HAIL CÉSAR!

César Delgado

How many wonderful Mexican tenors can you name? Although Placido Domingo was born in Madrid, he was vocally trained in Mexico. Rolando Villazon's debut sent an earthquake through the opera world.  Javier Camarena actually had an encore in La Cenerentola last year at the Metropolitan Opera, a very rare event.  Could César Delgado be the next big discovery? After hearing his recital at Mannes this afternoon, celebrating his being awarded a Professional Artists Diploma, we consider him a strong front-runner.

We first heard Mr. Delgado at the Hispanic Society of America some months ago (review archived) and couldn't wait to hear him again. They must have some excellent training in Mexico; Mr. Delgado received his Artists Diploma from the Sinaloa Opera Program. 

 

He opened this afternoon's program with Tata Nacho's "Intima" and one could tell immediately that his instrument is an impressive one.  It filled the hall where a lesser voice might not have cut through Alla Milchtein's enthusiastic accompaniment on the piano. "Despedida" by Maria Grever followed and it became evident that Mr. Delgado knows how to express Latin passion. We feared we would overdose on romance.

"Mario's Farewell" from Daniel Catán's last opera Il Postino, made famous by Placido Domingo, was given a winning and moving performance. The Mexican section ended with "Dime que sì" by Esparza Otero. Mr. Delgado can end a song in a burst of passion or with a delicate diminuendo.

The second half of the program showed what Mr. Delgado could do in other languages and rest assured there was no loss of involvement in the material. In charmingly accented English, he expressed exactly what one would have wishes from Tony's aria "Maria" from Bernstein's West Side Story.

Rachmaninoff's "Spring Waters" clearly showed how Russian passion and Spanish passion are akin to one another. Lehar's "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" from Das Land des Lächelns showed good facility with German.  "Questa o Quella" from Verdi's Rigoletto gave Mr. Delgado an opportunity to change from a tender romantic to an arrogant Duke; he succeeded admirably.

The closing number, the familiar "No puede ser" from Sorozabal's La Tabernera del Puerto came at just the moment when we were thinking about zarzuela. We can never get enough vocal music in the Spanish language. We have been hearing it on programs more and more recently. Our fondest dream would be to see a complete zarzuela performed. Is anyone listening?

A sincerely wished-for encore delighted us no end--Agustin Lara's "Granada", calling forth our memories of having visited the Alhambra. Good music will do that to you!

Mr. Delgado is off to Italy where he will sing the role of Nemorino. We don't doubt that he can lay aside his confident manner to portray the shy hero. We wish we could be there to witness.

(c) meche kroop

HOW TO FILL THE EMPTY CHURCHES

Renate Rohlfing and Julia Bullock

It was excessively warm and close inside of St. Michaels's Church on the Upper West Side where Carnegie Hall offered one of its neighborhood concerts yesterday. Nonetheless, the church was packed with worshippers--music worshippers!  Even the priest noticed that the church had never been that full.

The air was still.  The worshippers were still. No one dared risk missing a single note of what amounted to a devout performance. Soprano Julia Bullock is nothing if not devout in her commitment to vocal artistry. It is not just the superlative soprano instrument but the fact that she serves the music and text equally, while serving up her soul from deep within.  Every song is filtered through her personalized nature and made her own. Do we sound like a fan? We are in good company. There are so many of us.

Accompanied by the gentle hands of collaborative pianist Renate Rohlfing, Ms. Bullock began her program with a startling work by John Cage on prepared piano entitled "She is Asleep". The vocal sounds and the piano sounds were novel--meaningless syllables, something sounding like bird calls, all expressed with variety of color and dynamics. Who else could have sung this?

The pair of artists then shifted from this 1943 work to a 1960 cycle by Francis Poulenc entitled La courte paille, setting of texts by Maurice Carême, composed toward the end of Poulenc's life. We are not sure why the title "the short straw" was chosen. The songs refer to childhood--a tender lullaby entitled "Le sommeil", some fantasies "Quelle aventure!" and "Le carafon" (our personal favorite), and a few surrealistic pieces. All were performed with a depth of understanding that was communicated successfully to the audience.

Modest Mussorgsky's The Nursery always delights us. A good performance of these songs requires that the singer draw forth images of childhood innocence and curiosity; this, Ms. Bullock accomplished completely. Even her appearance was transformed and one could easily picture her as the child relating to her nanny, her fear of the bogeyman, her wish to hear good stories, her saying her prayers, her request for her mother's sympathy. We sat transfixed.

