SORCERESS! DRAGONS!

Katherine Doe, Mithuna Sivaraman, Alaina Logee, Mary Kathryn Monday, Rachel Duval, and Joyce Yin

Cantanti Project is one of our favorite boutique opera companies. They just presented Händel's 1713 opera seria Teseo (renamed Teseo:Medea), replete with sorceress, flying dragons, apparitions, potions, spells, and a deus ex machina in the person of Minerva. Nicola Haym's libretto was based on a Lully opera of 1674 which was, in turn, based on a story in Ovid's Metamorphosis. Händel surely had his finger on the pulse of his London audience which thronged to see his earlier Rinaldo (another opera involving sorcery) but gave short shrift to his pastoral opera Il pastor fido. Teseo had a decent run, marred only by technical difficulties, but the opera was forgotten and lay dormant until 1947. We are glad it was resurrected.

As in so many operas of the period, the story is complicated. King Egeo (Mary Kathryn Monday) has been successful at battle and decides that his betrothal to Medea should be replaced by marriage with Agilea (Joyce Yin), his ward. She is in love with Egeo's military commander Teseo (Rachel Duval). Agilea's companion Clizia (Mithuna Sivaraman) is in love with Arcane (Katherine Doe).

The sorceress Medea (Alaina Logee), incensed at being rejected, does her best to spoil everyone's happiness and create mistrust and dissension. It takes the intervention of Minerva to set things right. A poisoning of Teseo by Egeo is thwarted when the King recognizes the warrior as his long-lost son! His sword was the give-away!

Although Händel's instrumental music doesn't light our fire, his operas set us ablaze. Contemporary composers should study a page from his book. He really knew how to write for the voice with the vocal line emphasizing the words, more so in his Italian operas than in his English ones, of course. His arias, as I recall, are fun to sing! There is ample fioritura with almost ostentatious ornamentation which never detracts from his illumination of the character.

Our favorite scene was in Act IV when Medea blackmails the sweet and lovely Agilea to give up Teseo, whom Medea also wants. With tearful aspect Agilea renounces him to save his life. Her singing would melt an iceberg and it melted Medea's rage--but only temporarily. There was still one more act to fill in this unique five act opera--still more reverses and complications!


Musical Director Dylan Sauerwald led the Dorian Baroque Orchestra from the harpsichord. We particularly enjoyed the sound of the baroque oboe; the mournful sound often echoes the vocal line and sometimes "sings" in harmony with it. We sat there for three hours entranced by the glorious singing and playing. Not only are the arias magnificent but the duets thrill the ear.

What did not entrance us was trying to figure out who was whom and what they were singing about. Had we not read a summary beforehand we would have been completely lost. There was no program and no synopsis. There were titles projected off to the side but they could not be read with the stagelights on.

There was no set to speak of and costumes (Alexandria Hoffman) were as basic as one would expect with a minimal budget. We would far prefer the money be spent on musical values! And that we got in spades.  Wonderful singing, wonderful music!

We realize that the female-centric Cantanti Project had an axe to grind about female power; much was written on their website and Facebook page about gender. That is all well and good; we are glad that castration of male singers ended long ago and are happy to see women fulfill the roles. But for our purposes, it is the music making that counts.

(c) meche kroop

CANTAMOS!

Cantanti Project at United Palace of Cultural Arts

One would think that a rainy Monday evening would be a good time to stay home with a good book or "Netflix and chill". Not in our book!  It was the perfect time to spend a couple hours with Cantanti Project, a group we always enjoy. Last night's recital was just about the best evening this wonderful group of artists has scheduled and a real highlight of the season, one we wouldn't have missed for the world.

The program was entirely in Spanish, a language we love for its singability, which rivals that of Italian, and its emphasis on love in all its varied manifestations. The works we heard--some familiar and some new to us--spanned several centuries (from the 17th c. Baroque to the present time) and several genres (opera, art song, zarzuela, folk songs, popular songs). We agree with Steven Blier of New York Festival of Song that no one genre surpasses another. Good songs stand on equal footing no matter what genre they belong to. The songs on last night's program originated in Spain and in the Nuevo Mundo.

