CAME FOR THE BRAHMS, STAYED FOR THE MENDELSSOHN

 Chaeyoung Park, Aristo Shan, Erin Wagner, Megan Moore, Daniel McGrew and Randall Scarlata

Regular readers will recall our respect for Young Concert Artists. For six decades they have been discovering young artists in the field of classical music, developing their respective artistry, and launching their respective careers. The means by which they achieve this consist of a three year program encompassing mentorship, community engagement, debut recitals, and worldwide performance opportunities. Indeed some of our very favorite young singers have been brought to our attention through YCA.

Monday night's 2025 Season Finale  offered the opportunity to hear young artists in both vocal and instrumental fields, the latter of which we rarely have time to attend since vocal recitals and operas keep us very busy. We will address the vocal portion of the program first but please, Dear Reader, stay until the end since we made a rare discovery in the instrumental field.

The vocal portion of the evening comprised selections from Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes Op. 52, a work we have enjoyed and reviewed many times. Brahms' vocal output is perhaps less profound  than that  of Schubert, but his gifts are not at all lesser in impact. We love the folksy melodies and the simple emotions conveyed therein.  We particularly love the way he wrote for various combinations of voices.

And therein lies our disappointment in this particular performances. We attribute the problem to the acoustics of the hall. Although individually the tone and expressiveness of the voices were fine, the balance between the voices was uneven. Sounding the best were the voices of the two mezzo-sopranos, Erin Wagner and Megan Moore who blended beautifully. But when tenor Daniel McGrew and baritone Randall Scarlata joined in, the balance shifted so far to their "side" that Brahms' exquisite balance was lost. Pianist for the performance were Chaeyoung Park and Aristo Shan, both of whom were heard during the evening in works by respectively Prokofiev and the contemporary Zhou Tian.

Fortunately, the favorable impact of the evening was restored by a glorious performance of Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-flat major, Op.20.  The four movement architecture was familiar and very much of the period, offering a lively Allegro followed by a pleasingly tuneful Andante. However, it was the Scherzo that bedazzled our ears. Building the excitement to fever pitch was the use of a motif repeated in higher and higher keys. We are far from expert in instrumental music but anything that reminds us of vocal fioritura pleases us enormously.

Considering the artistry of eight string players in three "fachs"--violin, viola, and cello--they exhibited great variety of color with interweaving melodies and strong rhythmic pulse. We will end by heaping praise on the lead violinist Lun Li whose violin seemed to be a dancing partner. There was an intimacy between artist and instrument that we have never seen or heard before--a partnership that kept us on the edge of our seat. They not only danced together but Mr. Li made the violin sing.

In hearing the human voice, the artist and the instrument are physically one and the same  In this case Man and Violin acted as one in a spiritually transcendent manner. We simply could not get over the impact. We single out this performance as being ground breaking although the other seven string players were excellent.

We do not read program notes until after the performance, wanting to approach the performance as a neophyte. However, we were not surprised to learn of Mr. Li's many honors but reading that he was playing a 1735 Stradivarius on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation put us in a state of awe. We had never heard a Stradivarius before and we can only say that the treasured violin was in the right hands. We kind of wish it belonged to him in fact as well as in spirit.

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MMMM

 Francesco Barfoed and Megan Moore

Marvelous Mezzo Megan Moore! What a pleasure it gives us to watch the development of young singers as their fame grows along with their vocal artistry. Thanks to the search bar on our blog, we are able to look back at what we wrote in prior years and, truth be told, to congratulate ourself on appreciating their gifts at an early stage of an artist's career.

It seems as if the first time we wrote about Ms. Moore was in 2018 at The Marcella Sembrich Competition when she impressed us with a song by Moniuszko, introducing us to a composer we have come to love, in spite of not understanding Polish.

Just before the career interruptions brought on by the Covid isolation, we wrote this about her performance at a Juilliard concert...What affected us the most was "Was I not a blade of grass in the field", another strophic song with some stunning melismatic passages and a powerful climax. We have heard Ms. Moore in recital and competitions-- singing an appealing Cenerentola and a resolute Dorabella as well as the Komponist--always admiring her lyricism and dramatic skills. But last night she made us weep in her deeply committed rendering of a young woman's hopeless situation.

(Forgive us, Dear Reader, for quoting ourself but we think it's important to acknowlege a young singer's development and how they grow as they tackle different roles, different periods, and different languages.) 

Entering competitions is just one part of this process. Recognition by Young Concert Artists is another feather in Ms. Moore's cap. Singing with New York Festival of Song is yet another. This year will see her playing major roles in opera companies all over the world.

