JUST LIKE CHAMPAGNE

Kimberly Hann and Kristen Kemp

Vocal music is like champagne, you can have too much but you can never have enough.  This is what we thought whilst heading downtown for Kimberly Hann's graduation recital at Mannes just after attending a satisfying recital at the Morgan Library. Is this greed and gluttony? Was it time to show Mannes School of Music some love? Or was it the memory of Ms. Hann's outstanding performance with Cantanti Project as the warrior Orlando, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to Handel's beautiful music.

Ms. Hann calls herself a Contralto/Mezzo. She has the low notes but, as you can see in our photo, she is far too beautiful to portray witches and sorceresses, and way to feminine for trouser roles. We will just have to wait and see!  Perhaps someday, someone will write an opera for her unique assets. 

The program lasted only an hour but revealed a well rounded artist who has worked hard to earn her Master of Music degree. She began with two arias by Handel which expressed a great deal of feeling. From Alcina, she sang "E gelosia, forza e d'amore"; in this Act I aria, Bradamante comes to the sorceress' island to find her lover besotted by Alcina.  She expresses her jealous rage in vocal fireworks from the top of her register to the bottom.  Quite an opener, and very well handled by the gifted Ms. Hann.

In the challenging "Cielo! Se tu il consenti" from Orlando (an aria we heard her sing before), the warrior's jealousy is not only murderous but suicidal. Ms. Hann conveyed all the madness of the character. Handel is perfect for her voice and she attacked the fioritura with as much artistry as enthusiasm.

A total change allowed the audience to relax from all that intense excitement. Four melodic songs by Brahms elicited different moods. "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer" takes us right to death's door with a dying woman begging her lover to come quickly. The last song "Von ewiger Liebe" is a real charmer and clearly Ms. Hann understands what she is singing about. Although we heard a slight alteration of color from the man's trepidation to the woman's reassurance, we would like to hear just a little more variety.

Tchaikovsky's songs are always welcome even though we do not understand Russian.  This is OK as long as the singer understands and communicates. This was beautifully conveyed in "Reconciliation". We loved the phrase "And try not to remember in winter How you picked the roses in spring!"

"None but the lonely heart" is yet another setting of Goethe's text "Nur wer die sehnsucht kennt" which we would not have translated as lonely.  It comprises yearning, longing, and anxiety. We would like to offer a prize to a reader who can name all of the composers who set this wonderful text. Someday we would like to hear all the settings on the same program.

Especially lovely was Ms. Hann's performance of the first four songs of Hector Berlioz' Les nuits d'ete. These gave Ms. Hann the opportunity to express a variety of moods and colors from the lighthearted "Villanelle" to the "liebestod" experienced by the rose in "Le spectre de la rose". The darker color of "Sur les lagunes" matched the sorrow of death and the teasing good humor of "L'ile inconnue" involves a man who promises a woman abundant fantasy until she lets him know what she really wants--fidelity.

It was a most satisfying recital and presages a fine future for this lovely young artist. We were glad we went.

Collaborative pianist was Kristen Kemp.

(c) meche kroop

ORLANDO GONE BONKERS

Carolyn DalMonte, Allison Gish, Marisa Karchin, Joyce Yin, Kimberly Hann, Kirsti Esch, and  Sara Lin Yoder

Nothing gladdens our heart more than seeing a "Sold Out" sign at the opera. No, opera is not dying in NYC, but it is taking new forms. Last night we were privileged to join Cantanti Project's production of Handel's Orlando. The libretto for this opera was adapted from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, an epic poem that provided Handel with material for two other operas, Alcina and Ariodante, all marked by complicated plots. Orlando is a fellow who just can't stay out of trouble.

Director Brittany Goodwin thought seriously about the silly plot and came up with an interpretation that worked just fine. Obviously a lot of teamwork went into this tight ensemble piece and it worked well. With astute understanding that this tale is one of delusion and obsession, she has placed the action in the psychiatric ward of a mental hospital with the magician Zoroastro transformed into a psychiatrist. We are not sure whether the creative team was aware of the 2007 Zurich production which was also set in a mental ward following the first World War. Making sense of all the love triangles would challenge an expert in geometry.