The program was like a string of pearls or precious gems; we will not have time or space to cover them all so, dear reader, allow us to focus on the few that made the most intense impression.

Soprano Maria Brea performed "Me llaman la primarosa" from the zarzuela El barbero de Sevilla, a "meta" work about a company producing the Rossini opera. Her lively personality filled out the song and her bright and sizable instrument soared to the upper reaches of the lavish lobby of the United Palace of Cultural Arts, filling the space with overtones. Her flirtatious character shares some qualities with Musetta but is less arrogant. There were vocal fireworks aplenty with trills, swooping scales and prolonged vocalises. We loved the part in which the piano of Principal Music Advisor William Lewis echoed the motif of the vocal part.

Tenor Mario Arévalo possesses a praiseworthy sound, augmented by fine technique and a warm presence that invites you into his sound-world. Although we enjoyed the forceful popular song from his homeland El Salvador, we were most impressed by his romantic delivery of the art song "A ti" composed by Colombian Jaime León. Although it is a product of the 20th c. there is no shortage of melodic movement and Mr. Arévalo invested it with lots of romantic warmth, fullness of tone, dynamic variety, and depth of feeling.

Mezzo-soprano Linda Collazo showed off her strength in the lower register in "La borrachita de amor" a Baroque song by Spaniard Sebastián Durón and her story-telling skills in the tender Ecuadorian folk song "Yaravi", to which she gave a poignant ending.

Yet another Andean folk song, "Triste", arranged by Argentinean Alberto Ginastera, was beautifully interpreted by soprano Marisa Karchin. This is a lament that begins and ends with a vocalise and Ms. Karchin sang it with a lovely vibrato and spun out the ending to a wispy pianissimo.  Magical!

Lyric coloratura soprano Joyce Yin, Artistic Director of Cantanti Project, used her artistry to interpret "El Viaje Definitivo", a meditation on death by 20th c. Puerto Rican composer Ernesto Cordero. She gave a stunning a cappella introduction and finale, accompanied by guitarist George Benton England.

For a taste of humor we enjoyed mezzo-soprano Heather Jones' lively performance of Joaquin Rodrigo's "En Jerez de la Frontera", the tale of a faithful wife who rejects the advances of an importuning suitor. We never knew that the composer of so many beloved works for symphony and guitar also wrote art songs!

We thought we knew all about Pablo Sorozábal's zarzuela La taberna del puerto but we didn't know the song "Despierta Negro", a warning to the black man to watch out for the white man who would enslave him. Bass-baritone Jonathan Z. Harris sang it with clear intent and round deep tone.

There were some stunning duets, of which our favorite was "Niñas que a vender flores" from Francisco Asenjo Barbieri's zarzuela Los diamantes de la corona. Accompanied by Mr. Lewis, the voices of Ms. Karchin and Ms. Collazo blended in perfect harmony.

There were several baroque selections on the program which were accompanied by Dorian Baroque, comprising a pair of violins, harpsichord, cello, and the always impressive theorbo. Maestro Dylan Sauerwald conducted from the harpsichord.

We could go on and on about the other selections but we hope, dear reader, that we have given you a little taste of everything on this lavish musical buffet which had something for everyone's taste.  We hope we have tempted you to join Cantanti Project for some of their future events. We ourself are looking forward to Händel's Teseo coming up in the Spring.

(c) meche kroop

JOY AND MORE JOY IN SINGING

Haodong Wu and Marisa Karchin at Weill Recital Hall

Surely musicians do not have to be beautiful to look at but there's no denying the visual pleasure of seeing two such lovely artists onstage at Weill Recital Hall last night at the Joy in Singing 2018 International Art Song Award Debut Recital.