That's enough about Ms. Moore's prior and future successes; we would like to tell you about her most recent recital yesterday at The Morgan Library, appearing as a first prize winner of the George and Nora London Foundation 2022 Competition. Her brilliant collaborative pianist is the equally talented Francesco Barfoed who often accompanies her. His pianism impresses us as much as her vocalism. They form a perfect partnership.

The program opened with a wide leap into the 17th century lament of Barbara Strozzi,one of our favorite composers of the Baroque period. The anonymous poet sings of her (let us assume it is a woman) luxuriating in the anguish of a lost love affair in "L'Eraclito amoroso". Of course the Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was a man, but Ms. Moore made the lament her own and mined the text for depth and complexity of emotional tone.

With a rapid shift of mood and period, the artist sailed into Rossini's exciting song cycle La Regata Veneziana. Since it was her choice to render the Baroque piece with full vocal color (as is our preference, as opposed to the dry sound one hears often at Baroque recitals) it became obvious that the decoration of the vocal line in the 19th century owes a debt to the 17th. Wherever it comes from, we adore fioritura. Even more important than the vocal artistry was the emotional intensity; it was so intense that we wanted to leap from our seat to cheer for her Momolo. The picture she painted of the gondola race became vivid before our eyes and this can only come from her own ability to visualize it and to bring us into her world.

We do not understand Russian so, minus projected titles (more about that later), we found our attention focusing more on Mr. Barfoed's colorful exposition of Prokofiev's Five Poems of Anna Akhmatova, op.27.  What moods the piano created!  Here were racing figures of excitement, there were solemn pleas for tenderness, and melancholy as well. One could hear the colors as well in Ms. Moore's voice, even when not understanding the words.

A pair of Rachmaninoff songs were more familiar to us and we noted some beautiful sounds in Ms. Moore's upper register, whereas the somber Prokofiev songs seemed to feature her sturdy lower register.

And now we come to what was, for us, the best part of the program. We never tire of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. What we love is that the singer and pianist both get to show a wide range of emotions. The singer is filled with sorrow and tries to cheer up by mean of nature, then realizes a violent type of pain, and ultimately a return to grief and an awareness of the extent of the loss. Both artists produced an entire palette of colors.

The program ended with a commissioned work that requires explanation. We can never think of the late Nora London without a wave of positive feelings. She always struck us as a most gracious lady of the "old school", going out of her way to thank us for our writing about the vocal competition and recitals. She served as a model for us; we aim to be as mobile and gracious and generous as she was.

So, the discovery of her teenage diaries from a period when she was fleeing the Nazis, traveling from France to Portugal and then to New York, filled us with anticipation. Her family wavered over the decision; should they even read them, share them, or keep them private. Jake Heggie was commissioned to set them to music and Gene Scheer was assigned the task of adapting the diary entries.

Now we realize that Mr. Heggie is honored as a major 21st century composer and that Ms. Moore is very fond of his works. We wanted very much to love this tribute to our dear Nora London. Well, we cannot say that in all truth. What we can say is that Mr. Heggie wrote some stunning music for piano that we would be happy to hear again. However, we would have preferred to hear a narrator reading the actual words of the teenage Nora over the music. The vocal line just was not interesting and that is a problem we have with most contemporary music. There, we said it and we won't retract.  There were many in the audience who did appreciate the work and we are glad of it.

Not having read the diary ourself, we have no idea whether the musings of an unfortunately dislocated 15 year old. would be worth reading. If they revealed something about the grand lady that this child would become, they would have more value to us. Still, it is a tribute and we are grateful for any honor bestowed upon people we admire.

And now it is time for "the quibble" The auditorium at the Morgan Library really needs to be outfitted with titles.  We looked around the space and observed nearly every member of the audience reading the libretto instead of allowing the artist to connect with them. We think that is sad. If it is impossible to have projected titles, it is a better plan to have the artist give a brief synopsis of the song before it is sung. We are not limiting these alternatives to works in foreign languages. Even works in English become difficult to understand unless it is a low voice with impeccable enunciation.

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ALL TOGETHER NOW

 Daniel McGrew, Erin Wagner, Chelsea Guo, Megan Moore, Joseph Parrish, and Francesco Barfoed

What a fortuitous collaboration it was at Merkin Hall last night when New York Festival of Song joined forces with Young Concert Artists for an evening of ensemble singing. Five fantastic singers gifted a most delighted audience songs from five hundred years of music history. It would have been a great thrill to spend an evening with any one of those gifted artists, but five at once? It was like winning a trifecta, or to coin a phrase, a "pentecta". Both NYFOS and YCA share the same mission which just so happens to coincide with ours--fostering gifted young singers. It is no coincidence that there is overlap between NYFOS performers and YCA winners.

