NOT JUST ANOTHER COMPETITION

Singers and Judges in Premiere Opera Foundation's International Vocal Competition Finals Concert

This was a great week for vocal competitions; we attended three of them! Truth to tell, there is nothing we enjoy more than these events. We get to hear a wide variety of material sung by some of the best vocal talent around. We get to watch the growth of young singers with whom we are familiar and we get to meet young singers from other cities that we don't usually get to hear.

Although all competitions share common features like excitement and cash prizes, each vocal competition has a different emphasis. Yesterday's competition inaugurated the union between the Premiere Opera Foundation and NYIOP, thus extending the concept of the competition beyond cash prizes by incorporating the function of auditioning. Instead of young artists traveling the world to audition, NYIOP brought casting directors to the event. If we were casting directors we would have felt like a gourmet at a banquet!

There was so much talent onstage to appreciate and such a distinguished panel of judges, including our own dear friend Ken Benson, Stefanos Koroneos and Maestro Israel Gursky from Teatro Grattacielo, Eric Margiore of Premiere Artists Management,and world famous soprano Erin Morley whose performances always thrill us.  

A field of 200 applicants was winnowed down to 91 semi-finalists; at the prior day's semi-finals, 20 young singers were chosen as finalists. It was interesting to us that in addition to the generous prizes awarded to the finalists, prizes were also given to some of the semi-finalists. No one walked away empty handed. Some prizes were cash and others were study grants abroad, vocal and career consultations, or coachings. Just imagine being able to coach with Ms. Morley!!!

We loved Nina Mutalifu's interpretation of Adriana Lecouvreur's famous aria "Io son l'umile ancella" in which her soaring soprano was used effectively to show both the character's diva stature but also her modesty. Ms. Mutalifu has sung in our Around the World in Song concerts, performing Uighur songs in her native language. What a treat to hear her sing a realismo role in Italian!

Tim Murray's pleasingly textured baritone was put in the service of limning the character of the clueless Count Almaviva. We watched and listened with glee as his ire grows. 

Mezzo-soprano Michaela Wolz performed "Parto, ma tu ben mio" from Mozart's La clemenza di Tito with variety of color in each verse, growing in ardency. There was something deeply affecting as she repeated "Guardami!"

Soprano Tatev Baroyan did justice to the "Snow Maiden's Aria" from the Rimsky-Korsakov opera. We recently saw this exquisite fairytale opera at Manhattan School of Music and Ms. Baroyan's ethereal interpretation was filled with the requisite innocence of the character.

Heldentenor Kevin Ray wisely chose the impassioned aria "Amfortas! Die Wunde!" from Wagner's Parsifal. His sizable instrument filled the sanctuary with overtones as his sincerity grew in power.

Mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule made a fine Adalgisa, beautifully shaping the long phrases of "Sgombra e la sacra selva" from Bellini's Norma. She has an admirable true mezzo sound and ended with a finely wrought decrescendo.

Joo Won Kang was one of several superb Verdi baritones on the program. His performance was well modulated and he brought considerable excitement to the cabaletta. We liked the resonance of his instrument as well.

Soprano Alexandra Razskazoff scored highly in that feature as well. She brought a lot of vocal excitement to "Come in quest'ora bruna" from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. We liked the exquisite dynamic control and the fine vibrato of her instrument.

Baritone Denis Milo phrased "Onegin's Aria" beautifully and sang in fine Russian. We got more involved when he used dramatic emphasis and wished he would use his body more. We realize that Onegin is a somewhat pompous character and a bit stiff in his "Dutch Uncle advice" to Tatiana; but he is Russian after all and the performance would have been more affecting with a little more gesture.

Tenor Joseph Tancredi attracted our notice as an undergraduate at Manhattan School of Music and then as an Apprentice at Santa Fe Opera. We love witnessing his promise being fulfilled. His beautiful sweet tone was just right for the role of The Italian Tenor in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

Baritone Bryan Murray is winning prizes all over town. "Pierrot's Tanzlied" won him prizes from Opera Index and Talents of the World; let's consider it his very own showpiece! We were happy to hear it again as he gave each phrase a lovely shape and nostalgic perfume.

Victoria Davis has a big beautiful soprano sound and succeeded in creating a character in "Do Not Utter a Word" from Barber's Vanessa, one of the few operas in English that we enjoy. The problem is that words get lost in the upper register more readily in English than in other languages.

Baritone Jianan Huang sang "O Carlo ascolta" from Verdi's Don Carlo with Italianate legato phrasing and gorgeous tone. He gave us chills and won us over by being completely immersed in the prison cell scene. 

