A FRENCH GERMAN NIGHT AT ST. JOHN'S IN THE VILLAGE

Emma Lavandier, Eric Sedgwick, and Katrin Bulke

St. John's in the Village is rapidly becoming one of our favorite venues for recitals. Rector Graeme Napier is a fellow music lover and keeps his lovely sanctuary filled with music. Last night's musical offering was a lovely recital performed by soprano Katrin Bulke and mezzo-soprano Emma Lavandier, accompanied by the excellent collaborative pianist Eric Sedgwick. We have enjoyed all three artists on prior occasions and you will find several reviews of each by entering their respective names in the search bar, in which we described their respective vocal gifts.

What was particularly attractive about last night's recital was hearing French sung by a native French speaker and hearing German sung by a native German speaker. Mr. Sedgwick speaks perfect piano!

Another appealing aspect of the recital was the presence of many duets. The more duets we hear the better we like them. They seem to add up to even more than the sum of their parts as overtones meet overtones and create ear-tickling delights.

Take for example the duet between Giulietta (Ms. Bulke) and Nicklausse (Ms. Lavandier) from the Venice scene of Jacques Offenbach's only opera Les contes d'Hoffman.This Barcarolle always makes us smile and sway in our chair.  Quelle belle nuit! 

The "Flower Duet" ("Dôme épais") from Léo Delibes' Lakmé has transcended its popularization and remains one of the most gorgeous duets in the canon. To enhance the performance, the two singers entered together and somehow managed to create the verdant scene without any sets whatsoever.

From Richard Strauss' delightful comic opera Der Rosenkavalier we enjoyed the scene in which Octavian (Ms. Lavandier) presents a silver rose to Sophie (Ms. Bulke) and the two fall in love. The acting added to the singing and there was an actual silver rose which you can see if you look at the carousel of photos on our Facebook page, Voce di Meche.

Another charming duet was that between Hänsel (Ms. Lavandier) and Gretel (Ms. Bulke)--"Brüderchen, komm tanz mit mir" from the Humperdinck opera; both singers performed the dance together and we were smiling from ear to ear.

Even the encore was a duet, but one manufactured for the occasion. Ms. Bulke let loose with "The tipsy song" from Johann Strauss II's operetta Eine nacht in Venedig; the song is otherwise known as the "Annen-Polka" and is filled with clever rhymes like "prickelt und kitzelt"; if that doesn't make you chuckle there is something wrong with you! Meanwhile, Ms. Lavandier sang "Je suis grise" from the Offenbach operetta La Perichole. Performers just love to portray intoxication but there aren't many such arias written for female voices. If you can think of any, dear reader, please leave them in the comment section below.

Another special aspect of this recital was that each singer introduced her song and told what it was about. Each singer got to do a military number, which was cute. Ms. Bulke sang Marie's aria "Salut à la France" from Donizetti's charming comedy La fille du régiment and Ms. Lavandier performed "Ah! Que j'aime les militaires" from Offenbach's 1867 operetta La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein which we so enjoyed at the Santa Fe Opera in 2013 with Susan Graham in the title role.

There were other more serious pieces on the program, some of which were marred by the use of the detestable music stand. Readers are probably bored by our complaints so the less said the better. Suffice it to say that our attention wandered which gave us an opportunity to focus on the piano, so beautifully played by Mr. Sedgwick.

We enjoyed his playing even when the singer was totally present as was Ms. Bulke in some songs by the underappreciated Clara Schumann. He surely created the storm in "Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen" with some roiling in the piano but also provided some delicate arpeggi when called for.

It was an evening well spent in the presence of three fine artists.

(c) meche kroop

NEW BEGINNINGS FOR MR. LIZ

Mr. Liz Bouk at Dixon Place

What an astonishing performer! Mr. Liz is on a courageous journey and his performances invite the audience to share in his journey. Yes, this beautiful person has chosen the label "transgendered" and has come out as a man, a very beautiful man, but a man just the same, preferring masculine pronouns, a request which we honor. We ourself do not like labels and prefer to experience him as a unique being with a striking mezzo-soprano voice and the ability to portray "breeches roles" with preternatural artistry.

