EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE

Shawn Chang and Erin Wagner

We have had 5 years to watch the artistic growth of mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner, an exciting artist whose worth has been noted and appreciated by both Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song and by Young Concert Artists. We recall admiring her performance as The Mother in Britten's Albert Herring  during her days at Manhattan School of Music. We remember some Barber also (his Hermitage Songs) at a Gerda Lissner Competition Winner's Recital. There was some lovely Schumann at a Juilliard Songfest (Frauenlieben und Leben). We decided she was someone to watch.

And then Covid interrupted everyone's career! But Ms. Wagner bounced back with some impressive Strauss ("Sein wir wieder gut" from Ariadne auf Naxos) impressing us with a strong upper register and winning her a major award from The George and Nora London Foundation.  And since then, some most enjoyable contributions to a NYFOS program and this Young Concert Artists solo recital at Merkin Hall.

Of course, there have been many more honors and prizes and a stint at the Houston Grand Opera Studio but it is only our loss that we did not get to hear all of them.

Dear Reader, we are very particular in our preferences and what stood out for us at this YCA recital was a quartet of songs by Franz Schubert whose lieder, in our opinion, have never been equalled in melodic invention, storytelling, correspondence between voice and piano, and just basic listenability. Although we love the songs of Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler, if we had to choose just one, it would be Schubert.

Four of his songs were sung in sets of two. In "Wehmut", Mattaus von Collin's  text speaks of the melancholy which tinges the appreciation of  the beauty of nature. In "Herbst", the poet (Ludwig Rellstab) compares the loss of love with the autumnal losses in nature. What impressed us was how Ms. Wagner's vocal coloration encompassed sorrow, anxiety, and also the joys of nature.

Goethe's text for "Hoffnung" inspired Schubert to write a jaunty melody that provided some relief to our saddening mood and allowed Ms. Wagner's lighter coloration to give us cheer. However, our very favorite of the four songs was "Frühlingsglaube" in which the poet (Johann Ludwig Uhland) used imagery of the coming Spring to lighten his tormented heart. And just listen to the way Schubert's melody echoed the rhyme scheme of A-A-B, C-C-B! This familiar melody took possession of our brain and Ms. Wagner's lovely voice has echoed in our ear ever since.

We do not care for most 20th c. poetry and decry the unmelodic music it has dictated. And thus we did not enjoy the two songs by the Ukrainian composer Stefania Turkewich nearly as much, although Ms. Wagner injected them with intense drama. 

One cannot fail to admire the spirit of Viktor Ullmann who managed to write music under the harsh rule of the Nazi regime whilst confined to the concentration camp at Teresienstadt. Still, we found his cycle of sonnets with text by the 16th c. poet Louïze Labe to be a bit long, dwelling on a broken heart like a friend who goes on and on, making one try very hard to listen whilst not really relating.  After making note of Ms. Wagner's fine French, we found our attention turning to the piano writing which collaborative pianist Shawn Chang performed with a light sweet touch.

Thankfully, we got to hear more Schubert in the second half of the program and found it curious that the text he chose (by Johann Mayrhofer) utilized the same rhyme scheme as Uhland did. Again we observed how this dictates a most singable melodic line. What was interesting about the performance was that we just heard the same piece "Iphigenia" sung the night before by a soprano who  handled it quite differently. Both young singers are admirable artists and how wonderful it is to hear different interpretations in close temporal proximity. Ms. Wagner made her plaintive pleas to the gods with beautiful and apt piano accompaniment.

In "Die Götter Griechenlands"  Schiller used a different rhyme scheme (A-B-A-B-A-B)  and we loved the way Schubert gave the same motif to the voice and the piano in alteration. And we loved the way Ms. Wagner made the most of it.

Us Now  was composed by Mr. Chang, a setting of text by Jacqueline Suskin who seems to have discovered the philosophy of Existentialism, a philosophy which has guided our very own life. But the text came across as a lecture. Frankly, we listen to music in order to feel, not to think. After the concert, we read Ms. Wagner's lengthy and thoughtful essay about the current situation in the world, hence "Everything Must Change" as the title of the concert. Of course, it would be a fine thing if music could change the world but we just don't see it. We prefer such themes as "Springtime" with a singer giving us appropriate songs that fill us with hope (like Rachmaninoff's "Rushing Waters").