An interesting factoid is that we reviewed each of them separately in connection with Cantanti Project. Haodong Wu was the pianist for a recital of love songs and Ms. Karchin sang in Händel's Orlando.  How fine it was to see both of them given an entire recital to show their versatility. Their introduction of each set was delightfully presented.

An unusual feature of Ms. Karchin's artistry is that we could understand every word she sang, in spite of the bright coloratura nature of her instrument. There is an appealing aspect to her vibrato as well. She chose her own program and wisely included plenty of material with melismatic passages, at which she excels.

There is nothing reticent about Ms. Wu's collaborative pianism. She didn't drown out the singer but she certainly didn't fade into the background.  The result was a true matching of artistry.

The program opened with two songs by Purcell, one of the few composers who set English in a way that delights our ear. Both "Sweeter than Roses" and "If Music be the Food of Love" offer opportunities for word coloration and the artists availed themselves of the opportunity, whether the word was "sweet" or "warm", "freeze" or "fire".

Six songs from Lili Boulanger's Clairières dans le ciel were performed.  If the French pronunciation left something to be desired (Yes, those nasalities and diphthongs are difficult to master!) at least the Gallic style was mastered, leaving us to hope that Ms. Karchin will get some additional coaching in French. Her cool tone is just perfect for French.  We heard her in the duet from Delibes' Lakme three years ago and thought the same.

This is our week for Turina's music, which we just heard in a concert at Manhattan School of Music. We can never get enough of Spanish song and were happy that the program included Tres poemas from Opus 81. We particularly admired Ms. Wu's playing in "Tu pupila es azul". Again, we loved the melismatic singing. We heard some insecurity in the Castilian and even a touch of Argentinian accent at times--something that should be very easy to correct.

We have no such quibbles with the Russian since that is a language we have not learned. It was a brave move to put four songs by Nikolai Obukhov on the program. This so-called "modernist mystic" wrote dodecaphonic music, including all sorts of weird vocal utterances, that the audience listened to respectfully. 

The final set by Strauss came as a relief and we noted that Obukhov's music will be performed long after Strauss' music has died--but not a moment before! (Insert laugh). In spite of listening with "open ears", we were gritting our teeth halfway through. We will say, however, that the artists gave the songs a committed and expressive performance.

The Strauss left us happy of heart. That man knew how to write for the voice!  His Brentano Lieder appeared after a decade long hiatus from song writing and must have been greeted with as much glee then as we felt last night. The humanity and accessibility of the text is matched by the stunning vocal writing, filled with descending chromatic passages and wide skips.

Here, Ms.Karchin was in her element, bringing every passage to vivid life with her storytelling.  Her artistic choice was to soften the "ch" sound, avoiding its guttural nature; this was fine since it was consistent. We get annoyed when a singer avoids the sound altogether or pronounces it inconsistently. A little brushing up of the umlaut sounds would make her German perfect.

Ms. Karchin's father is a composer and was in the audience to hear her sing his setting of two poems by Seamus Heaney, whose text, which neither rhymed nor scanned, led to a vocal line than was not memorable. We found our ears leaning toward the piano writing which was interesting.

Let us close by pointing out that Joy in Singing, in their sixtieth year, is under new leadership and is expanding its mission. They will now be known as Joy in Singing, The Art Song Institute. Visit www.joyinsinging.org to learn about their outreach in public schools (YAY!), their series Art Song on the Move, their Song Salons in private homes, their master classes and workshops.

(c) meche kroop

FAR AND NEAR (and also DEAR)

Angela Dixon, Aumna Iqbal, Jane Hoffman, William Lewis, Joyce Yin, Mary Kathryn Monday, Brittany Fowler, Rebecca Richardson, and Tara Gruszkiewicz

Last night found us back uptown at the gorgeous United Palace of Cultural Arts for an intimate song recital given by Cantanti Project, of which the lovely Joyce Yin is Artistic Director. To say that the architecture almost eclipsed the singing is to praise the lavish decor, not to diminish the recital, which was quite lovely. 

We have followed Cantanti Project since its inception four years ago and have had the opportunity to hear some of the singers in prior productions. We also welcomed the opportunity to get acquainted with some singers heretofore unknown to us.