Songs by Samuel Barber followed with the strange "My Lizard", the accessible "The Daisies" and "Nuvoletta" from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake which seemed to be a tale of suicide obscured by wordplay. As the character leans over the "bannistars", Ms. Bullock leaned over the strings of the piano. We felt a chill.

Richard Strauss' Drei Lieder der Ophelia were movingly sung and Ms. Bullock seguéd directly into the fine spiritual Harry T. Burleigh's "Deep River" and closed with Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free".

As encore, we heard "La Conga Blicoti", popularized by Josephine Baker. It was a generous performance by a most generous artist and her fine accompanist.  Bravissime!

(c) meche kroop

ON WITH OFFENBACH

Byron Singleton and Anna Farysej

Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman is one of our favorite French operas--loved for its three very different heroines and for the role of the Muse, even though Hoffman is the main character and has the largest part.

Vocal Productions NYC, in what we believe to be their fourth season, has given New York City two weekends of this gripping work and has put their own stamp on it, as most companies do, since the work has many versions.  We cannot recall seeing any two productions that rendered it in the same manner. This production followed the order of acts designated by Offenbach but avoided Offenbach's intention to have the three loves portrayed by the same singer. We were happy about this because we had the opportunity to hear three different sopranos do what they did best.

Much of the credit goes to Conductor Jason C. Tramm and his magic baton, bringing out aspects of the orchestration that we never noticed before.  We would be surprised if he did not interpolate some rarely performed music.  At least we heard it anew and with great freshness. Solos were particularly excellent, especially that of the clarinet. Francisco Miranda, Artistic Coordinator and Associate Conductor, was at the piano. The theater at Washington Irving High School has a marvelous period feel but no orchestra pit. The downside was that several voices failed to sail above or through the orchestral output.

More credit goes to Director Kevin Courtemanche who did much with little resources by virtue of a keen imagination. He brought the action into vaguely contemporary times without doing any damage to the story. We still have writers who ruin their lives with drink and ill-advised love affairs. They still have companions who act as muses, trying to get them to focus on their art. And they still have nemeses who always turn up to spoil their fun.

The most impressive performances were those of the sopranos creating the roles of Hoffman's three loves. Anna Farysej gave a stunning portrayal of Antonia, the doomed singer under the "care" of the evil Dr. Miracle. Not only did she excel vocally in her introductory aria "Elle a fuit, la tourterelle", but also in her duet with Hoffman. We have written about Ms. Farysej for a few years now and have enjoyed watching her growth as an artist. When she sang of the fragility of the rose, one understood through her dramatic artistry and vocal coloring, that Antonia was aware of her own fragility. It was a memorable performance and should lead to future performances with other companies, or so we hope.

Soprano Monica Pasquini created an equally memorable Olympia. Director Courtemanche created a scene out of Bride of Frankenstein in which, sporting a scary black and white wig, red minidress and red boots she wiggled and bopped around the stage until ready to pass out. Dr. Spalanzani (Jared Goldstein) revived her with cardiac paddles emitting clouds of smoke. Theatrics aside, Ms. Pasquini's coloratura was right on the mark and served the character well in "Les oiseaux dans la charmille".

Soprano Su-Ling Huang seemed a counter-intuitive choice for Giulietta inasmuch as her tiny frame would never have convinced as a famous 19th c. courtesan but did just fine as the hostess of this strange costume party dressed like Anna May Wong. Again, the voice worked well for the part.  The duet barcarolle "Belle Nuit" was lovely except that Emma Lavandier did not project over the orchestra, a pity because her acting was excellent. This deficiency marred a performance that was dramatically believable. Only the top of her register rang out. The middle and lower parts got lost.

Tenor Byron Singleton sang the punishing role of Hoffman with distinction but would have profited by better costuming and a wig. How odd that costumer Sangying Li exhibited such creativity with the other characters but put Mr. Singleton in a suit, tie and trench coat. It was difficult to think of him as a troubled poet! 

There was no problem believing the booming voiced bass Claudio Mascharenas as the collective nemeses Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle, and Dappertutto. His large frame and imposing posture served him well and the threat was palpable. He made ample use of vocal coloring and varied between intensely dramatic gesture and stolid menace.

Excellent in several roles (Cochenille, Pittichinaccio, and Andreas) was Sam Varhan who lent a note of comic relief as Franz, the deaf servant of Antonia's father Crespel (Bill Atkinson, who also serves as Chorus Director). The chorus was fine musically but required crisper diction.

