NINETEEN YEARS OF CAREER BRIDGES

 Honoree Adam Guettel and 2023 Award Rccipients

Career Bridges has been providing assistance to young opera singers for 19 years, far longer than we have been writing about them. Career Bridges provides mentoring, support, and performance opportunities to singers at the early stages of their careers, assistance lasting for three years, bridging the period between education and professional life.  Co-Founders David Schuyler Bender and his lovely wife Barbara Meister Bender are unique in being a beautiful "power couple" who are busy putting good into the world. Their goals are consonant with our own and we are proud and pleased to spread the word.

Tuesday night we were thrilled to be in attendance at this year's gala, held at 

The Metropolitan Club. Guests comprised not only luminaries of the opera world, donors who fund the program, and a number of voice students who no doubt hope to have Career Bridges' help in their future.

Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award was Joan Dornemann, famed vocal coach and Artistic Director of The International Vocal Arts Institute (of which we are a great fan). Many of us know her from her work at The Metropolitan Opera. We recall first meeting her as she conducted a coaching of Olga Makarina for her role as Mimi. Hearing her speak about getting her start as a prompter was most engaging.

Honored with a Distinguished Achievement Award was composer/lyricist/teacher Adam Guettel whose 2005 musical Light in the Piazza has remained in our memory. His projects are many and eagerly anticipated.

The young singers, accompanied by Musical Director Ted Taylor, were of uniformly high quality. Strangely there was only one male but we will put the ladies first. Let's begin with the sopranos, of which there were eight. They were all excellent in the same way--polished performers whose vocal technique was notable. If some of them sounded too much like each other, they will soon develop their own individual colors. That's what advanced training accomplishes.

Natalia Gonzalez-Santaliz performed "Chacun le sait" from Donizetti's La fille du regiment with a bright perky sound,  making a fine Marie. Seongeun Park made a lovely Nanetta, impressing us with her trill in "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio" from Verdi's Falstaff. Abigail Raiford exhibited the requisite bell-like tones in "Ou va la jeune Hindoue" from Delibes' Lakmé. We enjoyed the precision in  the affecting upper register of the devilishly difficult "O zittre nicht" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, performed by Kira Kaplan.

Other sopranos chose arias that showed off voices with a bit more heft. We are not familiar with Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar' Bride but Hana Lobel-Torres sang the aria "Ivan Gergeitch" with an interesting vibrato and texture. The same could be said for Kristin Gillis' performance of "Glück, das mir verblieb" from Korngold's Die tote Stadt, which she made her own. 

The huge but flexible soprano of Marieke de Koker was just right for "Tacea la notte placida" from Verdi's Il Trovatore. This stunning performance was a bonus and not in the program. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.

We also liked the mezzo-sopranos and their choice of material. Maggie Renée gave a highly dramatic performance of the witch's aria from Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, calling to mind Jamie Barton's Jezibaba in Dvorak's Russalka. (It's so much fun to perform evil characters!)  Junyue Gong's Carmen benefitted from good pacing and a sense of time and place in the "Seguidilla". "O ma lyre immortelle" from Gounod's Sapho was sung with deep feeling by Chelsea Laggan. Tackling some Wagner was Shanley Horvitz, singing "Geliebter! Komm' sieh' dort die Grotte" from Tannhaüser. We liked her German and the seductive quality.

Our sole male voice belonged to baritone Kevin Godinez who gave Ford's aria "È sogno? O realtà" from Falstaff an excellent reading. The evening ended with Mr. Godinez leading the ensemble in a rousing performance of  "The Impossible Dream" from Leigh's Man of La Mancha. This choice was rather ironic since it seems to us that the night' young artists have possible dreams, made possible by Career Bridges.

Let us not forget to share one final performance--that of Meghan Picerno who sang one of our favorite arias--"Glitter and Be Gay" from Bernstein's Candide, a marvelous work that has been fought over by both Broadway camp and opera camp. We call it an opera.

