THEO CON BRIO

Cristina Stanescu and Theo Lebow

It was a dark and stormy night.  It was the perfect night for Schubert's Die Winterreise, a journey we have made and enjoyed dozens of times; but we'd never made the journey with Theo Lebow and Cristina Stanescu.  Could anything new be wrung from this well-worn but beloved 1827 song cycle?  A resounding "YES" is the answer.

Mr. Lebow has a sweet and youthful tenor, perfect for expressing the intense drama of a youth dealing with a lost love.  His interpretation was fearless as he plumbed the depths of despair and unrelenting isolation with interludes of brief false hope. The wanderer he limned bordered on psychosis.  For all Mr. Lebow's immersion in the text, he never lost sight of the music.  His superb technique with its fine phrasing and exquisite dynamic control were never obvious but used to serve the music.  His gestures were apt but never overdone.

In Cristina Stanescu, Mr. Lebow found the perfect piano partner.  Although the current season is Spring, it was obvious that the two artists spent a long winter working together.  They seemed to breathe in and out at the same time.  Her pianism reflected every one of the allegorical elements of nature mentioned in the text--dogs barking, streams running, trees rustling, crows cawing and the mail coach passing; we even heard the last leaf quivering and about to fall from the tree.  Rhythms were crisp and clean.  There were times when she stretched a pause for a split second and we held our breath.

It seemed as if our artists were channeling Schubert and the poet Wilhelm Müller.  Had they been in the audience we are sure they would have wept as we did; it was impossible not to connect with past losses and sorrows.  This is not a performance we will soon forget and neither will the capacity audience who braved the rain to attend.  The two artists well deserved the prolonged standing ovation.  Bravi!!!

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CAVALLI'S DORICLEA

Michael Anderson, Christine Price, Justin Austin (photo by Brian Hatton)

Lyndon England, Hannah Dishman (photo by Brian Hatton)

Juan del Bosco, Caroline Braga (photo by Brian Hatton)

A rewarding and highly entertaining production of Cavalli's La Doriclea  was presented by the Manhattan School of Music Senior Opera Theater.  Baroque opera can be tedious but, in the right hands, it can be a lot of fun.  The hands belong to Dona D. Vaughn and Jorge Parodi.  Ms. Vaughn directed with a sureness born of experience--experience in telling a story and experience in pulling meaningful performances out of the singers, most of whom were seniors with a few graduate students thrown in for good measure.

Maestro Parodi's hands are another thing altogether, and if you could tear your eyes away from the riveting stage action you would be entranced by the balletic moves as he pulled superb performances from his musicians, most of whom were graduate students.  The talented theorboist was guest artist Carlos Cuestas.

This 1645 opera, with libretto by Giovanni Faustini (who collaborated with Francesco Cavalli on nine operas) is one of about a dozen surviving Venetian operas from the first half of the 17th c. The influence of Monteverdi is evident.  It suffered a delay in performance due to censorship. Why?  Probably it had something to do with the gender hijinks.

The heroine Doriclea (Christine Price) in male military garb fights alongside her husband Tigrane, King of Armenia (Michael Anderson). Arsacian King Artabano (Juan del Bosco), whose soldier Surena (Nicholas Smith) has taken her captive, has a sister Eurinda (Caroline Braga), who falls in love with Doriclea (disguised as "Cyrus") and is ready to forsake her fiancé Farnace (Megan Mikailovna Samarin in a pants role).

Adding delightful comic relief are Eurinda's maid Melloe (Hannah Dishman) who, at one point tried to attack someone with a cucumber, and Farnace's page Orindo (Lyndon England) who doesn't have to do much but cross the stage to evoke laughter.  The two have a cute duet together in which Melloe expresses the wish to experience love and Orindo expresses his cynical view of women.

On a more severe note, Sabari (Justin Austin in fine voice) a man who knows that "Cyrus" is really a woman, tries to seduce her.  When rejected he accuses her of adultery as revenge.  Confusing?  Only on paper.  Ms. Vaughn made everything clear onstage.

To complicate matters still further, Act I has a prologue in which character traits are anthropomorphized.  Ambition (Margaret Woolums) is depicted wearing a blindfold.  (Get it?)    Virtue (Sara Hope Ptachik) despairs over losing out to Vice.  (In nearly four centuries, has anything changed?)  Ignorance (Marina Lombardi) disguises herself in Virtue's garments.  In some lovely melismatic singing, Glory (Sheila Houlahan) introduces the story.