To begin at the "old" beginning, Mr. Liz first came to our attention five years ago as Elizabeth Bouk, and we have reviewed him at least a half dozen times or more since then with Utopia Opera, dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, and Gramercy Opera. He has brought life to the brutally raped Lucretia, the abandoned Augusta Tabor, a witch in Macbeth, Count Almaviva's latest conquest, and Strauss' Komponist. If you put "Elizabeth Bouk" in the search bar, you can read these archived reviews. Some of those roles were revived last night in his new show, but we are getting ahead of ourself.

Having come out as a man, our first hearing of Mr. Liz was two months ago in a show you can read about if you insert "Liz Bouk" in the search bar. That will detail his life story in detail. Last night he was very open about the decision to avoid hormonal or surgical intervention. Preservation of his voice is the most important issue and with that we can heartily agree.

Still, what is more important than the vocal quality is the ability to connect with the audience and to convey the important message that we are each entitled to express ourselves in a way that is authentic and honest. Our culture fortunately allows us this freedom and we have the choice to take advantage of this freedom.

Mr. Liz' expressiveness is so colorful and varied that we have had the very devil of a time paring down a hundred photos we took to the ten we can post on Facebook. We refer you to our FB page Voce di Meche to see the ten we ultimately selected.

Curating songs for the show must have been a great deal of fun. Mr. Liz was able to revisit many of the arias we enjoyed before. The show opened with a clever and funny song by Zina Goldrich called "The Alto's Lament" in which a mezzo-soprano expresses her boredom with the line she is given to sing.

Then we heard the aria from Douglas Moore's Ballad of Baby Doe in which Augusta Tabor receives a loving letter and a pair of gloves from her husband Horace--and learns that they were meant for his mistress.

Later, he sang "Warm as the Autumn Light", Horace's baritone aria from the same opera. Who else beside Mr. Liz could have performed both roles with beauty and meaning and with not a hint of irony!

As Octavian, he sang "Wie du wärst" from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, a role in which we had not heard him. Any opera company would do well to snap him up, for the beautiful tone and the convincing presentation.

From Felix Jarrar's Tabula Rasa, we heard Bea Goodwin's smartly written aria about Dada for the character Tristan Tzara and Hannah's aria "Three Words" from As One, written by Laura Kaminsky, libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. That opera is about the converse conversion--a male to female transgendered person trying to find her identity.

"Somewhere" from Bernstein's West Side Story is a plea for finding a place where one feels safe and fulfilled. We venture to offer that Mr. Liz is well on his way to such a place.

The closing number was upbeat and fun--"I'm a Stranger Here Myself" from Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus. Can we find ourselves strangers in strange places and yet find that "somewhere". We think so!

Excellent piano accompaniment was provided by Kathryn Olander who played for the last show as well.  A fine team they are!

(c) meche kroop

A ROSENKAVALIER BY ANY OTHER NAME

Concertmaster Markus Wolf, Adrianne Pieczonka, Angela Brower, Peter Rose, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Maestro Kirill Petrenko, Lawrence Brownlee, Helene Schneiderman, and Ulrich Ress

What is your favorite Strauss opera? Our is, hands down, Der Rosenkavalier, just presented in concert form at Carnegie Hall by the Bayerische Staatsoper, under the baton of Maestro Kirill Petrenko. The partnership of Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal was legendary.

We love the characters, above all the noble and worldly wise Marschallin who knows just how to handle a lovesick teenage lover, a boorish entitled cousin, and a miffed member of the parvenu persuasion. Her concerns with aging and the passage of time seem quaint in our epoch, when 60 is the new 40. Perhaps in the 18th c. a woman close to 30, as we believe she is meant to be, was likely considered to be past her "sell by" date. Still, we identify!

We also love the character of Octavian who is highly hormonal and fickle in the way that young men can be.  His cluelessness is tempered by his protective nature toward women and we find him an endearing personage. He loves passionately but capriciously.