Regular readers know how fond we are of duets but we rarely get to write about ensembles with the exception of a few reviews of Brahms' Liebeslieder, which would have been right at home on last night's program; however our dear Steven Blier loves to introduce his NYFOS audience to works they likely have not heard before.

Although we loved the accompanying piano of Mr. Blier and Francesco Barfoed, we must say that there is something even more special when voices are heard a cappella. Take for example the opening number which just happens to be the oldest and also our favorite of the night. The song by Clément Janequin, a famous French composer of the 16th c., entitled "Les cris de Paris," was thrilling in its harmonies and surprisingly contemporary in its text. One could imagine it describing a marketplace in any populous town.

From Mozart we heard two of his Sei Notturni, one of which might have been a sketch for his soon-to-be-penned Cosi fan Tutte.  Schubert has written more than one serenade but the "Ständchen" we heard was a group effort which, we imagine, occurred when a man gathered his friends together to bolster his self-confidence as he went to woo his beloved.

We never thought of Beethoven as a composer of songs but he did set 12 Irish Songs--folk songs by nature. We were completely distracted by the density of the piano accompaniment, so well played by Francesco Barfoed that our ears were teased by a recurrent phrase that must have inspired Mendelssohn. Discussing it afterward with a couple singer friends, no one was able to identify it but it did make us think of the music for Midsummer Night's Dream and a fairyland scene. Or could it have been a Schubert lied about a supernatural creature? Dear Reader, if you heard it too and could possibly set our mind to rest, please write your thoughts in the comment section below. Otherwise, your reviewer will lose a lot of sleep!

Brahms' lovely "Die Meere" was written in 3/4 time signature and, like any barcarolle, had us swaying in our seats. The French also had their voices heard, namely Camille Saint-Saëns' "Pastorale" and Gabriel Fauré's "Pleurs d'or", the text of which was so lovely that we want to read Albert Samain's text aloud.

We never knew that Shostakovich set Jewish Folk Poetry, and in Yiddish no less. His mid 20th c. compositions have never tickled our ear  but we appreciated his evocative setting of "Winter" which actually gave us a chill.

Not all music of the last hundred years is distasteful to us. We actually enjoyed Libby Larsen's very funny "Jack's Valentine" in which each singer's lines overlapped another's with the repetition of "I love you. A whole lot. Very very much. A whole bunch. Forever." No piano accompaniment was needed. One could enjoy the vocal lines weaving together in a humorous tapestry.

A special treat was the New York premiere of Matt Boehler's setting of Robert Louis Stevenson' "Let Beauty Awake". We knew of Mr. Boehler as a singer and we have always said that vocal music should be written by singers and this proved our point. Mr. McGrew and Mr. Parrish did it justice.

Was there anyone in the audience who remembers The Beach Boys? Leave it to Mr. Blier to arrange Owen Wilson's "In My Room", a popular song from the 1960's, for the five voices. We looked it up online and, well, it was as different as day is from night. We loved the harmonies although the text sounded like teenage angst.

But wait! The closing number was even more radical. We admit that we had never heard of The Bobs, an 80's pop band, let alone the song "Trash" written by Gunnar Madsen and Richard Greene. We couldn't wait to get home to look for it online. Well, Mr. Blier always says "No song is safe from us" and in this case, his arrangement made a proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear. The five singers grabbed microphones and had the audience in stitches, singing about a slovenly man whose presumably female companion couldn't deal with his trash.

We have avoided listing who sang what (with one exception) because this was truly an ensemble effort by soprano Chelsea Guo, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner, tenor Daniel McGrew, and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish. We have reviewed all of them except for Ms. Guo who is still an undergraduate and plays piano as brilliantly as she sings. In the final number, the group used microphones and she appeared to have just the right style and flair.  What a fine group of singers!  All seem well on their way to stardom and we feel privileged to have heard them as they launch.

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HEAVENLY BODIES ALIGNED

 Brian Zeger, Francesco Barfoed, Joseph Parrish, Megan Moore, and Hera Hyesang Park

We understand that the planets of the solar system were all lined up last night and presumably visible in early evening in the Western sky. Rain and city lights likely made it impossible for New Yorkers to observe this interesting astronomical event. However, we participated in something even better--a lineup of vocal stars associated with The Juilliard School's  Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts. This stellar event took place at WQXR's The Greene Space and was introduced by the gracious announcer Midge Woolsey. The event was sponsored by the Gerda Lissner Fund-- Michael Fornabaio (President of the Lissner Charitable Fund). Karl Michaelis sponsored the Juilliard event at WQXR, which was the final entry in a 3-part series in partnership with WQXR including Manhattan School of Music, the Academy of Vocal Arts, and The Juilliard School.