Soprano Quan Chen, stunningly gowned, added to our earlier impression of her as a perfect Puccini soprano. Recently we heard her "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" from La Rondine, and last night she sang "Un bel di vedremo", allowing us to watch the harbor along with her. We always enjoy an aria more when the singer visualizes the scene and we can see it through her/his eyes.

Mezzo-soprano Polixeni Tziouvaras gave an hypnotic rendering of "Ô ma lyre immortelle" from Gounod's Sapho. She is a highly expressive singer and uses her entire body; she pulled us into the world of the aria so effectively that we forgot we were sitting in a church sanctuary. With gorgeous clearly enunciated French, of which every word was understood, she painted an aural picture filled with melancholy colors. Last April she sang in Greek for Around the World in Song, making a significant impression.

Soprano Amanda Palmeiro has a sizable voice with a bright sheen. She was convincing as the troubled Juliette in the Gounod opera, going through various moods with each verse of "Amour ranime mon courage". We enjoyed the very pretty trill and her fine French.

Monica Dewey used her sparkly soprano in Gilda's "Caro nome" from Verdi's Rigoletto. We admired the precision of her fioritura.

From the same opera we heard Rigoletto's aria "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" performed perfectly by baritone Kidon Choi who seems destined to be a Verdi baritone. He didn't need a hump to convince us! His delivery grew in power and anger with superb modulation of color and dynamics. We felt his pain.

There was only one counter-tenor on the program and it was a welcome change to hear Gamaliel Reynoso Mejia convey the terror of the stowaway from Jonathan Dove's Flight. It was a moving performance and we could best appreciate the fine spin of his voice in the melismatic passages. The tessitura is so high that the words got lost. Thankfully, we had seen the opera before with titles and knew the story.

Soprano Elisabeth Rosenberg closed the program with "Einsam in trüben Tagen" from Wagner's Lohengrin, sung with power. It was a fine close to an excellent program.

Michael Fennelly did yeoman's work accompanying the entire lengthy program with the right support for each singer. He always does and we appreciate him from the bottom of our opera loving heart.

The evening concluded with a reception, enabling audience members, judges, and singers to mingle and network.  What a fine evening!

© meche kroop

PARADISE INTERRUPTED

Qian Yin in Paradise Interrupted (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Last night was the opening of the Lincoln Center Festival and we were filled with anticipation for Paradise Interrupted, playing at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, a comfortable venue for productions of this kind.  Like all summer art festivals, risks are taken, rules are broken, and much debate ensues.

One's appreciation for this "art installation opera" largely depends upon how one approaches the work. The booklet that we received will occupy us for some time to come if we wish to learn more about the kunqu style of Chinese opera and the interesting instruments (dizi, sheng, and pipa) that were included in the 14-piece orchestra. The words of the director (and visual designer) Jennifer Wen Ma offer an almost exegesis-like description of her concept--the melding of Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden and a dream of Du Liniang of The Peony Pavilion, which we unfortunately have never seen.

But we have seen and enjoyed Chinese opera of every variety from the most rustic works of the provinces to the refined Beijing Opera. We have discussed with some of our Chinese singer friends how they incorporate the various tones of Mandarin into the melody of the Chinese songs they have sung on their programs. We were informed that the tones of each word are more or less ignored in deference to the overall melody.

In the case of Huang Ruo's composition of Paradise Interrupted, such was not the case and Mr. Ruo (composer of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, which we so enjoyed at the Santa Fe Opera) put a great deal of effort into composing the vocal line to respect the tones of the words. The artistry of Qian Yi gave the same respect in her execution of the vocal line.

In our opinion, a work of art needs to stand alone and to be appreciated for what it is, not for what the director tells us it is.  If there is a story, or a moral, we want to find it for ourselves. Each of us brings something to a work of art and it will resonate with us in a unique way. We personally don't want to be thinking about the underlying machinery.

On this basis, our appreciation of this work was guided by our senses and private associations. The work seemed to be about the search for something lost--a lover perhaps. Toward the end, the heroine finds love in what seems to be a geometric flower but is held captive and must escape. Is love a trap? What seems to be a rain of ashes becomes a pool of ink.  Could this be the ink a woman needs to write or paint her own destiny?

We enjoyed the performance of Qian Yi to the maximum possible extent. Her lovely voice brought out every nuance of Mr. Ruo's music and her movement, while not quite what we Westerners think of as dance, had all the grace of ballet. Her arms, as flexible as a swan's neck, spoke volumes and the delicacy of her hands expressed an entire range of emotion. Her tiny shuffling steps across the stage made her appear to be floating an inch off the ground. Gwen Welliver is credited as choreographer.