© meche kroop

NYOE GETS LUCIA RIGHT

Adam Fieldson, John Viscardi, Sarah Beckham-Turner, Alden Gatt, Joseph Michael Brent and Antoine Hodge

Lucia di Lammermoor is a sensational opera.  Onto Salvadore Cammarano's libretto, Gaetano Donizetti lavished endlessly glorious melodies.  It is so precious to us that we doubly value a company that does it justice and would malign one that trivializes it in any way.  We are delighted to report that New York Opera Exchange has gotten it right and if you are fortunate enough to snag one of the few remaining tickets for today's matinee, you will probably send us flowers or chocolate in gratitude for the tip.

The success of the opera rests heavily on the shoulders of the eponymous tragic heroine whose mad scene is one of the finest in all operadom.  Last night, soprano Sarah Beckham-Turner tore into the demanding coloratura of the scena with wild abandon.  She was completely convincing as a fragile creature completely unhinged by the machinations and manipulations of her politically desperate brother.  Her gown spattered with blood and her hair undone, she immersed herself totally in the role. Every gesture and flight of fioritura was spot on. Who could ask for anything more! This young woman will surely go places in the opera world.

As said conniving brother, baritone John Viscardi was superb. His recent switch of fach from tenor to lyric baritone was a wise one.  His voice sat comfortably in this range, enabling him to focus on a well-rounded interpretation of the role of Enrico, far better than the nasty sneering interpretation we are accustomed to hearing.  He seemed like a fairly decent fellow who was pushed by circumstances into doing bad things.  His remorse in witnessing his sister's downfall seemed authentic and allowed the audience to have some pity for his position.

As Lucia's ill-fated lover Edgardo, tenor Joseph Michael Brent sang well and exhibited all the requisite emotions except for one; we wanted to see some tenderness toward Lucia in their initial scene together to explain why she would have defied her family to pledge her love to him.  He did much better in the scene in which he returns from France to find Lucia married to Arturo and bristled with anger. 

Bass-baritone Antoine Hodge was the voice of normality in this power-crazed family, giving substance to the role of Raimondo, the family's spiritual counselor.  Captain of the Guard Normanno was the character who set the tragedy in motion by spying on Lucia's encounters with Edgardo and then egging on the brother Enrico.  Tenor Adam Fieldson overcame the natural sweetness of his instrument and lent sneering arrogance to the part.

The role of Arturo was finely sung by tenor Vincent Festa and mezzo-soprano Chelsea Laggan did well as Alisa, Lucia's companion who warns her to stay away from Edgardo of Ravenswood, enemy of her clan, the Lammermoors.

Conductor Alden Gatt deftly led the full orchestra through their paces. There was some fine work during the mad scene by flutist Felipe Tristan, and the wind chorales which opened several scenes were powerful.  A keyboard sufficed for the harp.There were a few times when the size of the orchestra overpowered the singers, likely due to their placement on the same level as the audience.

The effective direction was by Christopher Diercksen; the pace was kept up and the story moved along briskly.  There was no set to speak of but it wasn't missed.  Taylor Mills' costuming was minimal.  Street clothes seemed to be the order of the day with motley plaid sashes on some of the cast members. We would have liked to see all the men wearing the same plaid to indicate membership in the same clan, with Edgardo wearing a different plaid.  This would have emphasized the substance of the tragedy--the destructiveness of rivalry with and hatred of "the other", a feature that still exists in many parts of the world.

We wish to counteract the claim that "opera is dying" with the observation that opera is alive and well in the hands of small companies like New York Opera Exchange which rely on talent rather than "big names".  We similarly wish to counteract the claim that "opera is for old folks" with the observation that the packed house at The Church of the Covenant on 42nd St. comprised mostly 20-somethings.

We are already anticipating NY Opera Exchange's production of Carmen in May.

(c) meche kroop