Mairi Mason appeared briefly as Stella, the opera singer who represents the embodiment of all Hoffman desires. Antonia's mother, as conjured by Dr. Miracle, was performed by Zhanka Melnechuk whose voice also failed to cut through the orchestra. Gene Howard had the role of tavernkeeper Luther and Victor Chapman sang Hermann and Schlemil.

The simple set is credited to Kent Gasser with special mention of the gondola in which Giulietta departs. Effective lighting by Serena Wong provided variety. We were sorry that Antigoni Gaitana's excellent supertitles were only intermittently legible, varying with the lighting of the set.

(c) meche kroop

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Talise Trevigne and Sophie Junker (photo by Louis Forget)

There is nothing secret about our affection for Opera Lafayette and our excitement when they come up from Washington D.C., always bringing a delicious confection for our delectation.  Founded twenty years ago by Conductor and Artistic Director Ryan Brown, this highly regarded ensemble of period instrumentalists specializes in neglected French masterpieces of the pre-classical and classical period.

Last night, comfortably ensconced in the Florence Gould Hall of the French Institute Alliance Française, we totally forgot that we were in New York City in the 21st c.  We were transported to the newly born 19th c. in New Orleans (a time and place of which we are inordinately fond, as regular readers will recall). We are surrounded not by New York opera lovers but by a tri-cultural audience eager for the latest import from France, particularly from l’opéra comique. The pieces were closer to our present day musical theater than they were to opera which generally comprised tragédie lyrique, telling of gods, goddesses and heroes. These confections focused on the "common folk".

André Grétry was one of the musical superstars of the age and his L’Épreuve Villageoise premiered in Versailles in 1784 as a more serious work under a different title. Queen Marie-Antoinette, known to play at the simple country life herself, shared with the attendant aristocracy a lack of interest in the noble characters, preferring the subplot which was written for comic relief.  Thus, the romantic intrigues of the rustic characters were extracted, retitled, and performed regularly in France and then exported all over the world with a new title. These light-hearted works of the period had small casts and simple sets with spoken dialogue that was easy to translate. Thus they became, with the help of the Marquis de Lafayette, representative of French culture worldwide.

This point was made during the overture as the gaily costumed characters manipulated the three curtains on which were painted a small house, a large plantation, and a shaded glen. Placards in several languages announcing the work were exchanged several times with the ultimate one announcing the work as being performed at the St. Pierre theater in New Orleans. One got the impression of a traveling team of vaudevillians.

The story is a simple one. Young Denise (Pascale Beaudin) is being courted by two men—the farmer André (tenor Francisco Fernández) whom she loves but whose jealousy has troubled her, and Monsieur La France (baritone Thomas Dolié), the pompous overseer of a plantation who had previously courted her mother Madame Hubert (mezzo-soprano Talise Trevigne). Mother and daughter collaborate to teach both men a lesson.

The vocal lines and text (by Pierre Desforges) set Monsieur La France apart in both style and content from the three “peasants” who sang more simply. Although the solos were wonderful we were most interested in the blending of voices in the trios and quartets. The dance numbers were colorful and captivating, as choreographed by Aaron R. White, whose own dancing was nimble and brilliant.  Kendra Rai’s costume design was perfect—a kind of glorified representation of plantation workers. Slavery was never indicated!

Nick Olcott’s direction kept things moving and motivated, effectively using the cutouts in the hanging curtains (set design by Luciana Stecconi) for characters to spy on one another. The sextet of choristers added greatly to the proceedings—not just vocally but choreographically. 

The period instrument orchestra astonished us with their virtuosity. The strings were sweet with Claire Jolivet as Concertmaster. We loved the sound of the valveless horns, as well as the period oboes and flutes. Andrew Appel sounded just fine on the harpsichord.

What fun it was to pretend we were in the “there and then” instead of the “here and now”!

© meche kroop

CHILLS AND THRILLS AT CARNEGIE HALL

Önay Köse, James Edgar Knight, Joshua Gersen, Avery Amereau, and Raquel González

As if Beethoven's Ninth Symphony were not sufficiently thrilling, we got to witness the Carnegie Hall debuts of four of our favorite Juilliard graduates who took on the roles of soloists in the famous fourth movement--The Ode to Joy.  What a joyful afternoon it was for performers, audience, and for us. 