The vocal gifts of these artists are so overwhelming that the listener can take for granted the fine points for which we are always listening. It becomes unnecessary to pick out details like dynamics and phrasing when the artistry is so flawless. Let us instead focus on what really counts in a vocal recital. Does the singer channel the intentions of the poet and the composer? Do we feel involved and connected? Do we perhaps get in touch with something private and access memories and feelings? Do we leave the concert feeling somehow enlarged in spirit?

Dear Reader, you have probably already guessed the answer.  Yes, yes, yes, and yes. We were enraptured for over an hour in a varied and interesting program, pulled into different worlds established by the singers.

Soprano Hera Hyesang Park was on loan from The Metropolitan Opera where she is enchanting audiences with her portrayal of Nanetta in Verdi's Falstaff. We will probably not get to see that performance but we think it's fair to say that Ms. Park has subsumed Nanetta's character, which showed in the girlish charm with which she sang "Non si da follia maggiore" from Rossini's Il Turco in Italia as well as Fiordiligi in the trio that ended the evening-- "Soave sia il vento" from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

But what a surprise to hear her show a bit of Iberian temperament in Maria Grever's "Te Quiero, Dijiste".  Our only disappointment is that the use of the detestable music stand marred the communication of Agustin Lara's Grenada. This is one of our favorite songs and we missed the thread of contact which should have remained unbroken. Still, the Spanish flavor was there, enhanced by the piano of Brian Zeger who just happens to be Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at Juilliard.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore achieved great depth of connection in a selection of lieder by Franz Schubert, who chose his poets wisely and added great emotion to the text with his melodic invention. Perhaps the reason contemporary songs seem so unmelodic is that Schubert used up all the melodies in his 600-plus lieder output.

In "Auf dem Wasser zu singen", the lilting piano of the excellent collaborative artist Francesco Barfoed introduced us to the timelessness of the waves and the transitory nature of our own existence. Ms. Moore captured Schubert's alternation of modes and moods with joyful expansiveness and melancholy introspection. "Im Frühling" reminds us of the bittersweetness of nostalgia, employing again the heart-piercing alternation of major and minor modes.

"Meeres Stille" takes on the concept of the calm before the storm with Ms. Moore showing us the fearful anticipation described by Goethe's text. Lest we expect that mood to last, we received Goethe's  joyous "Versunken" with memories of our own infatuations.  All these emotions were perfectly conveyed by Ms. Moore's many distinct colorations in a carefully calculated performance that came across as totally spontaneous, as it should. The audience applauded after every lied!

Ms. Moore also included songs by two 20th c. composers that were unknown to us but so pleasing to the ear that we want to hear more of them. Yvette Souviron wrote her own texts for "Carnavalito" and the sensual "Al Banco Solitario" and avoided the atonal pitfalls of most 20th c. composers. It was a surprising but welcome inclusion in the program, as was the Danish "Spring Song"  by Rued Langgaard, also unknown to us. The very lovely and tonal music pleased the ear and reminded us of the exultation attendant upon Spring's arrival as much as the Rachmaninoff song "Spring Waters".

The other singer on the program was bass-baritone Joseph Parrish who chose to sing quite a bit of Russian with excellent diction--two by Rachmaninoff--"Morning" and "My Child, You are as Beautiful as a Flower" with its lavish piano introduction. Mr. Parrish has a wondrously textured instrument and conveyed the stillness of daybreak described in Alezander Yanov's poetry.

His Tchaikovky selections presented a fine contrast. Our favorite was "Amid the Din of the Ball" and we couldn't keep from thinking of Onegin glimpsing Tatyana in the final act of the Tchaikovky opera. However, Tolstoy's  singer is hopeful and only dreams about the mysterious woman whereas Pushkin's ball-goer will push his case to Tatyana. In any case, Mr. Parrish brought out the wonder of the would be lover. Lermontov's narrator in "The Love of a Dead Man" is tormented by jealousy and is not sleeping peacefully and our singer captured that as well.

However, what we enjoyed most of his selections was his accompanying himself on the piano in Donny Hathaway's "A Song for You", setting of a text by Leon Russell. This bluesy song is, in our opinion, a true American art song, a heartfelt confession with interesting interplay between voice and piano. It was all the more meaningful because it was unexpected, unknown, and yet marvelously accessible and relatable.

The evening ended with the afore-mentioned trio from Cosi fan tutte with the three voices in splendid harmony; it sent us out into the rainy night feeling fulfilled by a superb concert and caring little about missing the planets.