There were some very special moments to cherish, chiefly the opportunity to hear American songs that were instantly relatable and sung with clear enunciation so that not a word was lost. Sung without amplification (of course) these songs occupy a place in the canon which they so richly deserve.

Coloratura soprano Joyce Yin offered a stunning rendition of "If I Loved You" from Richard Rodgers' Carousel, showing a wide range of emotions and a delicate decrescendo at the end. A very funny song by Lee Hoiby entitled "The Serpent", from his Songs for Leontyne, allowed her to give full range to her palette of vocal colors and her charming personality.

We also enjoyed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", from Harold Arlen's The Wizard of Oz, which was arranged for two voices by our venerable accompanist/coach for the evening, William Lewis. Ms. Yin was joined by soprano Rebecca Richardson who impressed us with her appealing vibrato in "Chi bel sogno di Doretta" from Puccini's La Rondine.

The versatile Ms. Richardson seasoned "De Ronda" with ample sazon. How could we not have known that Joaquin Rodrigo, composer of Concierto de Aranjuez, also wrote songs! This little gem was marked by a lovely melody and a concise and charming text about reaching for the inaccessible.

There were other duets on the program, to our delight. Inarguably one of every opera lover's favorite duet for female voice--the "Flower Duet" from Léo Delibes' Lakmé--was performed by soprano Jane Hoffman and mezzo soprano Brittany Fowler in perfect harmony.

The "Evening Prayer" from Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel was sung by soprano Angela Dixon and mezzo-soprano Aumna Iqbal. We just reviewed that opera the night before when it was sung in German.  Last night it was sung in English to no great detriment.

We enjoyed the contrast between the colors of two very different mezzo-sopranos in Consuelo Velásquez' famous "Besame Mucho". Mary Kathryn Monday's mezzo is on the lighter side whereas Tara Gruszkiewicz' coloration is significantly darker. We heard a contralto in the making!

Ms. Monday's delivery of the "Seguidilla" from Bizet's Carmen revealed plenty of contempt peeking out from behind the seductive exterior.

Ms. Hoffman introduced us to a composer with whom we are unfamiliar; Eva dell'Acqua's "Villanelle" had exceptionally fine writing for both voice and piano and offered the singer an opportunity to dazzle us with bird song, trills, and a vocalise. 

We were compelled to look up the composer. She is one of those unsung female composers, part Belgian and part Italian. We hope to hear more of her works, perhaps on a program with other largely overlooked female composers like Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach. Ms. Hoffman would seem the perfect singer for such a program since she also performed Ms. Beach's "I send my heart to thee" from Three Browning Songs.

Ms. Fowler performed one of Ms. Mendelssohn's songs, as a matter of fact--"Nachtwanderer" from Sechs Lieder, a lovely piece and well sung in fine German. She also sang clearly in English, Mr. Lewis' arrangement of the folk song"Shenandoah" sung with great depth of feeling.

Ms. Iqbal had no trouble with the low tessitura of "Home" from Alan Menken's Beauty and the Beast, a wonderful song from a show with which we are unfamiliar. She also performed Robert Schumann's "Wanderung" from Zwölf Gedichte.

We are also unfamiliar with Bernstein's Peter Pan but found Ms. Monday's delivery of "Build My House" pure delight. We are so glad for the preview because we are going to Bard next week to review that American musical/opera!

Ms. Gruszkiewicz showed her versatility by performing Aaron Copland's arrangement of the spiritual "At the River" and also one of the songs from Dvorák's Gypsy Songs -- the sentimental "Als die alte Mutter", sung in fine German. 

The entire cast joined forces for "Go the Distance" from Alan Menken's Hercules, another work with which we are unfamiliar.

Everyone went the distance.  Ours consisted of a long ride home on the A train! The excellent show made it all worthwhile.