Before Act I ends, Venus (Amanda Grafton) rouses her clan of cupids, clad in pink undies with hot pink wigs, with a stirring battle cry and then promises her favors to Mercury (Mark Zhaoming Seah)  whose celestial home is the balcony of the Ades performing space.  At the end of Act II, she has a charming duet with the virile Mars (Cameron Johnson) after threatening to attack his palace with her troop of "Amorini".

We have probably omitted a few characters in this wonderful piece and for this we apologize.  Everyone sang well and acted their parts with gusto.  A few performances were outstanding.  There was a touching duet between Mr. Anderson and Ms. Price at the opening of the opera when she is too wounded to move on and begs him to kill her.  Ms. Price also has a lovely lament at the beginning of Act III.

Ms. Braga made a highly expressive address to the audience about her love for Farnace before meeting "Cyrus" and a marvelous duet with Ms. Samarin when they reconcile at the end of the opera.  We liked the scene at court in which Ms. Braga becomes besotted with "Cyrus" (the disguised Doriclea) and Ms. Dishman becomes the counterbalancing voice of reason, reminding her of her betrothal to Farnace.

The simple set and effective lighting were by Kate Ashton.  There were some jagged mountains in the rear and some clouds overhead and a fine tent for the Arsacian king.  During the garden scene some arches interlaced with flowers sufficed.

Costumes by Summer Lee Jack were apt and well executed.  Gods and goddesses looked very Roman with lots of draping.  Mars looked exactly the way one would imagine and Mercury had a winged helmet. The Arsacians looked vaguely Middle-Eastern with Eurinda and her brother Artabano appearing very royal.

We have no evidence that La Doriclea has been performed since it's opening in Venice but if anyone else had discovered it and performed it we doubt that it could have been done any better.  What a privilege to have seen a work that survived nearly 400 years.  Mankind is still struggling with gender ambiguity, fickle lovers and senseless wars. We don't need modern dress to appreciate the contemporary relevance.

© meche kroop

MORE BUDS ON THE VOCAL ARTS BRANCH OF THE JUILLIARD TREE

Alex McKissick, Nicolette Mavroleon

Kurt Kanazawa, Virginie Verrez, Laura Levoir, Jessine Johnson

Lachlan Glen, Theo Hoffman, Leann Osterkamp, Mary-Elizabeth O'Neill

A week of recitals at Juilliard have left us reeling with pleasure. There wasn't a mediocre singer in the bunch; all were promising but some seem to have a better sense of what suits their particular voices and interpretive skills.  It takes a lot of courage to introduce a new work or to choose songs that are rarely performed.  Sometimes a gem is discovered and sometimes we are left realizing why a particular work has been neglected.  (Anyone who has worked with Steven Blier knows of his gifts for choosing songs and finding the right singer to inhabit them.)

Let us begin with Theo Hoffman whose third-year undergraduate status tells us absolutely nothing about his prodigious talents.  His generous smoky baritone was heard twice on Thursday.  At the Vocal Arts Department's Liederabend (an all-Schumann program) he sang in perfect German four lovely lieder, perfectly modulated in volume and word-coloring.  He was accompanied by the fine Ari Livne.

And two hours later he was onstage at his third-year recital with the amazing Lachlan Glen (whose new CD we will be reviewing shortly) as piano partner, making music out of some songs in English that we did not expect to enjoy; it is testament to the talents of these two artists that we found ourselves loving the material.

Mr. Hoffman has preternatural stage poise and dramatic chops; he can really bring a song to life.  He drew selections from the oeuvre of Jonathan Dove, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, John Musto, Samuel Barber, Rufus Wainwright and Marc Blitzstein.  One cannot go wrong with poetry by Alfred Tennyson, Robert Louis Stevenson or William Butler Yeats.  But the big surprise was Rufus Wainwright's "True Loves" and Marc Blitzstein's "Stay in My Arms". Both men composed their own texts and both songs were pure delight.  As encore, Mr. Hoffman sang Noel Coward's "Uncle Harry", a reprise of his success at a recital at the National Opera Center. What fun!!!

Sharing the program was mezzo Mary-Elizabeth O'Neill whom we enjoyed in those wonderful Schubert songs from Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister.  She was just the right interpreter for these songs of the mysterious Mignon.  We were somewhat less enchanted by her choice of Mirabai Songs, John Harbison's setting of texts by Robert Bly.  The writing for piano was difficult and dense, performed well by the fine collaborative pianist Leann Osterkamp, but the vocal line was spare and not melodic.  The work obviously meant a great deal to Ms. O'Neill but we found ourselves incapable of caring about the Hindu princess who left her family to devote herself body and soul to Lord Krishna, although Ms. O'Neill's diction in English was easily understood.