In the lyrical third movement (Adagio molto e cantabile) a rising fanfare announces the excitement to come. The impressive New York Youth Symphony, which has been performing for over a half century, showed particular strength in the lower strings with dynamic control and clarity of attack.

And then bass Önay Köse took over the bass solo with his booming voice and majestic phrasing. An emotionally penetrating sound was achieved by tenor James Edgar Knight.  The voices of mezzo-soprano Avery Amereau and soprano Raquel González literally sailed over the orchestra.

The New York Choral Society, under the direction of David Hayes, handled the rest with crisp diction and a warm sound perfectly suited to the inspiring text. The entire affair was conducted by Joshua Gerson who was far more intense in his conducting than in a prior work.  It was as if the majesty of the music brought out the best in everyone.  Even the unruly horns were on their best behavior.

This was our second Beethoven symphony this week and we never fail to appreciate the master's sense of structure and inventiveness, not to mention the unity of the movements achieved by motifs running throughout. In this piece however, we always feel as if we are at a splendid meal but somehow aware of the dessert to come--the sweetness of brotherhood and the mood of rejoicing.

The curtain raiser was Rossini's Overture to La Gazza Ladra in which the energetic young conductor Harrison Hollingsworth created quite a riveting figure on the podium with his flowing blond locks and athletic body. The young musicians responded well to his intense style.  A drumroll paved the way for a theme in march rhythm with those unruly horns cracking left and right. Following on its heels a familiar theme in the strings that is quintessential Rossini. A spritely way to begin the afternoon!

The remainder of the first half of the program comprised the première of an interesting piece by the young Molly Joyce entitled Fresh, which was commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony's First Music program.  It stood very well on its own merits except for needing more of a climax. Ms. Joyce wrote in the program that she aimed to have the orchestra take over the rhythm of the percussion section.  This, sadly, we did not hear but that is a small matter since the piece spoke for itself of a budding compositional talent. What we did like was the portentous nature of the theme in the drums and lower strings. 

It was a pleasure not only to see our much admired singers onstage but to hear the fine accomplishments of the New York Youth Symphony. The organization is nationally recognized for orchestral training, conducting, chamber music, jazz and composition--all tuition-free, made possible by scholarships on merit-based auditions. Talented teens need apply.

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ALAN GILBERT CONDUCTS JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA

Alan Gilbert conducting Juilliard Orchestra (photo by Chris Lee)

Maestro Alan Gilbert has been music director of the New York Philharmonic for the past six years and also serves as director of conducting and orchestral studies at The Juilliard School. If we had a private moment with him we would love to ask him whether the musicians of the former could deliver a better performance than the Juilliard Orchestra did last night.  We doubt it. We are not sure what percentage of the musicians are graduating but it’s certain that this particular group will never play together again and this may have been responsible for the intensity and excitement of their performance.

Mr. Gilbert is an uncommonly lively conductor, using not just his hands, not just his upper body, but his entire body, making the performance a dance-like event.  We got The Full Monty!  This total involvement served to bring out the best in his young musicians and we think any orchestra in the world would be fortunate to have a Juilliard graduate as a member.

The program was well chosen—Richard Strauss’ 1888 tone poem Don Juan and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony which premiered in 1813. Both works delight our 19th c. ears and we found ourselves wondering why contemporary symphonic music is so unlistenable. Until a composer comes along who can engage us we will just be obliged to stick to the masters. And what masters they were!

Composers of lieder found poetry that they liked and supported it, amplified it and explored it through the means of voice and piano, with another instrument occasionally thrown into the mix. The text seems to float on the surface of the music. Composers of symphonic tone poems also used literary devices but more as inspiration.  Strauss was inspired by the Nikolaus Lenau version of the Don Juan tale in which the hero is more of a romantic dreamer than an entitled rogue.  He supposedly was searching for his romantic ideal—a woman who embodied all women, an überfrau, if you will.

Perhaps we were not able to hear all this in the work but what we did hear was thrilling—the rousing opening theme followed by a more lyric one introduced by the compelling concertmaster Simon Michal. There was a frisky theme and a somber one, with brass fanfares interrupting periodically. The ending did suggest the death of the Don, announced by strings and kettle drum. One could certainly hear the fading heartbeat.

In the Beethoven, the first movement was introduced by rising scale passages and octave skips. The themes were clearly laid out in classical fashion and the carefully worked out development section revealed the master’s genius. When he dips into the minor key it is wrenching. We have heard so-called musical experts claim that Beethoven was not a good melodist but relied solely on rhythm. We disagree. The melodies of this work are memorable and hummable. The part with which we do agree is that Beethoven used rhythm most effectively with phrases crisply articulated.

