mr. Berg himself played the piano and, along with Gary Chapman, played a four-hand piano piece entitled "Souvenirs de Munich" which included themes from Tristan und Isolde but with irreverent and affectionately sacriligious variations.  The two pianists also performed Chabrier's "Cortège burlesque", a toe-tapping number that pressaged the ragtime music to come in the not-too-distant future.

A trio from Monsieur Chabrier's operetta Fisch-Ton-Kan opened the program; he and librettist Paul Verlaine were barely in their 20's yet the work is totally entertaining as brought to life by soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree and baritone Jesse Blumberg who got the chance to show off his terpsichorean skills to the delight of the audience.  All three singers had total command of this material and they closed the program with Mr. Berg's beautiful setting of M. Chabrier's letter to his wife; the phrases were eminently singable and the harmonies gorgeous.

In between we heard chansons by Henri Duparc, Ernest Chausson, and Vincent D'Indy whose vocal line in "Madrigal" was beautifully sung by Ms. Slywotzky; the writing for piano was reflective of early music and simply stunning.  Chabrier, like many other composers, enjoyed writing about animals--in this case, turkeys, cicadas and ducklings--charming miniatures all.

But our favorite work of the evening was a duet entitled "Duo de l'ouvreuse de l'Opéra-Comique et de l'employé du Bon-Marché" for which M. Chabrier wrote both text and music.  Ms. S. and Mr. B. portrayed the two lovers, an usherette and a clerk, who were delighted when the Opéra burned down and the government provided a huge stipend so they could finally marry.  It was a perfect storm of singing, acting, music and text.  What fun!

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AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

Prizewinners onstage at Alice Tully Hall

The venerable Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation awarded prizes to a long list of young artists and also gave a generous gift to the opera lovers of New York--a Sunday afternoon parade of prizewinners who got onstage at Alice Tully Hall and gave their all to the grateful and appreciative audience.  Centenarian Signora Albanese came onstage to greet the audience and merited all the adulation she received, not only for her long illustrious career but also for her unstinting efforts to share her skills and wisdom with younger generations of singers.  Administrative/Artistic Director Stephen De Maio put together a superb program; Midge Woolsey hosted and contributed a great deal by giving the audience a concise explanation of the content of the aria and its place in the opera.

All of the singers performed at their peak; each voice we heard was special but a few touched us deeply. Tenor Anthony Kalil blew us away with a goose-bump inducing performance of "E lucevan le stelle" from Puccini's Tosca; he succeeded in making the aria his own.  Baritone Takaoki Onishi, who has been winning awards left and right, sang Rodrigo's arias from Verdi's Don Carlo, building from a subdued start to a smashing and powerful climax. 

We heard two superb Courtneys, both sopranos:  Courtney Mills has a sizable soprano that is very free at the top, supremely suited to "Ritorna Vincitor" from Verdi's Aida; the "junior" Courtney, still an undergraduate but with considerable promise, sang a charming duet from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia: "Dunque io son".  Her Figaro was the charming baritone Tobias Greenhalgh who captured his character's lovable wiliness.

"Oh Mimi, tu più non torni" from Puccini's La Bohème was movingly sung by tenor Aaron Blake and baritone Ricardo Rivera.  Regular readers know how much we love duets!  From the same opera we heard "O soave fanciulla" sung by soprano Marina Costa-Jackson and tenor Dominick Chenes.  Two more duets graced the program: in the "Brindisi" from Verdi's La Traviata, glamorous soprano Mary-Jane Lee sang Violetta with a lovely vibrato; her Alfredo was tenor Viktor Antipenko who has an open generous sound. The flower duet from Delibes' Lakmé is one of our favorites and Shelley Jackson's bright soprano melded beautifully with Shirin Eskandani's dark mezzo.
Soprano Jennifer Rowley has a lovely liquid sound that flows like heavy cream; she sang "Come in quest'ora bruna" from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.  There were several fine baritones on the program with superb voices whom we will enjoy far more as they develop more contact with the audience.  With the exception of the following, all singers were accompanied by the Opera Orchestra of New York, conducted by Eve Queler.

There were also a number of performances given by recipients of Distinguished Achievement Awards.  We were most impressed by soprano Jennifer Check who has managed to lose weight without losing any of the gorgeous qualities in her voice; her "Vieni t'affretta", accompanied by Jonathan Kelly, from Verdi's Macbeth was memorable.  Kristin Chavez' "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen was steamy and involved some audience interaction; Arlene Schrut accompanied.  Eglise Guttierez sang Puccini's "Oh mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi and Ricardo Tamura sang "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot.