The contemporary aspect of the tragic aftermath of combat added to the value of the interpretation. The long history of the joys and pains of loving and losing love, the jealousy, the rejection, the lies and betrayals have all been fodder for the theater since its birth. PTSD would make a person more than usually vulnerable to all that. Truth to tell, this concept would probably not have been welcomed at The Metropolitan Opera. Every time we have seen a director's imagination run wild on a Handel work, we have been unhappy, since the dialogue generally seemed to have been shoehorned into the setting.

But Ms. Goodwin's concept worked well on the small stage at the National Opera Center and a number of creative choices by Set Designer Johanna Asgeirsdottir added to the success. The opening scene takes place with poor Orlando lying on a stretcher requiring sedation from the medical staff. A cabinet of pharmaceuticals was there to make things plain.

More action takes place in the art therapy room where there is an easel and paints and a scroll of paper on which trees and carvings could be drawn. There are three other patients who portray the characters troubling Orlando's mind--Dorinda the shepherdess whose wrist-cutting scars have been covered up by sock puppets, Angelica the Princess of Cathay who sports a crown apparently made from drinking straws, and her lover Medoro. 

The fact that all the parts were sung by women put the work in a different light, so to speak. Pronouns in the score occasionally underwent a gender switch. The psychiatrist (Zoroastro) is a role generally sung by a bass but Kirsti Esch's mezzo (to our ears, a contralto) managed the low tessitura just fine but exhibited enough flexibility for the fioritura. Her "Sorge infausta una procella" was a highlight of the evening as she restored Orlando to sanity.

Orlando's femininity in the person of the beautiful mezzo Kimberly Hann was no problem since female military personnel can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder just as badly as men. Ms. Hahn was as impressive vocally as she was dramatically; she managed to generate sympathy for her distress as she interacted with Angelica who rejected her for the Prince Medoro. We loved her "Fammi combattere", in which she tries to convince Angelica of her love.

The role of Angelica was beautifully sung by soprano Marisa Karchin with impressively bright tone and facility with the embellishments. In "Se fedel vuoi ch’io ti creda" she convincingly pretends to be jealous of Orlando's interest in Isabella, a character he has rescued but who doesn't appear.  

As Dorinda, we heard soprano Joyce Yin herself. (She, along with Laura Mitchell and Sam Fujii, founded Cantanti Project three years ago.) Her character gets a lot of gorgeous arias, our favorite of which was the arioso "Quando spieghi tuoi tormenti" in which she bids farewell to her sylvan home, including the nightingales, like which she sounded. She also has a number of humorous bits such as covering her ears when the orchestra tunes up. 

Dorinda is in love with Medoro who is (of course) in love with Angelica. The role of Medoro was sung by Allison Gish and not as a pants role. In this version, there is lots of lesbian love in the psych ward! Medoro gets some great arias as well, our favorite of which was "Verdi allori".

Another highlight of the vocal score was the trio in which the lovers Angelica and Medoro try to console Dorinda, "Consolati o bella". One is reminded of the gorgeous blending of three female voices in the finale of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

As far as the instrumental score, Maestro Dylan Sauerwald led his musicians in a spirited reading of the gorgeous score which seems to have been judiciously cut. From the harpsichord he conducted the Dorian Baroque Orchestra, comprising a string quartet for this performance. Marina Fragoulis and Edson Scheid played the violins, Edmundo Ramirez, the viola, and Margalit Cantor, the cello. 

There will be one more performance on March 5th at 7:30 at Shetler Studios with some of the same excellent cast, and some other fine singers, accompanied by William Lewis at the piano. We recommend it highly, especially to those who find Handel's plots ridiculous and the performances too lengthy. This adaptation lasts but 2 1/2 hours and is high in entertainment value as well as musical value. No wonder it sold out!

(c) meche kroop

GETTING A HANDLE ON HANDEL

Brennan Hall, Anya Matanovič, Kiera Duffy, and Hadleigh Adams

If you attended Händel's Orlando last night at the WhiteboxLab/Sound Lounge and closed your eyes you would have heard five truly magnificent voices and a wonderful chamber orchestra making marvelous music. But then you might have missed the point.