The second movement appeared to belong to the strings with the lower strings introducing a somber theme which was picked up and expanded by the violins.  The theme was developed with endless inventiveness and intricacy.  Not one note or phrase of this was missed by Maestro Gilbert and the Juilliard Orchestra. As we heard in the development section of the first movement, there were compelling contributions from the winds.

The energetic third movement leaned heavily on rhythm as the theme bounced around from one section of the orchestra to the other. The excitement was palpable. The final movement gave conductor and musicians alike a real workout. The entire symphony pulses with life and enjoys a unity that many symphonies do not. 

The program notes indicate that Beethoven contributed this work to a concert to benefit troops wounded in the Battle of Hanau, fought to prevent Napoleon’s retreat back to France after his ill-advised land grabs. Actually, the Austro-Bavarian corps lost the battle which is immortalized in Horace Vernet’s painting held at the National Gallery of London. War is an ill wind that blows some good when it inspires art and music.

© meche kroop

UNDER MS. HORNE'S WING

Michelle Bradley and Michael Gaertner

As part of Opera America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners of 2014 presented a recital at the National Opera Center. Ms. Horne and the Music Academy of the West foster young artists with high potential and soprano Michelle Bradley and collaborative pianist Michael Gaertner certainly demonstrated high potential last night. This was the final stop on a tour that these two artists were awarded along with cash prizes.

Ms. Bradley's voice somehow made us think of a sunflower--a sturdy stem with a huge bloom on the top. She is one of those singers employing an economy of gesture with much of her expressiveness showing mainly in her face. The most remarkable thing about her recital was her perfect English diction. We grow weary of complaining about otherwise fine singers whose English leaves us wondering what in the world they were singing about.  Not so here!

Toward the end of the recital, this talented duo performed a cycle previously unknown to us--Five Songs of Laurence Hope.  This is a pseudonym for Adela Florence Nicolson whose text was set by H.T. Burleigh. The poetry was exotic and interesting and Mr. Burleigh's music quite lovely. The voice and piano were equally fine and we particularly noted the exoticism in the piano. Mr. Gaertner is a fine collaborative artist--the kind that breathes with the singer, attentive and supportive. His presence is however suitably authoritative.  He commands the piano.

The sincerity of the spirituals which followed--"Give Me Jesus" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"-- was unmistakable and clearly the audience was touched by Ms. Bradley's communicative skills. Even more astonishing was her comfort while sitting at the piano accompanying herself in a work she wrote entitled "Trust".

Ms.Bradley has an ample voice, perhaps heading into the dramatic soprano fach. How well she negotiated the highs and lows of "Vissi d'Arte" from Puccini's Tosca.  And how we wished for some dynamic variety! 

This was true to a lesser extent in the difficult concert aria with which she began the program--Beethoven's "Ah! Perfido", which we had just heard Sunday. The woman singing the aria has been dumped by her lover and she is alternatively furious, imploring and pitiable. We heard a nice blend of chest and head voice on the low notes and an impressive flight of scales at the end. But we longed for more variety of color and dynamics.  We are sure this will develop in time.

A set of French songs followed and we didn't find them to be the best choice for the singer at this stage of her development. For one thing, the diction was wanting and so was the phrasing and Gallic style. Clearly the songs were learned phonetically.  In Fauré's "Notre amour", she lightened up somewhat to good advantage but variety of color in the description of love by Armand Silvestre begged for some distinction between "chose légère", "chose charmante", "chose sacrée", "chose infinie", and "chose éternelle".  A singer could have a field day coloring each verse!

Mr. Gaertner's piano was particularly fine in the arpeggios of Bachelet's "Chère nuit".

We found similar flaws of diction and phrasing in a set of Strauss songs. As many American singers do, Ms. Bradley cannot pronounce the "ch" sound.  We didn't hear it at all or we heard something like "ish". This could easily be corrected.

We did like the way she became more gentle in "Freundliche Vision" allowing some more expressiveness to come into the voice and we liked the change of color in "Cäcilie" when the middle verse of Heinrich Hart's text describes the dread of lonely nights. So what we are looking for is not out of her reach.

Hers is a large instrument and perhaps it will take considerable training to bring it under dynamic control and to produce more colors. We think it will be worth the work or we would not have coaxed ourselves into identifying the shortcomings.

(c) meche kroop