"Cent'anni" to Signora Albanese!  Oh wait, she already got there.  Well, here's to another century!

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A SMORGASBORD OF SONG

Katja Heuzeroth, Rebecca Spence, and Tami Swartz

Whatever type of music you enjoy, there was something on the menu to please at last night's "Over Easy" a program presented by The Production Nest Egg, established in 2006.  At the piano and at the helm is Elizabeth Hastings, well known to music lovers from the Liederkranz Opera Theatre  as well as from her conducting and harpsichord playing around the country.  She put together a delightful program of opera and operetta favorites, all by German composers, and highlighting singers we have enjoyed in the past and some new ones we hope to hear again.  Many of them were heard previously at the Liederkranz.

At the risk of leaving out some of the fine performances, we will just mention a few that impressed us, since the cast was enormous.  We got a kick out of "Oh, show us the way to the next whisky bar" from Kurt Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel, having just heard it the night before at "Baden Baden 1927"; Soprano Tami Swartz and mezzo Erika Person sounded great together and dramatic values were not neglected.  No one was credited with direction but we suspect it was Ms. Hastings herself.

Peter Kendall Clark used his ample baritone and glamorous presence to good advantage in the romantic "Just we two" from Romberg's The Student Prince with soprano Elizabeth Fagan who also did a lovely duet with Laurelyn Watson Chase in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.  We far prefer the German but Adam Klein (appearing courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera) did a fine English translation.  His travesti performance as the Witch was a high point of the evening as he flew around the stage on a broom!

Soprano Charlotte Detrick performed the "Czárdás" from Johann Strauss, Jr.'s Die Fledermaus, demonstrating a lovely coloratura sound.  We love our Mozart and soprano Sarah Caldwell Smith and Bass Cory Clines did a swell job with "Ich gehe, doch rate ich dir" from Die Entführung aus dem Serail.  We loved the opening number from Das Rheingold "Lugt, Schwestern" (pictured above) and thought Rebecca Spence's soprano and Katja Heuzeroth's mezzo best suited the Wagnerian style.

Scenes from Oscar Straus' The Chocolate Soldier (based on the Shaw play) were admirably handled by sopranos Katie Travis and Charlotte Detrick, mezzo Alison Taylor Cheeseman,  tenor Nils Neubert, and the very funny bass Cory Clines.  Scenes from Zemire und Azor by Ludwig Spohr gave soprano Molly Davey and tenor Rogelio Peñaverde a chance to shine and shine they did.  Another lovely voice was heard when mezzo Rachel Arky performed in songs from Heinrich Marscher's Der Vampyr.  The audience favorite seemed to be the all-male ensemble "Oh the study of feminine ways" from Lehar's The Merry Widow.  

It was a splendid evening and we hope there will be many such evenings to come with operetta treated as seriously as opera.

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LA MAESTRA ITALIANA

Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi and Sean Christensen

Most master classes are both instructive and educational; they usually focus on interpretation, diction, phrasing--rarely on voice production, leaving such matters to the participants' own voice teachers.  Yesterday's master class was an exception--and it was exceptional.  Sponsored by Classic Lyric Arts which hosts programs of advanced studies in language, culture and classical repertoire in Italy and France, the class was taught by Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi, Director of Daltro Canto, dedicated to R&D of new approaches to vocal pedagogy.  The emphasis is described as "spontaneous vocal production through an understanding of energy flow and increased mind/body awareness".  Doug Han accompanied the artists.

As an observer and auditor, we noticed impressive changes in all four participants, sopranos Tamara Rusque, Elizabeth Novella and Dorothy Gal and tenor Sean Christensen.  We had never heard any of them sing beforehand but were able to compare their performance before working with Maestra Lombardi and after a half-hour of coaching.  The methods were new to us and seemed to involve a profound knowledge of anatomy and bio-energetics.  The guidance was given in Italian and translated by Glenn Morton, Artistic Director of Classic Lyric Arts.

There was some overlap but each participant was handled differently.  Signora Lombardi seemed to know exactly where each singer's tension was located and how to release it.  The entire body was brought into play, from the feet up.  There was a lot of emphasis on the spine and the hip joint.  Singing on one leg with the other swinging back and forth seemed to work wonders, as did wiggling the spine in serpentine fashion.