(c) meche kroop

MAGIC AND MAYHEM

Cantanti Project creating Magic and Mayhem at Shapeshifter Lab

Once again, it is Halloween, our favorite holiday. Several performing groups have used the themes of Halloween to create unusual programs involving death (see yesterday's review of Death and the Maiden by Music Talks) and the supernatural. We wish we could clone ourself and attend them all!

Last night we trekked out to the farthest reaches of Brooklyn (was that the Gowanus Canal?) to share in Cantanti Project's celebration of Magic and Mayhem, which inaugurated the company's fourth season. The venue was the spacious Shapeshifter Lab and the informal nature of the table seating reinforced the values shared by many young companies. Intimacy of performance is paramount.

What struck us the most was the conception and realization of the theme which, we learned, was a collaborative effort. Familiar works, drawn from the worlds of opera, art song, and Broadway, were presented in dramatically novel ways that shed new light on them. At times, a singer was joined by other members of the cast who enacted silent roles.

At Music Talks, we just heard tenor Aaron Blake sing Schubert's lovely lied "Der Tod und das Madchen" in which he colored his voice to create both characters. But last night we heard two singers perform the work--soprano Sangying Li as the Maiden and mezzo-soprano Kirsti Esch as Death. Although the lied is brief, it magically became a dramatic scene.

Similarly, in Brahms "Walpurgisnacht", the queries of the child were sung by soprano Daniela DiPasquale whilst the responses of the mother were sung by soprano Lydia Dahling.

Ms. Dahling has become the source of a new interest for us. She sang a magnificent aria from an opera unknown to us by an equally unknown (to us) composer. The composer Ferenc Erkel was Hungarian and was the father of Hungarian opera. In wonderful 19th c. style, he set dramatic tales to luxurious music.

The aria we heard "Volt a vilagon ket kis madar" (sorry about the missing diacritical marks) is the lament of a woman who goes mad after the trauma of being raped by the Queen's evil younger brother, while her husband and the King are off fighting somewhere. The music has a distinct Magyar flavor and Ms. Dahling was superbly coached.  Not that we understand Hungarian; let's just say it sounded right. There were many changes of mood, all well realized by vocal coloration and acting skills.

We have reviewed mezzo-soprano Emily Hughes before and always enjoy her performances, especially in the title role of La Calisto at Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. Last night, she made a fine Sandman, scattering sleepy-stuff over Hansel and Gretel in a scene from the Humperdinck opera.

She also delighted us with a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Unquiet Grave" in which her fine diction made every word clear. In this scene, the ghost of her lover was visible to us as well as to her, in the person of baritone Frank D. Fainer.

Mr. Fainer was the sole male in the cast and performed a duet from The Phantom of the Opera, with Ms. Li as Christine. This is a show that we had never seen and we were glad to be introduced to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical by such a fine performance.

We were quite taken with the elegant performing style of mezzo-soprano Tara Gruszkiewicz who performed Schubert's "Der Doppelganger" with excellent German and an eerie coloration. We've never heard the lied performed by a woman before but the performance was all the more affecting for being so still and self-contained.

Just the opposite was the highly gestural style of mezzo-soprano Aumna Iqbal in "Crude furie" from Handel's Serse sung by the eponymous Serse. This time, the Furies were real! Ms. Iqbal also performed "The Worst Pies in London" from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. The acting was commendable but, unfortunately, the clever lyrics were not consistently understandable.

It was a generous program, including works by Purcell, Verdi, Wolf, Duparc, Mozart and Mussorgsky. We always love hearing Jezibaba's aria "Cury mury fuk" from Dvorak's Rusalka which was sung by Ms. Esch. For those who are curious, the words are the Czech equivalent of "abracadabra".

Adding to the effectiveness were marvelous masks created by Claire Townsend and the perfect accompaniment provided by pianist Maria Didur. The only time we missed an orchestra was for the Hungarian aria and that was solely because we are curious about a new composer and wondered what his orchestration would sound like.

The projections curated by Laura Mitchell went a long way toward heightening the drama. Translations were occasionally included but, unfortunately, not when they were most needed.