To return now to the all-Schumann Liederabend, we enjoyed baritone Kurt Kanazawa, accompanied by Joseph Yungen, having a great deal of fun with his choices.  His light and pleasing baritone sounded wonderful and seemed particularly suited to songs about seduction--"The Hidalgo" for example.  He is one of those singers who uses his body and facial expression to good advantage, as in his imitating the ladies of Seville with their fans and mantillas.  What a storyteller!

Soprano Laura LeVoir with her piano partner Zsolt Balogh sounded especially fine in "Der Sandmann", "Schmetterling" and "Schneeglöckchen", singing with lightness, delicacy and charm.

Jessine Johnson has a larger voice that was well suited to the tragic "Der Soldat" and the scary "Muttertraum".  The Rückert lied "Mein schöner Stern" was equally impressive.  Siyi Fang followed along with her as piano partner, contributing to the apt interpretations.

Mezzo Virginie Verrez, accompanied by Miles Fellenberg, undertook the very sad Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart.  Her very textured voice was expressive and she demonstrated exquisite phrasing, dynamic control and word coloring.  We were moved and enthralled.

Soprano Nicolette Mavroleon and tenor Alex McKissick shared a third-year recital and made a fine showing, the most amazing part of which was their versatility.  Just a few days earlier we heard them both singing in a cabaret (also reviewed here) and were impressed with the ease with which they shifted gears.

We always love Dvořák and were thrilled that Ms. Mavroleon chose to sing a quartet of his songs, three of which were about unfulfilled love.  We especially loved the typical Czech melody of "My heart often becomes mournful".  Piano partner Valeriya Polunina captured the mood perfectly.

She also sang a Schubert concert aria in Italian that was filled with emotion--"Vedi quanto adoro ancora ingrato!"  How wonderful to discover a new side of Schubert; we would not have recognized it as Schubert.  Two songs by Rimsky-Korsakov followed and we were blown away by the erotic "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Tenor Alex McKissick essayed selections from Die Schöne Müllerin which we have always considered to be best sung by a young man.  He conveyed enthusiasm and contentment, tenderness and exultation. We liked the way he changed color for the various voices in "Am Feierabend".

He has a facility for Spanish and did a fine job conveying the insecurity of the serenader in "Te quiero, Morena" from the zarzuela El Trust de los Tenorios by José Serrano.  José Padilla's "Princesita" had a lovely melody.  Raymond Wong was his able accompanist.

A week spent at Juilliard provided a lifetime of musical memories!

© meche kroop

THE BUDS OF SPRINGTIME

Art Williford, Valeriya Polunina, Eva Gheorghiu, Angela Vallone

For Voce di Meche, the greatest pleasure of Springtime is not the budding of the trees but rather the budding of vocal talent.  This is the time of year when music students get to give recitals.  We can think of no greater seasonal satisfaction  than witnessing these young artists whose full flowering we anticipate in the years to come.  It is a long journey for them and this is but one crucial step.

There will be more reviews this week but let us focus on last night's satisfying recital at Juilliard where we heard two fine sopranos, both students of Edith Wiens.

Eva Gheorghiu (no relation to Angela) has a crystalline tone and a fine sense of drama.  She performed two very different arias: "Frère! Voyez!" from Jules Massenet's Werther and "Prendi, per me sei libero" from Gaetano Donizetti's  L'Elisir d'Amore.  In the first, young Sophie tries to cheer up the morose Werther and Ms. Gheorghiu captured the spirit and nailed the French diction.

In the latter, Adina lets Nemorino know that she has bought back his military contract and that she loves him; she tells him with flights of rapturous coloratura, leaving us enraptured.

A quintet of songs by Prokofiev which she herself translated  permitted her to demonstrate a lovely diminuendo  and strength in the lower register.  Valeriya Polunina accompanied with a light sensitive touch and fleet fingering.

Soprano Angela Vallone, working with the excellent collaborative pianist Art Williford, performed songs in Russian, French and Swedish.  We just saw her three days earlier performing in a cabaret and were impressed by her versatility. 

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Nightingale and the Rose" has the most exotic melody and delighted the ear.  In Rachmaninoff's  lavish "In the silence of the mysterious night", Ms. Vallone allowed the passionate sentiment into her voice to fine effect.

A pair of Debussy songs--"Regret" and "Paysage Sentimental" were delivered in fine French that was understandable without the printed text.

But where Ms. Vallone truly shone was in the concluding set of songs by Jean Sibelius with which she clearly connected.  We have always loved "Var det en dröm?" but it was "Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings mote" that truly spoke (or, rather, sang) to us because of her deep involvement.

Stay tuned for more "buds" tomorrow!

