A TASTE OF DON G.

Ken Young, Jeduthun Chung Gu Kim, Mengtao Zhou, Maestro Giovanni Longo, Claudio Mascarenhas, Iris Prcic, Valentine Baron, and Geeseop Kim

New York Lyric Opera Theatre has thrived under the leadership of General/Artistic Director Elizabeth Heuermann. Not only is there a constant stream of recitals but also a summer music program, vocal competitions, and student outreach. Who in the opera world has not been reached by these many activities!

Last night at the National Opera Center, there were two consecutive performances of a judiciously cut version of Mozart's masterpiece Don Giovanni, giving two casts (with some overlap) the opportunity to try out their roles in front of a live audience, and giving a new audience the opportunity to hear the highlights of the score in less than 90 mins. In place of a live orchestra, we had the marvelous Giovanni Longo at the piano, playing the exciting score with appropriate vivacity.

A concert version of an opera does not give the singer an opportunity to emote and the much deplored use of music stands deprives the singer of the chance to connect with the audience.  Furthermore, we believe that if such a performance is geared toward new initiates to opera, titles would have been of value. We personally know the opera well and could tell what was going on without the drama. Newcomers would not have understood.

Voices on the whole were quite good, given the limitations. We are very hard on tenors who push their voices and sound tight. No such complaint about Jed Chung Gu Kim who took the role of Don Ottavio. His sweet sound was just right for the part and he sang with lovely legato and ease of sound production. His "Il mio tesoro" was lovely and someday we would like to hear his "Dalla sua pace". Alone among the cast, he seemed to try to connect with his beloved Donna Anna.

In that role, soprano Mengtauo Zhou exhibited an attractive tone and a facility with the coloratura. We believe that, freed of the music stand, she may develop more variety of color that would make the performance even better. She was quite lovely in "Non mi dir". She and Mr. Kim did beautifully in their Act I duet.

The eponymous Don Giovanni was portrayed by bass baritone Claudio Mascarenhas as an arrogant heel. No charm for this seducer! His powerful sound and stage presence lent veracity to the part. He created a sense of menace throughout.

As his servant Leporello, Geeseop Kim exhibited a less robust type of bass baritone. His Act II aria gave him some stage time, with his best sound at the upper end of the register. We bet that the audience longed to hear his Catalogue Aria.

As the vengeful Donna Elvira, we heard Iris Prcic, who calls herself a "zwichenfach soprano mezzo". To our ears, she sounded like a solid dramatic soprano with her best notes in the upper register.  There is a steely core to her tone that made her just right for the role. The difficult "Mi tradito" with its wide skips was well handled.

The role of the flirtatious Zerlina was sung by Valentine Baron whose light soprano was just right for the role. Her "Batti, batti" was lovely and demonstrated flexibility.

Unfortunately, bass Ken Young has a mature sound that didn't fit the role of Masetto.  However he was just right for the Commendatore, lending gravitas and horror to the role. The final scene in which he drags Don G. to hell was quite chilling. In the opening scene in which he is murdered by Don G. both men sounded great together.

As a matter of fact, all the ensembles were superb, earning credit for the balance of voices. The harmonies written by Mozart are always "music to our ears". 

(c) meche kroop

A RAINBOW OF SONG

Atsuko Nieda and Antonio Signorello

It was a short recital at The National Opera Center but all the bases were covered in terms of repertory for an Italian tenor.  Accompanied by pianist Atsuko Nieda, Antonio Signorello, who hails from Catania in Sicily, appeared under the auspices of New York Lyric Opera Theatre. Elizabeth Heuermann is the General/Artistic Director of this organization and we have enjoyed her creative directing on a number of occasions as well as her vocal performances. (The last time we heard her was in the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus.)

We hope she was not responsible for Mr. Signorello's changing scarves for each aria and canzone. Every color of the rainbow was represented and perhaps the color was meant to relate to the lyrics, but we found this bit of stage business to be quite distracting.

We loved the well-chosen program which included arias by Puccini and Verdi (what's not to love!) and canzone by Tosti, Cardillo, and Cali. We enjoyed the use of rubato in "L'ultima canzone" with its lovely vocalise at the end, and "A vucchella", both by Tosti. We would have called Cardillo's "Core 'ngrato" our favorite until we heard a song new to us--Cali's "E vui durmiti ancora", or Mattinata Siciliana.  We ourselves must have been asleep to have overlooked this gem.  Many thanks to Mr. Signorello for introducing us!