We have just written that Monteverdi's 1609 Orfeo was the first opera but we stand corrected, having learned that Cantanti Project is tackling Caccini's Euridice, which premiered in 1600. We have already put it on our calendar for Feb 23, 2018 and so should you!  The insanely gifted director Brittany Goodwin will guide the cast through the underworld.

Many thanks to Artistic Director Joyce Yin for taking Cantanti Project in so many interesting and novel directions.

(c) meche kroop

LOOKING AT LOVE

Haodong Wu, Mary Rose Go, Rachel Selan, and Jing Yang

Most art songs seem to be about love. The poet writes something meaningful to him/herself; the composer can add another layer by virtue of the type of music she/he composes; the singer adds yet another layer according to the way he/she feels about the song; and finally, the listener brings her/his own experience which cannot help but affect the listening experience.

Last night we heard a "thinking woman's" recital at the National Opera Center, presented by Cantanti Project (the 3-year-old company that presented the highly original Orlando in February--review archived). Although most of the small opera companies about which we write have as their goals presenting opera in new ways for new audiences and providing performance opportunities for singers, each one seems to find its own niche.

Cantanti Project, according to its Artistic Director and Co-Founder Joyce Yin, aims to present recitals which pair two singers, each with her own repertoire, intertwining the two to explore one subject in depth and in a larger context. Singers submit their recital proposals individually. Last night's subject was love; songs about love were viewed through the lens of feminism, in its broadest sense.

The thoughtfulness of each singer was evident, not only in their choice of repertoire and their performance, but also in their eloquent essays which addressed their feelings about love. Coloratura soprano Mary Rose Go organized her program around The Practice of Love. In her essay she addressed the concept of women being conditioned to make love central to their lives. Since men are not socialized in the same manner, it is women who seem to make the sacrifices in marriage, an unequal partnership.

The world of romantic fantasy, obsession, and unhealthy attachment seemed to Ms. Go to ripple through Richard Strauss' Sechs Lieder, Op. 68. The answer to this unhealthy anxiety seems to be self-knowledge, reality and faith. These thoughts stayed in our mind as we listened to the six songs and we heard them in a new way.

Of course, there is nothing that delights us as much as "Amor" and Ms. Go's lively coloratura and expressiveness brought that blind rascal child right into the room! Haodong Wu's piano joined forces with Ms. Go to create a marvelous portrait.

The offering that she chose to close the program was the optimistic "Morgen", a great choice. But that was followed with Amy Beach's "Ah! Love but a day" which expresses the fear of love's fickle nature. We wish they had been performed the other way around.

Mezzo-soprano Rachel Selan chose as her topic Lost Love. As many times as we have heard Claude Debussy's Les Chansons de Bilitis, we never tire of it and always hear something new. It took a few hearings for us to realize that the three songs in the cycle describe three phases of love, all happening to the same woman. The innocence of "La Flute de Pan" and the sensuality of "La Chevelure" delight us; the last song "Le Tombeau des Naiades" always makes us sad about the decay of romance. Ms. Selan made clear the indifference of the man and the disappointment of the woman.

Jing Yang was her splendid collaborative pianist who had just the right touch for Debussy.

Ms. Selan also performed one of our favorite cycles, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; we cannot recall a woman performing this in recital although there are probably some recordings by women. The poet despairs over a lost love and tries to find consolation in nature. The melodies are aching and the harmonies disturbing.  We loved it.

We did not love Libby Larsen's Love after 1950. That period seems more remote than the 19th c.! Somehow we cannot relate to depilatory cream, razors, and bristly hair curlers as subjects for art song. It was funny to have a sort of rock and roll piano accompaniment to the song "Big Sister Says" but it sounded like anything but an art song. Ms. Larsen's particular experience did not generalize into something to which we could relate.

How interesting that neither singer thought of Schumann's Frauenliebe und leben.

That being said, it was good to have two women composers on the program!