Much work was also done with the face.  Holding the lower lip between the fingers produced quite a difference as did wiggling the upper lip.  Who knew before today that showing the lower teeth could change the voice?  Or that the diaphragm was connected to the cervical vertebrae?  One singer was given a Ricola to hold between her back teeth.  Another interesting strategy was to bite the lower lip and vocalize.  Lacking the knowledge to understand how these strategies work we are nonetheless sure that the participants who are taking her weekend workshop will come away with a great deal of valuable knowledge.  The maestra is not only an amazing teacher but is a gifted artist herself--well known in all the famous opera houses of Italy as well as Paris, Zurich and Stuttgart.  How admirable that she is sharing her unique discoveries with the next generation.  Bravissima!

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A POST-MODERN VOCAL RECITAL

Cree Carrico and Jamison Livsey

As part of Opera America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, we heard a riveting recital by Chautauqua Operas Young Artist Recital Finalists soprano Cree Carrico and collaborative pianist Jamison Livsey.  Most vocal recitals these days are presented in a limited variety of forms.  Sometimes, the singer chooses sets of songs from a number of different composers; sometimes the focus is on one particular language; sometimes the focus is on one composer alone, as was the case with last season's Schubert&Co. recitals.  Last night's recital was unique in that the artists focused on a particular character from Shakespeare's Hamlet--Ophelia, Hamlet's abandoned love interest who drowns herself.  Indeed, the work was entitled Yesterday I stopped Killing Myself: The Ophelia Project.

We are familiar with Ms. Carrico from her performances at Manhattan School of Music as Marie-Antoinette in John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles and as Jenny in Kurt Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny.  The Ophelia Project gave her the opportunity to show completely different aspects of her many talents.  The work seemed to tackle the many colors of Ophelia's madness as interpreted by a variety of composers.

The program opened with "A vos jeux, mes amis" from Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, a mad scene to rival that in Lucia de Lammermoor.  Ms. Carrico appeared barefoot and wild-eyed conveying the madness not just with her diamantine voice in the elaborate coloratura but with her entire body.  The intensity of the performance was overwhelming and one could absolutely not allow one's gaze to waver.  It was so convincing that we imagined Ms. C. had dredged up that pain from her own personal experience.  (We were relieved to learn that it was just good acting and that she is a happy young woman with no evidence of a broken heart or suicidal tendencies).

The remainder of the work comprised Drei Lieder der Ophelia (Op. 67) by Richard Strauss,  Jake Heggie's Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia with texts by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and songs by Ned Rorem and Sergei Rachaninoff that were pressed into service, mainly by references to flowers.  This madwoman tore flowers into shreds which she showered onto the audience, carried on with audience members, threw chairs around and interacted with Mr. Livsey who entered into the spirit of the piece.  She donned red jewelry and red patent-leather pumps, stacked red apples on chairs and delivered Ophelia's monologue into a cell phone--a jarring image and yet making fine sense of Shakespeare's text.

We liked the alteration of intense passionate songs with some quiet gentle ones.  What we missed was some rationale for dividing up the song cycles and interlacing them.  It certainly pulled the work into the realm of the avant-garde which we did not mind at all; we just wanted more of a dramatic arc that has not been made clear.  This is clearly a work in progress and as Ms. Carrico works with her director Christopher Mirto, we hope this arc of madness will emerge and give a sense of madness developing.

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HYONA KIM'S JOY IN SINGING

HyoNa Kim (photo by Devon Cass) and Bretton Brown (photo by A. Moeller)

Our idea of a great recital isn't that different from our idea of a great meal.  Each "course" has different flavors, colors and textures; there are dishes one has never tasted before; one leaves feeling nourished and replete and yet...somehow wanting more.  Such was the case last night at the Joy in Singing presentation of their 2013 Award Winner mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim with her collaborative pianist Bretton Brown who was with her in total support every step of the way.  What a team!

Ms. Kim is so secure in her terrific technique and so poised onstage that she can afford to immerse herself in the texts and make each audience member feel as if she is singing just to them.  Indeed, she weaves a spell that draws people in.  We witnessed an amazing control of dynamics.  When she lets go the very molecules of air dance to her vibrato; when she spins a thread of soft sound, we lean in to meet her.  The colors in her voice are multiple and augmented by gesture and facial expression.  There are stories to be told and she tells them.

The program opened with Sieben Lieder von Elisabeth Kulmann by Robert Schumann who set the texts of this unfortunate poet who lived a sad life and died at 17.  She lives on in this gorgeous music brought to life by Ms. Kim in German so crisp that we never had to look at the translations.  We particularly enjoyed Mr. Brown's evocative pianism in "Die letzen Blumen starben".  The deeply sorrowful mood was lifted by the humor of Erik Satie's chansons which followed.  Ms. Kim is anything but pompous and had a great time illustrating the bronze statue of the frog who provides nighttime lodging for sleepy insects.  The program notes gave a fine explanation of the French wordplay in "Daphénéo" which we wished we had figured out on our own!  "Je te veux" was incredibly romantic.