Although we are in agreement with her opinions on the state of the world we were unable to understand the choice of music and felt as if we failed to grasp something. We checked this out with our art loving companion, with whom we have had discussions on the state and fate of the world, and learned that our opinion was shared.

Two unusual pieces ended the program. One was a song by a band called Radiohead with whom we were unacquainted. The lyrics of "Everything In Its Right Place" were nonsensical and obsessively repetitious and the melody was fragmented; but apparently it  meant something to the artists since Mr. Chang did the arrangement and Ms. Wagner had great fun singing it. We looked up the original online and didn't enjoy that either.

The second one sounded better to our ears. It was a bluesy song called, of course, "Everything Must Change"-- by another artist unfamiliar to us named Bernard Ighner. It was also arranged by Mr. Chang and we loved the simplicity of the melody and lyrics. Indeed, it had the immediacy that we love in Schubert. Of course, we looked that up online also and enjoyed the original recording. But not as much as Schubert!

We also needed to look up the encore song-- Randy Newman's  "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and, although popular music is not our fach, we can see why people love it and respond to the melody and lyrics. It was brave of Ms. Wagner to "cover" it after hearing Bette Midler's version and Nina Simone's.

© meche kroop

 

CUBANS IN PARIS

New York Festival of Song at Juilliard with Cubans in Paris

 We were raised a stone's throw from Cuba and we counted among our friends a number of people who had fled Castro's regime. What no one ever told us was that there had been another mass exodus in the 1920's. The violent and repressive regime of Machado led to economic decline and was a hostile environment for musicians, especially if they wrote in the Afro-Cubanismo style. According to Steven Blier's excellent essay, Paris welcomed them with open arms.

Last night's concert was the annual event we always look forward to when Mr. Blier brings his brand of magic to Juilliard where his students always bring even more magic to the stage. Cubans in Paris was filled with terpsichorean energy, luscious melodies, and captivating rhythms. 

Although the students got to do a lot of dancing and acting, we were sadly confined to our seat. The fast-rising director Mary Birnbaum created a little drama out of each song and Adam Cates created the compelling choreography. Shawn Chang provided able assistance to Mr. Blier at the second piano and we must say we have never seen a pianist with such erect posture. Leonardo Granados was responsible for the percussion on conga drums, supplying the rhythmic impulse.

Those who know our taste in music will not be surprised to learn that the first piece on the program--"La bella cubana"-- was our favorite song of the evening, remaining in first place no matter how many others appealed to our eyes and ears. Indeed it was one of two songs from an earlier period, just after the turn of the 20th century; it was composed by José White, a child prodigy whose music was admired by none other than Rossini. This paean to a beautiful Cuban woman was sung in splendid harmony by tenor César Andrés Parreño and baritone Kyle Miller.

Mr. Parreño has quite a feel for Cuban music and delighted us further in a duet with the lovely mezzo-soprano Olivia Cosío. "Si llego a besarte!" was a ballad of yearning, and who would not yearn for the love of the lovely Ms. Cosío. We enjoyed his solo "Tú no sabe inglé", a very funny popular song by Emilio Grenet, whose music was far more accessible than Alejandro Garcí Caturla's "Bito Manué" an earlier setting of the same humorous text by Nicolas Guillén, here performed in fine funny fashion by tenor Santiago Pizarro and Mr. Miller. This poor guy can't connect with all the available American women tourists because he is linguistically handicapped.

The pair also worked brilliantly together in excerpts from the operetta Toi c'est moi by Moisés Simons. The work had a charming music hall feel and told of the adventures of a pair of buddies under both warm fraternal circumstances and also during a fight--"Entre copains".  What a bromance! The choreography was outstanding.

Sindo Garay was a self-taught musician who knew how to write beautiful harmonies. His "Guarina" (another song from the turn of the 20th c.) was superbly realized by tenor Ian Matthew Castro and baritone Aaron Keeney. It had the flavor of a serenade and had much in common with "La bella cubana". It seems our ears just respond better to music closest to the Bel Canto period.

Let us move on to the lovely ladies! We were rather dazzled by the singular soprano of Chea Young Kang who moved us with an aria from José Mauri's zarzuela-- La esclava. In "Perdida para siempre la esperanza", the heroine Matilde laments her tragic life; her beloved deserts her when he learns that she is a mulatta. Such themes were common in racially mixed Cuba, one of the few places were zarzuela survived and was repurposed to suit themes of the time and place.