Director R.B. Schlather has taken on an ambitious project--presenting three Händel operas adapted from Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso. We thoroughly enjoyed the first entry Alcina (review available from our archives by using the search bar) and were eager for his Orlando, composed by Händel in 1733. This groundbreaking opera was not a popular success at that time and lay dormant for over two centuries.  It's first American appearance was at Carnegie Hall in 1971.

Popular success arrived this week at the WhiteboxLab/Sound Lounge. Mr. Schlather's idea was to bring opera downtown and to highlight the actual process of creation of the opera as well as the final product. Rehearsals were live-streamed and also open to the public. Sadly, our schedule permitted only attendance for the live performance.

The playing area ran the length of the long room on an elevated platform with the seating of the audience in similar configuration so no one was far from the "stage". To the rear was the excellent chamber orchestra, sensitively led by Music Director Geoffrey McDonald who magically managed to define all the instrumental lines--using only his bare expressive hands and, at one point, exhibiting his bare chest as well. The listening experience was like getting close to a fabric and being able to recognize each thread composing the pattern. 

Instruments of the baroque period were in evidence and continuo was provided by harpsichordist Elliot Figg. There were some magical moments as when soprano Anya Matanovič in the role of Dorinda produced a stunning trill and the harpsichord echoed her trill. When Angelica (soprano Kiera Duffy) and Medoro (countertenor Brennan Hall) reminisce about the woods where they first fell in love, woodland sounds could be heard in the orchestra.

The story is silly and a straight presentation would never fly. The knight Orlando is obsessively in love with the princess Angelica who (of course) loves another--the Moorish prince Medoro whose wounds she healed in the cave of the shepherdess Dorinda.  Of course, Dorinda also loves Medoro. Orlando (countertenor Drew Minter) goes mad but is restored by the magician Zoroaster, performed by baritone Hadleigh Adams, who had enough strength in the lower register to qualify as a bass-baritone.

Mr. Schlather's daring direction and Terese Wadden's costume design presented these characters as denizens of downtown when downtown was delightfully decadent. Mr. Minter appeared as a derelict in pajamas under his street clothes and a raincoat on top. He looked frightfully seedy and disheveled. No wonder Angelica didn't love him! His last act aria "Vaghe pupille" was movingly delivered.

The role of Angelica was performed by Kiera Duffy whose bright soprano handily nailed Händel's embellishments. There was something uniquely affecting about the timbre of her voice with its just-right vibrato. She wore a short fur, straight out of a 70's thrift shop.

Dorinda's character was finely portrayed by Anya Matanovič; her lustrous soprano nicely served the character. When she sang about a nightingale in "Quando spieghi tuoi tormenti" she sounded like one. She sat for a long period of time behind a potted palm dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Her consolation prize for losing Medora was....a Yankees pin and a cake provided by Zoroaster which she iced in blue. Musically, the trio "Consolati, o bella" for the two sopranos and Mr. Hall, was one of the highlights.

Zoroaster, being a magician, appeared in many guises, among them a Hell's Angel type motorcycle dude, Santa Claus, and a patissier. Then he appeared in a "onesie" looking like a serpent. Then he showed up in white body paint.  None of this distracted from his marvelously resonant voice as he sang "Sorge infausta una procella", another musical highlight.

Medoro merited no such costume extravagance, dressed simply in casual street clothes. His countertenor is sweet, pure, and youthful. His marvelous aria "Verdi allori" showed off his musicianship as well as his voice.

Paul Tate dePoo designed the set--a simple wooden bench with five spaces--and JAX Messenger was responsible for the apt lighting. Excellent titles by Jude Tietjen were projected on the far right and far left walls.  This was uncomfortable to negotiate but fortunately the singers' Italian diction was so fine that the titles became superfluous.

The opera concludes with Zoroaster having restored Orlando's sanity and successfully  gotten him to follow Mars instead of Venus. We left the Whitebox space somewhat dazzled and eager for the third entry in the trilogy--Ariodante. We are always overjoyed to see new iterations of old forms. Stay tuned!

(c) meche kroop