There were two curiosities on the program--from Meyerbeer's L'africaine, which we have never seen, we heard "O paradis", sung in French.  And from Franz Lehar's 1929 operetta Das Land des Lächelns we heard "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz"--in Italian! Well, that was really something!

From the world of opera, we heard arias from Verdi's La forza del destino and from Puccini's La fanciula del West and Manon Lescaut. We found Mr. Signorello's delivery to involve more "grandstanding" than that to which we are accustomed. "Money notes" were held just a bit too long with some distracting grimaces.

On a positive note, we always admire an Italianate sound and Mr. Signorello has an embouchure that any American singer would do well to emulate.  He has a darker sound than we had anticipated and he has plenty of depth in the lower register.

We had heard him sing previously ("Vesti la giubba") and he was sufficiently intense at that time. We believe he would do well to "pull it back a notch". A variety of color and intensity would be welcome. So...more color in the sound and less in the fabric!

(c) meche kroop

OPERA, ALL OPERA, AND NOTHING BUT OPERA

New York Lyric Opera Theatre

Last night we attended an Opera Gala at Weill Recital Hall. We heard 32 singers in 16 scenes. Our ears are ringing with so much beautiful music, conducted from the piano by Maestro Richard Cordova, whom we well remember from Little Opera Theater's presentation of Carlisle Floyd's Slow Dusk.  Last night he did not have an orchestra at his disposal but he made the piano sound like one!

If General/Artistic Director Elizabeth Heuermann was responsible for directing, we would like to point out that several of the scenes showed the result of a creative hand. Ms. Heuermann apparently put the show together and also sang the role of Adele in the final scene comprising most of Act II of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus.

It is this final scene that sticks in our mind.  It was festive; it was well sung; it was gorgeously costumed by Mori Lee with performers wearing masks to match their gem-colored gowns. Not only did Ms. Heuermann make a fine Adele but soprano Jessica Sandige was a standout as Rosalinde, pretending to be an Hungarian Countess.  This "Czárás" was fortuitously and appropriately sung in German--appropriate because of the humorous line "Of course I'm Hungarian, I just sang in German".

The rest of the scene was sung in English, perhaps not our preference, but the translation was a good one and the English was well enunciated, something we do not take for granted. Mezzo soprano Allison Waggener, remembered from Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, nicely handled the travesti role of Prince Orlofsky, host of the costume ball.

Thinking about the rest of the evening, there were more highlights than we have room to write about but we will try to cover at least a few.

We have previously heard Ms. Sandige only in small roles so it delighted us to hear her twice last night--not only in the Strauss but also as Cio-Cio San singing "Un bel di" from Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Without benefit of costume, wig, makeup, or scenery, her clear bright soprano did the work, expressing all the love, longing, and false hope that we would wish for. Variety of tempi and dynamics contributed to the performance.

Tenor Percy Martinez, whom we have reviewed many times, did justice to every role he took on and managed to color each role differently. He made a fine Rodolfo with Jennifer Smith as his Violetta in "Libiamo" from Verdi's La Traviata. (We might have appreciated her performance more if she had not been holding her score.  It was distracting.)

He portrayed another young lover in Puccini's La Bohéme, trying to break up with the seriously ill Mimi (Beier Zhao) in Act III. In stunning contrast with these tender lovers were Clara Lisle as Musetta and Michael Binkowski as Marcello--one of the scenes in which we admired the direction.

Again Mr. Martinez succeeded in portraying the very different lover Pinkerton, a far more complex character. His Cio-Cio San, Beier Zhao, had the advantage of appearing Asian but somehow looked worried and anxious during the love duet.

Another artist who impressed us was baritone José Pietri-Coimbre who enlivened every scene he was in, not only with his fine voice but with his willingness to inhabit the role.  From Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, his Papageno was pure delight and his Papagena, Holly Sparlin Sargeant, was a perfect match, showing evidence of a music theater background.

He was a perfectly slimy Don Giovani seducing Zerlina. The effect was heightened by the fact that his scene partner, 16-year-old Gwyneth Campbell, was so petite and innocent looking.

