MASTERFUL JUSTIN AUSTIN

Christopher Cooley and Justin Austin at Manhattan School of Music

What a relief!  Two terrific recitals back to back, not simultaneous! Each brilliant event deserves its own review so let us begin with baritone Justin Austin who has truly earned his Master of Music degree.  We first heard Mr. Austin in Cavalli's La Doriclea some three years ago and have been a fan ever since.  We have heard him singing art songs with New York Festival of Song, and most recently heard him as Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti's comedic masterpiece Don Pasquale, playing off the Norina of his beautiful wife Amanda. Imagine our pleasure as we saw that a scene from this opera would be reprised as the finale of Mr. Austin's graduation recital!

We just loved the interaction between Dr. Malatesta as he imitates the old Don and instructs Norina in how to portray his convent-educated sister Sofronia in order to prank Don Pasquale. Thomas Muraco was credited for help with this "Pronto io son" and we recall that Maestro Muraco coached and conducted the opera just 6 months ago. We might add that Mrs. Austin's soprano is just as dazzling in her fach as her husband is in his.  A true operatic power couple. 

There were plenty of goodies before the finale, of course. What we love about Mr. Austin is the expressiveness and depth of involvement that he lends to everything he sings. He has a sunny stage presence that the members of the audience appreciated as much as we did. The texture of the vibrato is as ear-pleasing as one might wish.

We loved his accuracy in German and understood every word of his Wolf and Schubert. He sang a sole selection from each of our two favorite song cycles. From Winterreise he invested "Die Krahe" with a tinge of horror and madness such that we seemed to experience the entire cycle as a hologram.  In "Halt!" from Die Schone Mullerin there was excitement to spare and the piano of Christopher Cooley kept those mill wheels turning.

Mr. Cooley also excelled in Ravel's cycle Don Quichotte a Dulcinee, establishing a rocking rhythm in support of Mr. Austin's finely nuanced interpretation. It came as no surprise that a program insert, which thanked all the people who had helped his artistic advancement, credited his teacher Catherine Malfitano for working with him on that cycle. We all know what a fine flair the divine Ms. M. has with the French repertory. The phrasing was Gallic and so was the pronunciation. We didn't miss a word!

Significantly, at least to us, was the fact that his English was also exemplary. We heard two very different soliloquies; the first was Billy's from Rogers and Hammersteins's Carousel, for which he credited his coach Erick Sedgwick, and the second was Coalhouse's from Stephen Flaherty and Terrence McNally's Ragtime. Mr. Austin captured all the hopefulness and pride of the first, and all the sorrow and despair of the second.

We also loved his performance of Aaron Copland's "The Little Horses" which was sung with tenderness and a lovely intermittent pianissimo. Mr. Cooley's piano was delicate and helped to sustain the hypnotic mood. For this piece, Stephanie Blythe's assistance was credited.

Margaret Bonds' setting of Langston Hughes "Minstrel Man" was deeply affecting, as was Mark Hayes' arrangement of the hymn "Amazing Grace" for which Mr. Austin was joined by baritone Kenneth Overton. The two men achieved a fine balance in their harmonies.

We are not sure why we didn't relate to Ricky Ian Gordon's "When Sue Wears Red", another setting of a Langston Hughes text. The piano seemed to drown out the words and we didn't care for the music. But the rest of the audience seemed to love it so perhaps it was just at odds with our taste.

The concert ended with a love fest! Mr. Austin is gracious to a fault and thanked and embraced his teacher Ms. Malfitano and spoke most movingly about all the people who helped him along the way in his 6 years at Manhattan School of Music. He also thanked his parents profusely and his wife's parents as well. His parents came up to the stage and his father, a tenor, announced that the two would join forces for duo recitals in Switzerland. Now that's something we'd love to hear!

He dedicated his encore to his family--"I Want Jesus to Walk with Me", sung a capella. We walked out feeling all warm and fuzzy.