Three lovely settings of texts by Pushkin followed and we were delighted to be hearing the seldom heard music of Nikolai Medtner which gave Mr. Brown the opportunity to indulge what must be a Russian soul.  Ms. Kim conveyed two different types of lost love--one that had passed by and one towards a lover that had passed away.  Our eyes were not the only ones that filled with tears at this passionate music.

In this carefully wrought recital, nothing was commonplace.  After the intermission we heard a set of light-hearted songs by a multiplicity of composers dealing with animals--as in Noah's ark.  Ned Rorem composed two songs about the same animal--"Snake" and "Serpent".  We preferred the latter for its clever rhymes.  ("All this is futile, I do not like to bang or tootle").  We do enjoy English most when there are clever rhymes!  David Sisco's "Judged by the Company One Keeps" had the audience chortling with glee.

The final set of the evening comprised songs about biblical King David and his prayers.  We love our Dvořák and his setting of "Sing to the lord a new song" was music to our ears as well.  Ravel's "Kaddish" was movingly sung in Hebrew.  As encore Ms. Kim and Mr. Brown performed a setting of "The Lord's Prayer" by UnYoung La, sung in Korean.  That makes six languages heard in one recital, all beautifully handled--an international meal for the musical epicure.

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A TRIO WOWS A FULL HOUSE

Ken Noda, Matthew Polenzani, Corinne Winters

The George London Foundation for Singers got their recital series off to a stellar start with yesterday's recital.  The "trio" that wowed a "full house" comprised celebrated tenor Matthew Polenzani, rising star soprano Corinne Winters and beloved collaborative pianist Ken Noda in a well-thought-out program that gave each artist a chance to shine.  We know Mr. Polenzani only from his onstage appearances at the Metropolitan Opera and Ms. Winters only from her enchanting performances with the New York Festival of Song.  What a treat to see and hear Mr. P. up close and personal and to hear Ms. W. treat a New York audience to the kind of singing for which she has been acclaimed worldwide.

She has a rich resonance in her voice, belying the claim that petite singers have petite voices.  She performed a set of songs by Reynaldo Hahn and Camille Saint-Saëns in fine French, employing dramatic word coloring and emphasizing the dark richness of her voice.  In "Dis-moi que je suis belle" from Massenet's Thaïs she conveyed the character's insecurity with total conviction.  We loved Rimsky-Korsakov's "Dreams of a Summer Night" in which a young maiden dreams of a romantic awakening.

Mr. Polenzani mastered all the subtleties of "Wie singt die Lerche schön" in a lovely set of songs by Liszt; our favorite in this set was the gorgeous "Die stille Wasserose" in which the silence between the notes maintained the delicate mood most effectively.  In contrast, "Es rauschen die Winde" was an expression of anguish and loss.  The tenor's secure technique allowed him to immerse himself in the text.  Later in "Pourquoi me réveiller" from Massenet's Werther we felt the hero's heart breaking in passionate lament.  An exquisite diminuendo heightened the effect.  In this French-heavy recital we were delighted that Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques were included.  Mr. P. showed his humorous side in "Quel gallant m'est comparable" and the audience loved it.  They also appreciated his charming informality, waving to his children in the audience.

We literally could not wait to hear the two artists in a duet and were amply rewarded by the entire St. Sulpice scene from Act III of Massenet's Manon.  Manon, that manipulative bad girl, enters the church where Des Grieux is about to take orders and seduces him away from his religious calling.  Although the voices were perfectly matched, poor Des Grieux is no match for Manon's wiles.  The scene was so well done that sets and costumes appeared in our mind's eye.  Well, not the sets and costumes of the current unloved incarnation at the Met but from an earlier production that we loved and lost.

Another duet was performed as an encore--the one from Bernstein's Candide in which Candide and Cunégonde sing their very conflicting views of what their marital bliss would be.  It was lighthearted and amusing and sent the audience out on a (ahem) high note.  Throughout the recital Ken Noda supported the singers with the kind of attention that we must never take for granted.  We particularly enjoyed the way he conveyed the tinkling of the fountain in the opening chanson "Les fontaines" and the many colors in Rachmaninoff's "Dreams".

We want to urge everyone who loves vocal music to get on board for this tantalizing series of recitals in which the George London Foundation pairs an artist who is a recent prize winner with an artist who was awarded a prize in the recent past.  May they continue forever to award prizes to such deserving artists!

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