There were four male voices acting as elements of nature and when they joined in harmony toward the end, it was a very special moment. Counter-tenor John Holiday is known to us and greatly admired; he got a huge hand during the curtain call. Tenor Yi Li, baritone Joo Won Kang, and bass-baritone Ao Li were similarly excellent.

Mr. Ruo's music delighted us with its strange harmonies and textures; it was at times thoughtful, at other times vivid, at other times playful.  It was never ugly as so much contemporary music is. Maestro Wen-Pin Chien guided the  Ensemble Fire into a harmonious union of East and West.

The libretto, by Ji Chao, Jennifer Wen Ma, Huang Ruo, and Qian Yi had little to add. Perhaps the Chinese poetry lost something in translation but we enjoyed just listening and looking.

The stark set by Matthew J.Hilyard was entirely black and white--quite a departure from the vibrant colors of traditional Chinese opera. There was a bare tree that eventually bore fruit. There was a "garden" constructed of intricately cut and folded paper. 

Video projections of moving lights (meant to be fireflies) were shown in the background during one of the more interesting segments. They seemed to respond to Ms. Yi's voice. Austin Switser is credited as Video Designer with Guillermo Acevedo responsible for the Interactive Video Design.

The costuming by Melissa Kirgan and Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard was perfect in every respect.  Ms. Yi wore a loose white shift with a long white scarf substituting for the traditional water sleeves. The four men were in traditional garb in shades of grey making them look almost like statues of stone when they were not moving.

Toward the end, the set was illuminated with colored light and we realized how thirsty were our eyes for some color! Lighting design by Lihe Xiao was adapted by Andrew Cissna. 

The work premiered last summer at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston.  The brief 80 min. production will be repeated Friday and Saturday night.

Although we failed to grasp Ms. Ma's "concept" we were content to appreciate the work on its aural and visual terms.

(c) meche kroop

SIX LANGUAGES

Eric Malson and Joo Won Kang

We confess to being overwhelmed with the wealth of vocal talent in New York City.  Sometimes a young artist has something special that sets him or her apart.  In the case of baritone Joo Won Kang it is the way he sings from the heart.  There is never a shadow of doubt that his thoughts connect deeply with the text and his body, with the music.  We don't mean that he gesticulates wildly or dances about the stage; on the contrary, he exhibits an economy of movement.  But one does get the impression that he is inhabiting the song physically.

His recital last night at The National Opera Center was the first of this season's Emerging Artist Recital Series and coincided with Opera America's second anniversary--a fitting celebration indeed!

Mr. Kang is the McCammon Voice Competition Winner of the year and comes to us from the Fort Worth Opera and the Opera Guild of Fort Worth. Notable to us New Yorkers is the fact that he received his Master's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music; several faculty members were in attendance to cheer him on.

Mr. Kang has a strong but mellow baritone, rich and sweet like a wonderful cup of coffee.  He uses it wisely with fine technique of which the listener is made unaware.  He sang in German, English, French, Korean, Italian and Spanish--all with fine diction.

He opened his program with Beethoven's "Adelaide", a song that disproves the commonplace remark that Beethoven was not a melodist.  Such a charming song!  His "purpurblättchen" gave us a nearly synesthetic experience; he is a master of word coloring.

"Pierrot's Tanzlied" from Korngold's Die tote Stadt showed off Mr. Kang's gorgeous legato (how rare in German!) and was filled with longing.

Gerald Finzi's Let Us Garlands Bring sets Shakespeare's texts to some quite lovely music and expresses many moods, all of which Mr. Kang captured--the morbidity of "Come away, death", the fatalism of "Fear no more the heat o' the sun, and the frisky joy of "O mistress mine" during which Mr. Kang's excellent piano partner Eric Malson let loose with some fine pianism.

With fine French style, Mr. Kang performed Poulenc's Chansons Gaillardes.  Perhaps, however, it was the three Korean songs which touched him (and therefore us) most deeply, especially the last one with its deeply felt homesickness.

To cap the evening, Mr. Kang sang one of our very favorite baritone arias "Di Provenza il mar" (from Verdi's La Traviata) in which Germont père tries to manipulate his wayward son into giving up his scandalous affair with Violetta and return to the family fold.

But there was more to come as Mr. Kang generously offered two encores, one prepared and one more that the wildly enthusiastic audience demanded.  We were overjoyed to hear some Spanish--"Amor, vida de mi vida" from the zarzuela Maravilla composed by Federico Moreno Torroba.  Now we yearn for the entire zarzuela!

"Some Enchanted Evening" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific ended the recital and the title could not have been a better description of our evening.

© meche kroop