(c) meche kroop

GREGORY BUCHALTER MASTERCLASS

Christopher Cooley and Pauline Taumalolo

We love master classes for many reasons.  We love hearing singers we may have never heard before; we learn a great deal about the art of singing that we can apply in the future; we learn the subtle features of a variety of arias and art songs, subtleties we can listen for the next time we hear them performed. We were happy to accept an invitation from the Metropolitan International Music Festival to observe.

Last night at the National Opera Center, conductor Gregory Buchalter shared some very valuable instruction with a group of singers we hadn't heard before but hope to hear again.  At three hours without a break, it was rather intense but the time flew by as eight singers absorbed enough tutelage to improve their performances dramatically--in both senses of the word.

There was, of course, a continual thread running through the entire evening--instruction we have heard over and over again. It is probably the most important feature of singing--the emphasis on connecting the vowels by singing on the breath, singing through the consonants to achieve a legato line.  Once one hears what it sounds like, one can never be satisfied with anything short of that.

The first student was soprano Alejandra Flores, whose interpretation of the role of Norina was first-rate. She delivered a sparkling and playful performance with great dynamic control and excellent coloratura technique. She was counseled to omit repetitions when auditioning and to introduce herself simply. She learned to emphasize the dotted rhythm of the cabaletta. Donizetti, Don Pasquale's composer, was one of the three great bel canto composers and the coloratura is there for a purpose--that of limning the character. Ms. Flores was instructed to minimize her gestures.

Soprano Susan Fletcher sang "Rejoice greatly" from Handel's Messiah with book in hand; the first suggestion she got from Maestro Buchalter was to "lose the book". We cheered inside when we heard that because it turned us off so much that we could not even concentrate on her singing. Once she "lost the book", we could relate to her lovely voice and expressivity without distraction. This is a common complaint of ours and hearing it from the Maestro left us feeling vindicated. Ms. Fletcher was counseled to stand up straight, to provide contrast for repeated phrases, and to add some embellishments. This made quite a difference and we were able to observe her superlative diction, making every word clear.

Soprano Silja Aalto gave a lovely performance of Mimi's aria from Act I of Puccini's La Boheme. We loved the change of colors as Mimi's character emerged from simplicity to flirtatiousness to radiance. She was advised to keep the momentum going and also to abandon most gestures.

Dramatic soprano Cheryl Warfield sang Turandot's aria with great power.  The walls were vibrating, we are sure. The Maestro was pleased that she conveyed the vulnerability behind the character's iciness, and the fear behind the anger. She was instructed to give more direction to the line and to emphasize the important words in any given phrase.

Contralto Pauline Taumalolo has a voice that, once heard, will be long remembered. The closest we can think of is Ewa Podles. She performed Brahms' "Wie Melodien zieht es mir" which we just heard last night sung by a mezzo-soprano. We have never heard the song performed in this key and it sounded totally different. The singer was instructed to make her breaths part of the phrase and to breathe with the piano. In order to make these luxurious phrases seamless, she was taught to omit the bar lines. The text called for more flavor.

Soprano Elizabeth Klimek performed Lauretta's aria from Gianni Schicchi and the first thing she learned was to never apologize. The audience will believe only what you tell them. An anecdote about Dame Kiri Ti Kanawa was shared and we all had a good chuckle. Some singers were advised to gesture less but Ms. Klimek was advised to gesture more. The other good tip she got was about dealing with Italian's double consonants to avoid misunderstandings.  Puccini's phrases must have a sweep to them.

Mezzo-soprano Zi Yang gave an affecting performance of Sesto's aria from La clemenza di Tito in which Mozart's embellishments must begin lighter and grow into grandness. Ms. Yang imbued the lengthy aria with some excellent changes of color that revealed the conflict of Sesto's character--his masculine strength, his love for Vitellia, and his fear of the awful act he was going to commit for her. Although Ms. Yang does not have much English, her Italian was splendid.

The lone male on the program was bass Nika Kolkhidashvili who sang Banco's aria from Verdi's Macbeth, in which he warns his son Fleanzio to flee. The tremolo in the orchestra sets the mood for the aria. The singer was advised not to lean to the side and to find the key words in each phrase to emphasize. The aria needs shape to build the tension and there must be a contrast of coloration when the key changes to major.