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BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY

Christopher Colmenero and Vanessa Isiguen

The climax of last night's recital at Mannes College the New School for Music was the first act love duet between Butterfly and Pinkerton "Vogliatemi bene" from Puccini's Madama Butterfly.  Soprano Vanessa Isiguen and tenor Christopher Colmenero were so fine that we wished they would go on and on into the night.  Ms. Isiguen has an enviable instrument that manages to be bright and rich at the same time.  Mr. Colmenero has a sizable instrument that has the texture of a baritone.  Rarely have we heard a tenor so substantial in the lower register.

Some singers use their bodies expressively and others prefer to keep still and use only their voices.  We confess to a preference for the former and the only thing we would have added to Mr. Colmenero's fine performance would be some gestures of expression.  But that is a personal preference.

By a strange coincidence, the tenor's first set--selections from Brahm's rarely performed Magalone Romanzen-- were performed this season by the Brooklyn Art Song Society and we were delighted to hear them again.  (Readers who missed the review can find it by using the search function.)  Moving readily from the bombastic "Traun! Bogen und pfeil" to the sorrowful "Muss es eine trennung geben" and the hopeful "Wie froh und Frisch", he demonstrated a variety of vocal color.

His second set, by yet another strange coincidence, was "Max's Aria" from Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz, the presentation of which by Utopia Opera we had just reviewed.  This is an introspective aria in which Max considers the risks he is taking to win his lady love.  It was finely sung.  Mr. Colmenero's effective collaborative pianist was Alla Michtein.

Later he did justice to Ralph Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel, of which our favorite was "Youth and Love" in which he showed a lovely vibrato in the pianissimo parts.  His English diction was just as good as his German.

Ms. Isiguen did a commendable job with Claude Debussy's Ariettes Oubliées.  She completely captured the French style and the sensuality of "C'est l'extase langoureuse".  Her voice opened up superbly at the top and filled the room with some great overtones.  Sophia Muñoz accompanied in fine style.

Of the three excellent Rachmaninoff songs, we enjoyed the passion of "Francesca's Aria" from Francesca da Rimini but absolutely swooned over the very timely "Spring Waters" in which we could experience the murmuring of the Spring run-off both in voice and piano.

Although we have enjoyed operas presented by Mannes at Hunter College, we have not been on the Mannes campus since our days spent studying composition with David Tcimpidis.  It was good to be back to see the origins of so many singers we have recently admired.  We expect Ms. Isiguen and Mr. Colmenero to join them.

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COME TO THE CABARET

Front Row:  Alex McKissick and Miles Mykkanen  --  Back Row: Nicolette Mavroleon, Lacey Jo Benter, Angela Vallone, Elliott Carlton Hines, Dan K. Kurland, Michael Chiarello

The Juilliard Vocal Arts Department is not just about opera, just in case you didn't know.  The talented artists who call that department home are equally adept at contemporary music, and we don't mean those tedious unmusical settings of awful poetry.  We mean lively American songs that relate to contemporary experience, the kind of songs that singers of lesser talent perform with (yikes!) amplification.  Not these artists!  Their glorious and finely trained voices just sang it out.

The songs were well curated to reflect the kinds of things we are interested in--love, fulfilled and frustrated, and life in our wonderful city in all its glory and occasionally loathsome complexity.  The black box theater was bare except for a quartet of cafe tables, chairs and two step ladders.  Jeanne Slater can be credited with some mighty fine directing and choreography. 

The ensemble got the evening off to a rip-roaring start.  We loved the manner in which they performed Stephen Sondheim's "Another Hundred People" from Company; the energy level was through the roof and conveyed all the excitement of life in the Big Apple.  "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup" from John Kander and Fred Ebb's 70, Girls 70 likewise expressed the frantic nature of New York existence in a most charming way.

Tenors Miles Mykkanen and Alex McKissick were joined by baritone Elliott Carlton Hines for the delightful trio "One Track Mind" from Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia's Sweet Smell of Success.  Sopranos Nicolette Mavroleon and Angela Vallone joined voices with mezzo Lacey Jo Benter for a very funny rendition of "Forget About the Boy" from Thoroughly Modern Millie by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan.  The interactions were so well directed it felt like overhearing your friends.  What woman has not tried to console a broken-hearted BFF who was dumped by some guy!

The duets were equally inspired.  One could chuckle over the friendship between Mr. McKissick and Ms. Vallone as she tried to talk him out of making a fool of himself in "Coffee" from Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham's I Love You Because.  The touching "What Do We Do It For?" from the same show was movingly performed by Ms. Benter and Mr. Mykkanen.