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RUSSKI-TEUTONIC RECITAL AT JUILLIARD

Grace Francis, Megan Moore, Xu Cheng, Aleea Powell, Marina Iwao, Junseok Hwang,
Francesco Barfoed and Lila Dufy

We heard a finely curated program of lieder and Russian art song at last night's Liederabend at Juilliard. Over the past several years we have gained an appreciation of Russian opera and song which, at first, seemed inaccessible. As the sound became more familiar to our ear we noticed just how expressive the language is and how well the Russian masters set the text, both in rhythm and pitch. Fortunately coach and curator Natalia Katyukova chose the program well. Likely, she was also responsible for the young singers taking the stage with presence, introducing themselves, and telling a bit about the songs they would sing.

In the final set, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore and collaborative pianist Grace Francis made a fine team and performed selections from Tchaikovsky's Seven Romances, Op. 47. "If only I'd known" is a strophic song based on a folk tune with text by Tolstoy. Ms. Moore sang it with escalating urgency and dynamic variety. We enjoyed the melismatic passages.

What affected us the most was "Was I not a blade of grass in the field", another strophic song with some stunning melismatic passages and a powerful climax. We have heard Ms. Moore in recital and competitions-- singing an appealing Cenerentola and a resolute Dorabella as well as the Komponist--always admiring her lyricism and dramatic skills. But last night she made us weep in her deeply committed rendering of a young woman's hopeless situation.

Fortunately, the set and the concert ended on a more cheerful note with "Whether day dawns" in which Ms. Francis let loose with a passionate postlude. We always love it when a pianist who has been delicately supporting the singer is able to tear up the keyboard like that and show a different side of her artistry.

The other three singer/collaborative pianist pairs were also fine. Soprano Lila Dufy has a pleasing tone and lovely resonance in the upper range. Francesco Barfoed accompanied with soft hands lending sensitive support. The generous use of gesture seen in the two selections from Strauss' Mädchenblumen would have made the Rachmaninoff songs even better. Perhaps the fact that she translated the Strauss herself had given her more ease in the interpretation. The evocative text by Pushkin in "Muza" could definitely profit by some storytelling.

Soprano Aleea Powell deserves recognition for taking the stage in spite of a recent tragedy that she shared with the audience. She has a gracious stage presence and sang four songs by Richard Strauss accompanied by the piano precision of Xu Cheng who made some lovely rippling sounds in "Ständchen". We would very much like to see (or rather to hear) Ms. Powell achieve some consistency in her final "ch"s. Like so many American singers, she softens them so much that they go missing on us. We want to hear this lovely young woman again.

We tend to be rather nit-picky with German but not all with Russian, which we do not speak! To our ears, everyone's Russian sounded just fine.

Baritone Junseok Hwang clearly loves to sing and is unafraid to show his enthusiasm. Pianist Marina Iwao consistently matched his emphases. In Schubert's "An Silvia", with text taken from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, he assumed the expansive tone of a bedazzled suitor. 

In "An den Mond", Ms. Iwao produced such ripples on the piano that suggested nothing less than Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata which had been composed 14 years earlier. We have no evidence that Schubert heard Beethoven's famous sonata, but it is likely that he was influenced by the master. We loved the change of dynamics and the urgency of the central part. The third verse in a minor key was rendered with contrasting pathos.

We rarely hear songs by Mihail Glinka and were delighted that Mr. Hwang performed two of them. "To Molly" has an interesting rhythm and a challenging ascending passage at the end which echoes the text "rising to the heavens".

That phrase just about describes our spirits as we left this satisfying recital. It's always exciting for us to monitor students' progress as they move through the excellent Juilliard Vocal Arts program.

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COSI FAN JUILLIARD

William Socolof, James Ley, Kathleen O’Mara, Mer Wohlgemuth, Megan Moore, and Erik van Heyningen (photo by Richard Termine)

One cannot find better voices than one finds at Juilliard Vocal Arts. It was a revelation to hear six healthy young voices interpreting the characters of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte just as they should be. In the incredibly challenging role of Fiordiligi, soprano Kathleen O'Mara fearlessly tackled the high lying tessitura and broad upward jumps of "Come scoglio" and "Per pietà" maintaining clarity of tone in two very different emotional states.

As the somewhat more mutable Dorabella, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore dazzled us with her histrionic outpouring in "Smanie implacabili" and later, as her resolve weakens, with "É amore un ladroncello". We particularly appreciated the varying colors as her intention changed.

The role of Despina was splendidly realized by soprano Mer Wohlgemuth whose acting was completely persuasive and whose singing never showed a hint of "technique" but rather seemed completely natural. Her dramatic intention did not vary but she had an opportunity to show off her style in "Una donna a quindici anni".

The men were similarly outstanding. James Ley made a fine Ferrando and did complete justice to the marvelously tender and melodic "Un aura amorosa", then varied his coloration effectively for the bitter "Tradito, schernito".