She was similarly heartbreaking in Ernesto Lecuono's "Maria la O" from the zarzuela of the same name and with a similar theme.

Soprano Jaylyn Simmons had all the right moves as well as a soaring soprano. Eliseo Grenet's sorrowful "Lamento esclavo" found contrast in Simons' "Palmira", portraying a woman who enjoys her sexuality and attracts all the available men. Of course the men of the cast did well as her multiplicity of admirers!

We were not the only member of the audience to enjoy Ms. Casío's performance of Simons' "C'est ça la vie". In this song, Carmen gets to do the stabbing and her faithless lover got just what he deserved.

The lively encore came, not from Cuba, but from Puerto Rico. The entire ensemble joined in the raucous "Cachita" by Rafael Hernandez. The infectious mood of the artists spilled over into the audience and we virtually danced our way home.

© meche kroop

NABUCCO ABBREVIATED

Robin Bradley, Leslie Swanson, David Serero, Javier Ortiz, and Michael Celentano
onstage at the Center for Jewish History in Verdi's Nabucco

That warm feeling we get when hearing Verdi's "Va Pensiero", also known as "The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" is largely due to Verdi's stirring music and the poetic words of librettist Temistocle Solera. Last night, at the Center for Jewish History, we heard the chorus performed by the five members of the cast of an abbreviated version of Verdi's Nabucco. The opera premiered in 1842 at La Scala, established Verdi's reputation, and has been a part of the repertory ever since.

Presented by The American Sephardi Federation and directed and adapted by baritone David Serero, we heard some fine singing and accompaniment by Shawn Chang, substituting for the orchestra. Although die-hard opera goers might complain about the cuts and lack of orchestra, we enjoyed this version and so did the audience which happily included some youngsters. What a great way to introduce someone to opera. This version was direct and to the point, emphasizing the major arias, eliminating extraneous characters, and telling the story well without any longueurs.

Mr. Serero himself used his powerful baritone well and created a Nebuchadnezzar to be reckoned with. His mad spell, which in the bible lasted for seven years, lasted only about seven bars of music-- but was very convincing! For purposes both dramatic and romantic, operatic libretti take huge liberties with history, much as the stories in the bible take liberties with historical facts.

Nebuchadnezzar was the most long-lasting and powerful king of Babylonia five centuries B.C.E. He did in fact conquer Jerusalem and destroy the temple. In the Book of Daniel, by virtue of Daniel's dream interpretation, he converted to Judaism-- but that is not supported historically. Every culture creates its own legends.

Even the popularity of "Va Pensiero" is surrounded by legend. Indeed it was sung at Verdi's funeral in 1901, but it was not a spontaneous demonstration. It was orchestrated for political reasons. As a matter of fact, its patriotic status probably originated after Italy's reunification. Still, it's an attractive myth that the work motivated Italy's attempts to throw off the yoke of foreign domination. To each his own myth!

The creation of the masterpiece by Verdi and Solera incorporated, as so many operas do, a romance. The Babylonian princess Fenena, well sung last night by mezzo-soprano Robin Bradley, and Ismaele (nephew of the King of Jerusalem) equally well sung by tenor Michael Celentano are having theirs. In the opera, Fenena is used by the Judeans as a hostage, so when Ismaele frees her he is accused of treason.

By far the most difficult role in the opera is that of Abigaille, supposed daughter of Nebuchadnezzar but actually the child of a slave. She has been scorned by Ismaele and wants vengeance. She seizes the crown from Nebuchadnezzar when he has his lapse of sanity. 

By now, dear reader, you must have realized what a challenge this role offers! The gauntlet was taken up by dramatic soprano Leslie Swanson who exhibited the depth of texture of a mezzo-soprano in the lower register and the flexibility and power for the high notes. It was an exciting performance.

The cast was rounded out by the fine bass Javier Ortiz who played the role of Zaccaria the High Priest of the Jews. There were no titles but reading the summary of the plot and picking up a few words in Italian gave us a clear picture of the dramatic arc.

We are always interested in what Mr. Serero has in the works and we heard about a Nozze di Figaro in the pipeline, as well as a Romeo and Juliet based on a Sefardic family at odds with an Ashkenazi family. For those who may not know, these are two branches of the Hebrew tradition created during the diaspora. Forgive us our feeble attempt at humor but we are seeing matzo balls being hurled from one side and felafel balls from the other! We can scarcely wait.

(c) meche kroop