(c) meche kroop

JUST LIKE CHAMPAGNE

Kimberly Hann and Kristen Kemp

Vocal music is like champagne, you can have too much but you can never have enough.  This is what we thought whilst heading downtown for Kimberly Hann's graduation recital at Mannes just after attending a satisfying recital at the Morgan Library. Is this greed and gluttony? Was it time to show Mannes School of Music some love? Or was it the memory of Ms. Hann's outstanding performance with Cantanti Project as the warrior Orlando, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to Handel's beautiful music.

Ms. Hann calls herself a Contralto/Mezzo. She has the low notes but, as you can see in our photo, she is far too beautiful to portray witches and sorceresses, and way to feminine for trouser roles. We will just have to wait and see!  Perhaps someday, someone will write an opera for her unique assets. 

The program lasted only an hour but revealed a well rounded artist who has worked hard to earn her Master of Music degree. She began with two arias by Handel which expressed a great deal of feeling. From Alcina, she sang "E gelosia, forza e d'amore"; in this Act I aria, Bradamante comes to the sorceress' island to find her lover besotted by Alcina.  She expresses her jealous rage in vocal fireworks from the top of her register to the bottom.  Quite an opener, and very well handled by the gifted Ms. Hann.

In the challenging "Cielo! Se tu il consenti" from Orlando (an aria we heard her sing before), the warrior's jealousy is not only murderous but suicidal. Ms. Hann conveyed all the madness of the character. Handel is perfect for her voice and she attacked the fioritura with as much artistry as enthusiasm.

A total change allowed the audience to relax from all that intense excitement. Four melodic songs by Brahms elicited different moods. "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer" takes us right to death's door with a dying woman begging her lover to come quickly. The last song "Von ewiger Liebe" is a real charmer and clearly Ms. Hann understands what she is singing about. Although we heard a slight alteration of color from the man's trepidation to the woman's reassurance, we would like to hear just a little more variety.

Tchaikovsky's songs are always welcome even though we do not understand Russian.  This is OK as long as the singer understands and communicates. This was beautifully conveyed in "Reconciliation". We loved the phrase "And try not to remember in winter How you picked the roses in spring!"

"None but the lonely heart" is yet another setting of Goethe's text "Nur wer die sehnsucht kennt" which we would not have translated as lonely.  It comprises yearning, longing, and anxiety. We would like to offer a prize to a reader who can name all of the composers who set this wonderful text. Someday we would like to hear all the settings on the same program.

Especially lovely was Ms. Hann's performance of the first four songs of Hector Berlioz' Les nuits d'ete. These gave Ms. Hann the opportunity to express a variety of moods and colors from the lighthearted "Villanelle" to the "liebestod" experienced by the rose in "Le spectre de la rose". The darker color of "Sur les lagunes" matched the sorrow of death and the teasing good humor of "L'ile inconnue" involves a man who promises a woman abundant fantasy until she lets him know what she really wants--fidelity.

It was a most satisfying recital and presages a fine future for this lovely young artist. We were glad we went.

Collaborative pianist was Kristen Kemp.

(c) meche kroop

ORLANDO GONE BONKERS

Carolyn DalMonte, Allison Gish, Marisa Karchin, Joyce Yin, Kimberly Hann, Kirsti Esch, and  Sara Lin Yoder

Nothing gladdens our heart more than seeing a "Sold Out" sign at the opera. No, opera is not dying in NYC, but it is taking new forms. Last night we were privileged to join Cantanti Project's production of Handel's Orlando. The libretto for this opera was adapted from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, an epic poem that provided Handel with material for two other operas, Alcina and Ariodante, all marked by complicated plots. Orlando is a fellow who just can't stay out of trouble.

Director Brittany Goodwin thought seriously about the silly plot and came up with an interpretation that worked just fine. Obviously a lot of teamwork went into this tight ensemble piece and it worked well. With astute understanding that this tale is one of delusion and obsession, she has placed the action in the psychiatric ward of a mental hospital with the magician Zoroastro transformed into a psychiatrist. We are not sure whether the creative team was aware of the 2007 Zurich production which was also set in a mental ward following the first World War. Making sense of all the love triangles would challenge an expert in geometry.