Solos were not neglected.  From Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights, Ms. Mavroleon used her excellent voice to sing "It Won't be Long Now" and Mr. Hines used his fine baritone to sing the romantic "When I First Saw You" from Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen's Dreamgirls.

On the funnier side, the marvelous Mr. Mykkanen was all over the stage with "The Life of the Party" from Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party.  He truly IS the life of the party and the ensemble joining him for "Wild, Wild Party" seemed totally organic as if his performance had roused them.

Mr. McKissick's fine solo was the defensive "What Do I Need with Love" from Thoroughly Modern Millie; Ms. Benter's solo told a wonderful story about what women face in "Expectations of a Man" by Joathan Reid Gealt, but her story had a twist at the end.  Ms. Vallone sang the moving and satisfying "A Way Back to Then" from Jeff Bowen's [title of show].

There were other ensemble pieces that we will cherish long after the evening has passed: "West End Avenue" from Stephen Schwartz' The Magic Show  which struck very close to home (so to speak) and Sondheim's "What More Do I Need" from Saturday Night.  And from his Merrily We Roll Along the song "Our Time" closed the evening in fine style.  For these impressive artists, it truly is "their time".

Excellent accompaniment was provided by Musical Director Dan K. Kurland at the piano with Michael Chiarello on bass and Andrew Funcheon on drums.  By the end of the show we were grinning from ear to ear and suffused with good feelings.  So superb was this show that it could be transplanted intact to Broadway.  Now why didn't someone think of that!

© meche kroop

TAKING A SHOT AT VON WEBER

Alex Charlie Boyd, Bryce Smith, Mary Ann Stewart, William Remmers, Shawn Thuris, Sarah Moulton Faux

Most opera lovers have heard of Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz; some have heard a recording of it; few have actually seen it performed.  Thanks to Director/Conductor William Remmers and Utopia Opera we can now say that we have seen it performed.  You can as well if you get yourself to Lang Hall at Hunter College tonight at 7:30.  This 1821 work is considered to have launched German Romanticism; it is replete with romance, religion and superstition--both in the text and in the music.

Under the colorful conducting of Mr. Remmers the overture began softly and grew in power.  On the right third of the stage was the orchestra, comprising a string quartet, a bass, a pair of flutes, a pair of clarinets, a pair of oboes, a bassoon, a trumpet, and--this being a work about hunters--a quartet of horns.  The melodies were tuneful and the balance was only somewhat flawed by the cheek-by-jowl arrangement of the musicians.  Still, it was a treat to hear a live orchestra.

The opera concerns a junior hunter named Max (tenor Shawn Thuris) who is in line to inherit the title of Head Huntsman from Cuno (bass Jay Gould) and to marry Cuno's daughter Agathe (the substantial soprano Mary Ann Stewart, who has an impressive vibrato among other assets). 

The frenemy Caspar, another junior huntsman (convincingly evil bass Bryce Smith) has sold his soul to the devil, here called Samiel the Wild Huntsman.  When poor Max loses a shooting match to the pompous wealthy peasant Kilian (baritone Matthew Walsh) he goes into "testosterone failure", losing his confidence and the right to marry Agathe. 

But wait!  Caspar has the solution.  He promises Max a magic bullet to win the shooting match with the nefarious intention of swapping Max's soul for a few years grace for himself from Samiel.  Although some of the cast will be different tonight, Mr. Smith will be on hand delivering some contrasting arias, a drinking song in the tavern and an aria far more dire.

Agathe has been given blessings and white roses from a Hermit (bass Jonathan Dauermann).  She is morose and fearful about some bad omens and is cheered and comforted by her cousin Ännchen (bright-voiced soprano Sarah Moulton Faux) whose light-hearted arias are in delightful contrast with the anxiety ridden state of Agathe's.  They have a lovely duet together in which their voices blend beautifully.And that is all of the plot we are going to share with you except that there is a Prince Ottokar (baritone Alex Charlie Boyd) who appears in the final scene.

Staging was simple for the most part but the scene in the Wolf's Glen involved some highly imaginative effects and ghostly apparitions.  The music was appositely eerie.

German diction was fine throughout; there was some dialogue spoken in English as well. There were no sets and costumes were minimal, although we did get a kick out of Kilian's authentic lederhosen and the Prince's military garb. With fine musical values, we scarcely missed the trimmings.

What distinguishes Utopia Opera is that it is truly an audience-centric institution.  Productions are chosen by vote!  June 27th and 28th Verdi's Falstaff will be presented and next year's programming comprises Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, a Ravel/Sullivan double bill, and Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos.  Ambitious?  Of course!  We expect nothing less from Utopia Opera in what will be their fourth season. 

© meche kroop