Who would not love Sophie, fresh out of convent and given all the burdensome baggage of someone of the bourgeois class recently raised to nobility; she is determined to fit in and to permit no slights from the highly born. No pushover is she, however, but feisty in her intent to avoid a miserable fate and to find a better one for herself.

We do not love Baron Ochs, the proverbial bull in a china shop. But we love laughing at him, with all his pretentiousness and feelings of entitlement. His attitude toward women reminds us of POTUS. We squirmed as he boasted of his success with women and his attitude toward his bride-to-be was nothing short of deplorable.

We love the score and the massive forces of the orchestra for which Strauss has written music of complexity and great variety. The affection felt for the story is obvious in his lavish orchestration. and attention to detail. Each act begins with a stunning prelude and each character has a leitmotiv. Mr. Petrenko conducted with verve and brought out things in the score that we had not heard when we were distracted by the lavish sets and costumes. And we never mind hearing a waltz!

The opera begins with a musical depiction of orgasm with whooping brass; the intent is unmistakable, even in concert.  Strauss saved the best for last--a gorgeous trio for three very different female voices in which each expresses her innermost thoughts and feelings. 

The Marschallin herself was pushed into marriage straight out of convent and, we imagine, compensates for the presence of a probably much older and unloved husband by taking on young lovers. That she relinquishes Octavian to young Sophie is a mark not only of her generosity of spirit but of her acceptance of reality--"der lauf der welt".

Hearing the magnificent forces of the Bayerische Staatsoper and their excellent choir in a concert performance was a new experience for us.  We carry fond memories of the late lamented Nathaniel Merrill/Robert O'Hearn iteration at The Metropolitan Opera, starring Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, and Christine Schäfer; this permitted us to "fill in the blanks" visually. We wondered how audience members new to the opera might have understood the absences of minor characters, with major characters speaking into thin air!

Still, we must admire the way every cast member offered not only superlative vocal performances but effective acting, without the use of music stands.  Suppose we call it semi-staged.

Of all the excellence onstage, we were most impressed with the Octavian of American mezzo-soprano Angela Brower.  Her rich resonant instrument filled Carnegie Hall from stage to balcony and her acting was totally convincing. She needed no costuming but used her body to emulate a 17-year-old boy. When she was called upon to portray Mariandel (a joke on Baron Ochs) she needed no women's weeds to effect the transformation and successfully imitated a rural dialect. She was able to create great chemistry with both Ms. Pieczonka and Ms. Müller.

As the Marschallin, dramatic soprano Adrianne Pieczonka took a while to settle into the role but wound up being a marvelous Marschallin and provided the firm strength to anchor the final trio.

As the virginal Sophie, lyric soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller dazzled with her crystalline sound and evoked the right degree of sympathy.

Bass Peter Rose kept us laughing, even when we felt anger at his pawing of Sophie. He is truly a master comedian.

Baritone Markus Eiche made an effective Herr Faninal, Sophie's father. He so desperately wanted her marriage to Baron Ochs that he was ready to throw her back into the convent if she disobeyed.

Tenor Ulrich Ress made a fine Valzacchi with mezzo-soprano Helene Schneiderman performing as his "niece" Annina.  The two gossips and intriguers were instrumental in the plot to orchestrate Baron Ochs humiliation and rejection. (Like POTUS, Ochs doesn't think he has done anything wrong and can't believe he is being rejected.)

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee gave us a nice aria during the levee, a moment of beauty midst the controlled chaos of this musically and dramatically rambunctious scene.

So yes, this is our favorite Strauss opera.  No one dies, no one gets beheaded, no one goes mad. It's all just good clean fun with Hoffmansthal in the early years of the 20th c. looking back with nostalgia at a fantasy of the 18th c.  Even the presentation of a silver rose was an invented fantasy, but we love it just as much as if it were real.