The contemporary aspect of the tragic aftermath of combat added to the value of the interpretation. The long history of the joys and pains of loving and losing love, the jealousy, the rejection, the lies and betrayals have all been fodder for the theater since its birth. PTSD would make a person more than usually vulnerable to all that. Truth to tell, this concept would probably not have been welcomed at The Metropolitan Opera. Every time we have seen a director's imagination run wild on a Handel work, we have been unhappy, since the dialogue generally seemed to have been shoehorned into the setting.

But Ms. Goodwin's concept worked well on the small stage at the National Opera Center and a number of creative choices by Set Designer Johanna Asgeirsdottir added to the success. The opening scene takes place with poor Orlando lying on a stretcher requiring sedation from the medical staff. A cabinet of pharmaceuticals was there to make things plain.

More action takes place in the art therapy room where there is an easel and paints and a scroll of paper on which trees and carvings could be drawn. There are three other patients who portray the characters troubling Orlando's mind--Dorinda the shepherdess whose wrist-cutting scars have been covered up by sock puppets, Angelica the Princess of Cathay who sports a crown apparently made from drinking straws, and her lover Medoro. 

The fact that all the parts were sung by women put the work in a different light, so to speak. Pronouns in the score occasionally underwent a gender switch. The psychiatrist (Zoroastro) is a role generally sung by a bass but Kirsti Esch's mezzo (to our ears, a contralto) managed the low tessitura just fine but exhibited enough flexibility for the fioritura. Her "Sorge infausta una procella" was a highlight of the evening as she restored Orlando to sanity.

Orlando's femininity in the person of the beautiful mezzo Kimberly Hann was no problem since female military personnel can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder just as badly as men. Ms. Hahn was as impressive vocally as she was dramatically; she managed to generate sympathy for her distress as she interacted with Angelica who rejected her for the Prince Medoro. We loved her "Fammi combattere", in which she tries to convince Angelica of her love.

The role of Angelica was beautifully sung by soprano Marisa Karchin with impressively bright tone and facility with the embellishments. In "Se fedel vuoi ch’io ti creda" she convincingly pretends to be jealous of Orlando's interest in Isabella, a character he has rescued but who doesn't appear.  

As Dorinda, we heard soprano Joyce Yin herself. (She, along with Laura Mitchell and Sam Fujii, founded Cantanti Project three years ago.) Her character gets a lot of gorgeous arias, our favorite of which was the arioso "Quando spieghi tuoi tormenti" in which she bids farewell to her sylvan home, including the nightingales, like which she sounded. She also has a number of humorous bits such as covering her ears when the orchestra tunes up. 

Dorinda is in love with Medoro who is (of course) in love with Angelica. The role of Medoro was sung by Allison Gish and not as a pants role. In this version, there is lots of lesbian love in the psych ward! Medoro gets some great arias as well, our favorite of which was "Verdi allori".

Another highlight of the vocal score was the trio in which the lovers Angelica and Medoro try to console Dorinda, "Consolati o bella". One is reminded of the gorgeous blending of three female voices in the finale of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

As far as the instrumental score, Maestro Dylan Sauerwald led his musicians in a spirited reading of the gorgeous score which seems to have been judiciously cut. From the harpsichord he conducted the Dorian Baroque Orchestra, comprising a string quartet for this performance. Marina Fragoulis and Edson Scheid played the violins, Edmundo Ramirez, the viola, and Margalit Cantor, the cello. 

There will be one more performance on March 5th at 7:30 at Shetler Studios with some of the same excellent cast, and some other fine singers, accompanied by William Lewis at the piano. We recommend it highly, especially to those who find Handel's plots ridiculous and the performances too lengthy. This adaptation lasts but 2 1/2 hours and is high in entertainment value as well as musical value. No wonder it sold out!

(c) meche kroop