In the quartet "Non ti fidar, o misera" he continued his fine performance with excellent contributions from the Donna Anna of Shauna McCarthy, the Donna Elvira of Iris Prcic, and the Don Ottavio of John Ramseyer. It was totally convincing and the voices blended beautifully.

Another very affecting piece was the final scene of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. Jennifer Noel's large soprano was just right for the Marschallin. Victoria Graves made a splendid Octavian and Elise Mark was excellent as the young Sophie. Baritone Michael Binkowski appeared briefly as Sophie's father Faninal and it was a bittersweet moment when the Marschallin walked offstage with him. The contributions from Maestro Cordova's piano were extensive.

Elise Mark also made her mark as Manon in "Ce bruit de l'or" in Massenet's opera of the same name.

Coloratura soprano Madison Marie McIntosh lent her finely focused instrument to "Dov 'è Lucia" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. We have reviewed Ms. McIntosh previously and are watching her professional development with interest. We hope we will soon hear her do the mad scene!

It is quite a challenge to create an opera scene without orchestra, costumes, sets and makeup but most of the scenes succeeded admirably. There were several other singers on board whom we hope to have a chance to review in the future.

(c) meche kroop

PARODI AND MOZART

Kneeling: Luke Scott and Alejandra Ruiz (photo courtesy of NY Lyric Opera)

We always want to be in the audience when the versatile Argentinian conductor Jorge Parodi wields his magic. Friday night at Weill Recital Hall he showed a special affinity for Mozart. The froth of the melodies was all there but full attention was paid to the depths of characterization in Nozze di Figaro. The Metamorphsis Chamber Orchestra gleamed under his guidance.  The Artistic Director of the Orchestra is bassoonist Pierre Lidar.

Able assistance in interpretation was contributed by the singers, directed by Isabel Milenski, who directed the same opera at Juilliard. Her touch is unmistakable. The singers sang well and acted with conviction in this semi-staged production by New York Lyric Opera whose Artistic Director Elizabeth Heuermann can be counted on to put on a good show.  We have no idea who condensed Mozart's long opera into an hour performance but it was long enough and well enough staged that one could understand the story and the relationship between the characters. Effective costumes by Brenna McShane made up for the lack of scenery.

Although the superb chamber orchestra occupied half the stage, the singers had no problem singing above the sound. Luke Scott cut a fine figure as the eponymous hero and we particularly enjoyed his "Non vedrai" in which he employed a falsetto voice for some of the lines. The role fit him like a glove. As his bride, Alejandra Ruiz was winsome and won our heart. She was particularly fine in "Giunse al fin...Deh vieni non tardar".

In the roles of the aristocrats, Boris Mitchell sang and acted successfully as Count Almaviva and Jennifer Noel, as his Countess, did a lovely job with "Dove Sono", such that we mourned the missing "Porgi Amor". Her duet with Ms. Ruiz delighted the ear.

It is a small role but we were enchanted by Joseph Andrew Yu's gossipy Don Basilio. How surprising it was to learn that he is still an undergraduate at Manhattan School of Music. We predict a good future for this young man. We also liked another young artist, Matthew Hutcheson-Bleiberg whose lanky appearance added to his success as Antonio.

Kaitlin Hatchett as Cherubino, Courtney Wilson as Marcellina, and James williams as Bartolo all contributed to the fun onstage and sang well.

The first half of the evening was given over to a succession of arias, each sung by a different singer.  It was a great opportunity to hear a lot of different artists, among whom several stood out.  Giovanni Longo's accompaniment was unusually sensitive and supportive.

Tenor Percy Martinez sounded more impressive than he has on prior hearings in smaller rooms.  His voice was just the right size and timbre for "E lucevan le stelle" from Puccini's Tosca.

We liked the intensity of tenor Antonio Signorello in "Vesti la giubba" from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. We were impressed by the harmonization of Kaitlin Hatchett and Sangying Li in "The Prayer Duet" from Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel". Their English diction was so excellent that we missed not a single word. Any singers who have tried to make themselves understood in English will understand how difficult that is.

Danielle Davis sang "Elsa's Dream" from Wagner's Lohengrin with authority and good dynamic control. She started sweetly but built to an heroic climax.

Although we are in the dog days of summer, New York Lyric Opera had no problem packing the house. Opera lovers are always thirsting for talent and there was plenty of that onstage!

(c) meche kroop