(c) meche kroop

BABETTE'S FEAST

Sebastian Lambertz, Babette Hierholzer, Eva-Maria Summerer, Laure Barras

We feasted on music last night when the German Forum presented a most satisfying recital at the Library for Performing Arts. (We also feasted on hors d'oeuvres and libations but we won't go there!)

With the illustrious pianist Babette Hierholzer (Artistic Director of the German Forum) accompanying two superb singers and the welcome contributions of clarinetist Sebastian Lambertz, nothing was wanting in this celebration of German music.  The goal of the German Forum is to present outstanding young artists from the German-speaking world and, judging by the past couple recitals we've reviewed, they achieve this goal admirably.

President Henry Meyer-Oertel welcomed the audience and introduced the sponsors and notables in the audience as well as the young artists, and did so with grace and good humor which put everyone in the mood to have a good time. And so we did.

Swiss soprano Laure Barras opened the program with "Mein Herr Marquis" (otherwise known as Adele's "laughing song") from Johann Strauss' operetta Die Fledermaus. We have reviewed this very same aria twice already this week but let us say we heard it afresh from Ms. Barras.

What distinguishes her is not only the brightness and clarity of her voice but her total immersion in the character and the originality of her interpretation.  Her Adele was considerably inebriated but that did not result in careless diction.  Au contraire, every word was clear and, if you understood German, it was hilarious. And if you didn't understand the words, you could not fail to appreciate the facial expressions and gestures. The fioritura was as clear as champagne and just as bubbly.

And then along came dusky-voiced mezzo soprano Eva-Maria Summerer singing Prince Orlofsky's aria "Ich lade gern mir Gäaste ein" which we have always called "Chacun à son goût". If the entire recital had been from Die Fledermaus we would have not complained.  How delightful!

Clarinetist Sebastian Lambertz is performing his graduation recital from Mannes College on 12/4 and, in light of his enormous talent and onstage poise, we found it hard to believe that he is a student. He joined Ms. Hierholzer and Ms. Barras for the lyrical Schubert lied "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen", in which the clarinet echoes the voice. His lyricism was sustained throughout the register with dynamics under perfect control and some ear-tickling trills.

Dare we suggest that Ms. Barras' Swiss background gave her the edge in yodeling? Indeed, the way Schubert wrote it and the three artists performed it, one could easily visualize the lonely shepherd pining for his love in a distant inaccessible valley, with only the echo of the clarinet to keep him company.  Just listen to the joyous major key when he realizes that Spring is coming and the snow will melt and he will see his sweetheart once again. The increase in tempo translated into great excitement.

Mr. Lambertz had his solo moment at the end of the program when he switched to his A clarinet, performing Francis Poulenc's Sonata for clarinet and piano. He has a terrific technique and a most expressive lyricism. As one might have predicted, we favored the second movement "Romanza" in which one of the motifs reminded us of Prokofiev's music for the ballet--Romeo and Juliet. The final movement could only be described as frisky.

We felt fortunate to hear some duets, which we always enjoy. Yes, we heard "Abendsegen" from Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel just a few days ago, but hearing it in perfect German was a special treat. We also enjoyed the scene of the presentation of the silver rose by young Octavian to Sophie, his cousin's intended bride. Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier has some gorgeous orchestral colors which Ms. Hierholzer captured in the piano. There is nothing as satisfying as two voices in harmony!

There were two humorous folksongs which Ms. Barras introduced with a most charming manner. We would wager that she has had quite a bit of dramatic training since she so effectively inhabits the character of the text--first the ambivalent Babette (!) from Haydn's "Eine sehr gewöhnliche Geschichte" and the pubescent girl of Brahms "Och Moder, ich well en Ding han". We are not sure what dialect of German that was but both songs were rendered with great humor.

Ms. Summerer also had her chance to sing with clarinet in Brahms' Zwei Gesänge op. 91, originally written for voice and viola. Her voice has a firmness and breadth in the lower register that is quite appealing.

We had only one minor quibble and we have been quibbling about this for quite some time. We would hope that singers would memorize their arias and not use music stands. The singers made much more of an impression when they sang "off book".

(c) meche kroop