As his friend Guglielmo, baritone Erik van Heyningen lived up to his full potential, managing to convey both the triumph in seducing his friend's fiancée as well as disappointment in "Donne mie, le fate a tanti".

We were more than usually impressed with the performance of bass-baritone William Socolof who performed the role of Don Alfonso, lightening his substantial voice sufficiently to perform the most exquisitely precise turns in the vocal line. We love to hear voices that possess both size and flexibility.

Duets and ensembles were effectively rendered with perfect balance among the voices, giving Mozart the attention to detail that his interweaving lines demand.

In the pit we had the superb Juilliard Orchestra responding just as one would expect to the astute conducting of Nimrod David Pfeffer. When we could tear our eyes away from the stage we enjoyed watching his expressive hand working in tandem with his precise baton. It was a performance filled with lyricism and subtlety. Nathaniel LaNasa played the harpsichord continuo.

And what about the production? Da Ponte's story was pulled up by the roots and transplanted to contemporary America. The story is set in a high school in a town called West Naples which could have been anywhere but by name alone, suggested the West coast of Florida. During the overture, the four young people have just graduated. They are therefore meant to be about 18 years old and therefore vulnerable to the machinations of the older Don Alfonso, who seemed to be an athletic coach.

Despina was transformed into a teacher and, in an original dramatic subtext, appeared to have had a one time problematic relationship with the aforementioned coach. Instead of a servant offering the girls their morning chocolate, she delivered academic papers.

Kristen Robinson's sets fell in line with this take on the story. Act I takes place in what appears to be a dormitory bathroom, complete with stalls with open doors. The "poison" taken by the "Albanians" is swigged from jugs of bleach drawn from what must be a janitorial closet.

Other scenes take place behind the bleachers of an athletic field where the two girls seem to hang out on beach chairs surrounded by detritus, including a puzzling broken bottom half of a torso--the kind used as window dressing. Or so we thought.

For the final act, the bleachers were turned around and the characters scampered up and down with some risk of stumbles. At the top was a booth to which repaired the newly formed couples for some canoodling, followed by "walks of shame".

Sara Jean Tosetti's costumes also fell in line with the story. Most effective was Despina's reserved suit with sensible shoes. The four young graduates wore motley costumes with doofy hats and, in a clever and original twist, the men did not fool their sweethearts by dressing in exotic costumes. Rather, they wore preppie clothes and neatly trimmed hair. Guess they could have fooled their sweethearts!

In one puzzling scene, Dorabella, newly mated with Guglielmo, pulls off his wig. We expected this to indicate that she recognized the ruse but the remainder of the scene did not fulfill our expectations.

When the phony rescue of the two "Albanians" takes place, Despina appears in a ridiculous and not convincing costume and when the fake marriage takes place, she appears in a white and gold jumpsuit suggesting Elvis Presley as the marriage officiant.

The audience loved all these sight gags and laughed every time the girls took selfies of themselves or used their cell phones. Did we love it?  No, we did not. We felt that the story was shoehorned into a "concept" which worked only partially. We read the notes of Director David Paul when we got home (as we usually do, to avoid coloring our perception of any work of art). His words made a case for the temporal and geographical transposition in terms of contemporary resonance.

However, regular readers will recall that we like to do the work ourself, instead of being spoon fed. We remember with overwhelming pleasure the production from seven years ago, directed by Stephen Wadsworth. It was true to time and place and told Da Ponte's story well, although darkly, with lots of anger and confusion. We spent quite a bit of time thinking about how consistent human feeling is from the 19th c. to the 21st and also about what is different.

Mr. Paul's view wound up similarly dark with no marriage at the end and no pairing off. We will say that we enjoyed the way he directed his cast and, within the framework he chose, the acting was valid and meaningful. We just didn't care for fitting the story into his Procrustean bed.  We guess it's a question of taste. We don't mind updating if such updating tells us something new but this production did not. 

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TALENTS OF THE WORLD INTERNATIONAL VOICE COMPETITION

Contestants and Judges of 2nd Annual International Voice Competition of
Talents of the World, Inc.

This was only the second annual competition run by Talents of the World, Inc. but the competition already has a reputation for fairness. Indeed, there were no voice teachers as judges, favoring their students.  Judges included President of Talents of the World David Gvinianidze, Adam Cavagnaro of IMG Artists, Metropolitan Opera star tenor Francisco Casanova,  Alexandra Naumenko of The Bolshoi Theatre, Artists Manager Matthew Laifer, and the lovely singer Olga Lisovskya of Talents of the World.

We enjoyed the informality of the competition, held at the National Opera Center. Member of the audience could hear the judges discussing which selections they wanted to hear and why they chose them. Apparently, competitors were asked to prepare a couple of arias and also a piece from the music theater or art song genre. Although we did not always agree with the judges' requests, we were mostly in agreement with their decisions about the awards.