It was a valuable class with lots of "take-home" points to think about. It is always gratifying to watch an artist being taken to the next level by a fine teacher. The excellent accompanist was Christopher Cooley.

(c) meche kroop

NEVER ENOUGH PUCCINI

Jon Thomas Olsen, Jessica Sandidge, Sonja Krenek and Steven Wallace

We can never get enough Puccini!  Hours after Chelsea Opera presented an evening of scenes from Puccini's opera, we are still singing the wonderful melodies.  We think it's likely that many people in the audience are doing the same.  The concert was underwritten by Project 142; Christ and St. Stephen's Church on the Upper West Side was filled to overflowing, with bridge chairs hastily being commandeered in an attempt to accommodate the capacity crowd.

The evening opened with scenes from Turandot, the opera Puccini never finished. Ping, Pang and Pong (sorry but we can never remember which is which) have a wonderful trio and tenors David Kellett and Jon Thomas Olson with baritone Scott Lindroth brought it to vivid life.

Liù's suicide scene was movingly performed by soprano Rosa Betancourt who created a sympathetic character and enlived her with some persuasive acting.  She has a lovely vibrato and we enjoyed her later performance of "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi.

From the very early Edgar, composed when the master was only 26 years old, we heard bass-baritone Bryan Glenn Davis sing "Questo amor, vergogna mia". We liked him even better as the evil Scarpia from Tosca when he sang "Tre sbirri...Una Carrozza...Presto!" which suited him well.

From Le Villi we heard soprano Sonja Krenek sing "Se come voi piccina".  She made a fine Mimi in the "breakup" scene from La Bohème with tenor Steven Wallace as Rodolfo.  The heartbreaking scene was given comic relief by the embattled lovers Musetta (soprano Rosa Betancourt) and Marcello (baritone Scott Lindroth) whose music is in counterpoint with Mimi and Rodolfo's.

Our Tosca for the evening was the versatile Megan Nielsen who wowed the audience with her "Vissi d'arte". What a change from the character she portrayed just before--Suor Angelica from the eponymous opera.  Talk about heartbreak!  The poor woman was put away in a convent by her aristocratic family, after bearing an illegitimate child. Her aunt, La Zia Principessa, cold-heartedly tells Angelica that the child has died. Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Moulton, a lovely jovial person in real life, demonstrated fine acting chops as she assumed her imperious manner. Poor Angelica sings out her grief in "Senza mamma".

Tenor Taras Chmil sang the favorite tenor aria of audiences everywhere--"E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca.   We realized that Puccini wrote his best music for characters who were about to die! Mr. Chmil also sang "Ch'ella mi creda", Dick Johnson's aria from La fanciulla del West.  Fortunately, Dick Johnson does NOT die!

Stacey Canterbury has a sizable soprano and used it well in "Un bel di" from Madama Butterfly, another heartbreaker.

Soprano Julia Rolwing sang Manon's final aria from Manon Lescaut--"Sola, perduta, abbandonata"--another death aria!  David Kellett sang Des Grieux's "Donna non vidi mai".

The delightful closing scene was from La Rondine featuring the quartet from the photo above.  For this scene, Magda was sung by Sonja Krenek with soprano Jessica Sandidge impressing us with her sweet voice and sparkling personality as Lisette. Steven Wallace sang Ruggero and Jon Thomas Olsen sang Prunier.  Happily, the rest of the cast became the onstage partygoers and, as directed by Lynne Hayden-Finley, were completely convincing.

In place of an orchestra, we had Christopher Cooley, who accompanied beautifully.

The delightful evening served to whet our appetite for the upcoming Tosca which will be performed in St. Peter's Church in Chelsea on 6/4 and 6/6.  It seems pretty far down the road but Chelsea Opera will also present Suor Angelica in a year's time.  We would be happy to hear Megan Nielsen once more in that role.

(c) meche kroop