If you want to know who won how much money, you won't find it here; perhaps Talents of the World will post it on their website or FB page. We choose to use our limited space to give our impressions of the singers who made us sit up and take notice. The overall quality was extremely high. Semi-finals had been held in both New York and Boston so we got to hear singers we had heard before and enjoyed, as well as hearing some new singers that we'd like to hear again.

We felt very involved with tenor WooYoung Yoon in the role of Tonio from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. We totally believed his character, equally exuberant over winning the love of Marie and over his acceptance into the regiment. There were no problems with the succession of high C's in his "Ah, mes amis!" although we hope with time they will become "easier"; we noted an improvement in his pronunciation of the French nasals. His second selection was Richard Strauss' "Heimliche Auforderung", which he imbued with clarion tone and passionate delivery.

Soprano Shaina Martinez made a superb Fiordiligi in her delivery of "Come scoglio" from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, as firm vocally as the intention of the character she was portraying. There was dramatic clarity and a lovely centeredness throughout the register. Her tonal quality has the same kind of excitement as Mr. Young's. Furthermore, she showed considerable versatility by singing "Tu che di gel sei cinta" from Puccini's Turandot. She was persuasive and affecting enough to melt anyone's heart.  As if that were not enough, we heard a beautiful rendering of Rachmaninoff's "Zdes Khorosho" which we recognized as being "How fair this place".

Megan Moore has a lovely mezzo-soprano which she employed judiciously as Cenerentola from the Rossini opera; she delighted us with "Nacqui all'affanno...non più mesta"; she took plenty of time for the embellishments in the slow section but then in the fast section, she dazzled us with her rapidfire coloratura.  She made a splendid Komponist from Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. She also sang Rachmaninoff's "Ya zhdu tebya" with deep feeling and dynamic variety. Although we do not speak Russian, we got the feeling of nostalgia for something lost.

Sarah Saturnino also showed impressive versatility going from the wild seductiveness of Carmen's "Seguidilla" to the wily charms of Rosina in "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. Her mezzo-soprano instrument delighted us with its texture.   Her appearance changed dramatically as she assumed each character, and so did her vocal coloration. We would have preferred to hear her Tchaikovsky song but the judges requested "So in Love" from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate, which she delivered with gorgeous vibrato.

Soprano Carolina López Moreno sang Juliette's "Dieu! Quel frisson...Amour ranime mon courage" in lovely French and followed it with Violetta's Act I aria "E strano...Sempre libera". She was persuasive both in her awe over the possibility of love and her determination to continue her life of wild abandon and pleasure.

Soprano Sarah Joyce Cooper performed the same scene with conviction and with equal attention to the two different moods. We enjoyed that as well as "Depuis le Jour" from Charpentier's Louise. 

Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Kinder brough brightness and energy to "Nobles seigneurs, salut!" from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, an opera of which we cannot claim familiarity. But we very much enjoyed her stylish and waltzy performance. Equally fine was "Wie du warst", Octavian's gorgeous post-coital aria from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

Soprano Laura McHugh introduced us to Adelaide's Aria "It's my Wedding" from Jonathan Dove's The Enchanted Pig, derived from Roumanian and Norwegian fairytales. We don't know how this "bridezilla" song fits into the opera but we loved Ms. McHugh's hilarious interpretation and want very much to hear it again!

Soprano Meredith Hansen exhibited a large instrument and made a good choice in "Tu puniscimi o Signore" from Verdi'sLuisa Miller.

Tenor Tianchi Zhang showed a nice ringing top and lovely pianissimo, especially in "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" from Franz Lehár's Das Land des Lächelns.

Basso Zachary James has a powerful instrument that shows promise for Wagner. He did a great job with Claggart's nasty aria from Britten's Billy Budd. What was remarkable was his superlative English diction. Every word was clear.

Baritone Michael McAvoy did best with "Lucky to Be Me" from Bernstein's On the Town. He seemed less comfortable in French and Italian, actually a bit stiff.

We have heard tenor David Rivera Bozón before and wished that he had chosen to sing something in Spanish. His selections in English did not do justice to his talents. Singing Tony's aria "Maria" from Bernstein's West Side Story was a particularly unfortunate choice in that Tony's not being Spanish was the main problem in his love affair with the Latina Maria; hearing the song sung with a Spanish accent was just peculiar.

Baritone Chonghwa Kim's interpretation of Rodrigo's "O Carlo ascolta...Io morro" from Verdi's Don Carlo seemed a better fit for his voice than "Avant de quitter ses lieux" from Gounod's Faust.

Tenor Omar Najmi gave us one of our favorite songs, the not very seasonal "Spring Waters" by Rachmaninoff.

The judges took over an hour to deliberate and we can surely understand why.  We would absolutely hate that job!

Winners received cash prizes and opportunities to perform as well as being exposed to agents and managers.

(c) meche kroop

 

MARCELLA SEMBRICH INTERNATIONAL VOICE COMPETITION

WooYoung Yoon, Hubert Zapiór, and Alexandra Nowakowski

What better way to honor the legendary soprano Marcella Sembrich than by nurturing the next generation of singers and inspiring their careers! Under the artistic direction of another wonderful singer Edyta Kulczak (review of her recital can be found through the search function on this blog), this year's competition, sponsored by the Kosciuszko Foundation, drew entries from all over the world. We were fortunate to attend the finals yesterday and were impressed by the quality of the final round singers. If only there were more days in the week we would have happily attended the semi-finals.

Top three prizes were awarded to soprano Alexandra Nowakowski, baritone Hubert Zapiór, and tenor Woo Young Yoon. Each contestant sang two songs; this is a very good idea because versatility is important and there is rarely a single song or aria that can show off the artistry and strengths of any individual artist.

Ms. Nowakowski, heard and admired last year at the Gerda Lissner award recital, has a pleasing vibrato that lent special impact to a song by Paderewski entitled "Gdy ostatnia roza zwiedla". We don't often get to hear Polish songs and enjoyed the way in which the melody followed the sound of the text. Yet, it was the subsequent aria "O luce di quest' anima" from Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix that got us to sit up and take notice. We were impressed by her bright coloratura sound and the accuracy of her fioritura, not to mention her charming stage presence. She received all the applause deserved by her excellent performance.

Mr. Zapiór has captured our attention all year and we have not missed a single opportunity to review his performances. He has made quite a splash in New York City and has been garnering awards left and right. Accompanied by Katelan Trân Terrell, one of our favorite collaborative pianists, he gave an unforgettable performance of Figaro's aria from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

This aria offers the baritone an opportunity to create a memorable character, one who is a man of many parts, as they say, and just a touch full of himself. No two baritones sing it exactly the same way; we loved the way Mr. Zapiór colored his voice differentially when he spoke of the ladies and when he spoke of his gentlemen clients. His eyes sparkled and his gestures were generous. We wanted to become his client that very minute! To add to the interest, the patter part was perfectly realized--rapidly but with no loss of clarity.

Bel Canto is Mr. Zapiór's strong suit and we loved the way he sang "Ah!, per sempre...Bel sogno beato", Riccardo's aria from Bellini's I Puritani. There was legato to spare, some gorgeous melismatic measures, and warmth of tone.

Mr. Yoon dazzled the audience with "O Wie Angstlich", Belmonte's aria from Mozart's singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail. We noticed that this artist sets up each aria well. It is clear that he knows what his character is about and what the text has to say. He imbued the aria with plenty of dynamic variety and kept it interesting.

His second selection was "Ah mes amis" from Donizetti's comic charmer Fille du Regiment. He had all the right gestures and readily established the lovability of his character whilst hitting all the high C's. To put a "plus" on this "A" performance, we would like to see him ease up on those high C's and trust them more. And one other little thing--although his French was quite good for the most part, a little tweaking of the pronunciation of the word "main" would be helpful, since the word occurs several times.

The other three singers were superb and we would have hated being in the position of those esteemed judges. Particularly admirable was soprano Hayan Kim whose poignant "Piangeró la sorte mia" from Händel's Giulio Cesare was a real heartbreaker. Her bright expressive instrument was stunning in its legato; in the cabaletta there was astonishing fire. She is a master at using dynamic variation and we loved the embellishments in the return of the slow section.

Moving from the 17th c. to the 20th c. she performed Sophie's aria "Ich bin ever liebden" from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. She just melted our heart with Sophie's adorable sweetness! We thought it the perfect role for her.

Megan Moore, new to us, sang a melodic Polish song by Moniuszko-- "Powiedzcie mi", making us wish we understood the language or had a translation. She followed this with "This Journey" from Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in which the nun asks her god for guidance. Her diction was impeccable and we understood every word. Perhaps, however, singing in English is not the best way to show off a singer's gifts.  

Daniel Miroslaw, heard and enjoyed many times at Juilliard, performed a fine Tchaikovsky song "Blagoslovlyayu vas, lesa" (I bless you forest!) with a deep resonance and interesting texture.  In "La calunnia" from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, he created a very pompous Basilio for us, employing comedic skills with the excellent pianist Brent Funderburk echoing the humor in the piano.

Not only do the winners receive generous cash prizes but they also are given recitals in Poland. The audiences in Poland are in for a treat!

(c) meche kroop