A TRANSFORMATIVE RECITAL

Bryan Wagorn, Lachlan Glen, Yunpeng Wang, Mary-Jane Lee

We get accustomed to hearing a favorite piece of music and we sit smugly waiting to have our taste reconfirmed.  But occasionally we are presented with this piece of music and hear it more intensely; the work doesn't have to be performed in a radically different way but we are so marked by the performance that we want to keep that performance close to our hearts and not have it spoiled by a further hearing of lesser quality.  We suppose one could call this a "definitive" performance.

Such was the case last night at a Lindemann recital when baritone Yunpeng Wang and pianist Lachlan Glen performed Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.  Such was the resonance between these two gifted artists, both in their first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, that we were caught breathless and shaken to the core. 

Mr. Wang's large round sound was even throughout his range and exhibited great power in the low notes; the word coloring was impressive--"traurig" was never sadder, nor "süss" ever sweeter nor "dunkles" ever darker.  Mr. Glen's piano milked every drop of emotion and color from these songs, painting an aural picture in a perfectly modulated performance that evoked birdsong and sunshine, the woe of loss, a silvery laugh, and ultimately the peace of acceptance at the end, trailing off into sleep.  It was stunning.

This astonishingly well-matched pair of artists also did a fine job with two selections from Franz Liszt's Tre sonetti di Petrarca--the tumultuous "Pace non trovo" and the sweet "I vidi in terra angelici costumi".  Mr. Wang's Italian was just as perfect as his German and Mr. Glen is just a beautiful beast at the piano. 

By no means do we mean to give short shrift to the other superb pair on the program.  Bryan Wagorn's artistry at the piano is remarkable and we have delighted in it for his three years as a Lindemann artist.  He has a special skill for collaboration with a variety of singers and tonight he played with soprano Mary-Jane Lee who appears to have a splendid career ahead of her.  She has it all--glamorous good looks and a voice of distinctive timbre, sounding at times like a mezzo with ringing top notes.  She sang Richard Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder in which the composer set texts by Herman Hesse and Joseph Karl von Eichendorff, the last three of which are about sleep, dying, loss and mourning.  We wondered if the composer's choices were influenced by his anticipation of his own life ending.

Ms. Lee sang them well, exhibiting the beautiful high notes that Strauss loved so well and some lovely melismatic singing.  Mr. Wagorn's postlude in "Im Abendrot" was a work of art in and of itself.  The performance was very different from the spirited performance of Benjamin Britten's Cabaret Songs, setting of texts by W. H. Auden.  It seemed to us that Ms. Lee had as much fun singing them as Britten did setting them; she really knows how to get a song across with charm and style.  We found Auden's texts a bit frivolous and awkward in their scanning and rhymes but perhaps not meant to be taken seriously.

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UN NUIT ARGENTE

Natalie Dessay (photo by Simon Fowler)

The glamorous coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay proved last night at Carnegie Hall that art and glamour can not only coexist but can add luster to one another.  Clad in a stunning silver gown of arresting proportion, this superstar with a silvery voice kept a capacity audience spellbound for two hours with a delicious menu of lieder and chansons.

The most impressive aspects of this New York debut recital were twofold.  Firstly, Ms. Dessay's partnership with pianist Philippe Cassard was extraordinarily impressive; the sensitivity of one to the other reminded us of a dance.  Secondly, Ms. Dessay yielded to the muse and submerged her outsized personality in service to the music.  We know of no better Marie (Donizetti's Fille du Regiment) than Ms. Dessay and we have seen her put her very personal stamp on other roles as well but last night was all about the music.  Not only was every word and phrase given its due but her musicality shone forth.

She opened with four songs by Clara Schumann that truly deserve a wider audience.  The two settings of texts by Friedrich Rückert were particularly memorable:  "Liebst du um Schönheit", famously set by Gustav Mahler, was no less lovely for being unfamiliar to our ears and "Er ist gekommen" swept us along with its intense passion.

Three lovely songs by Johannes Brahms followed and Mr. Cassard's piano made audible the sounds of birds and rustling trees.  In the set of Strauss songs, we were particularly take by Ms. Dessay's performance of "Die Nacht" with its mysterious nocturnal imagery and fear of loss.  The German was utterly intelligible in every case.

Four French composers were presented and we found Ms. Dessay's finely focused sound to be especially suited to these delicate gems.  Henri Duparc and Gabriel Fauré were contemporaries and their chansons are of an ethereal nature; Duparc composed only 16 of these precious pearls whereas Fauré contributed about one hundred to the canon.

We have always loved Duparc's setting of Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" and Ms. Dessay certainly conveyed every nuance while Mr. Cassard's piano expressed the underlying elements of nature.  The phrase "luxe, calme, et volupté" still sticks in the mind.  In the Fauré group, we were delighted by the familiar "Mandoline". 

Debussy came along a bit later but was also entranced by Symbolist poetry.  We were introduced to "La romance d'Ariel", a setting of a text by Paul Bourget, as the last chanson on the program and we fell immediately in love with it; Ms. Dessay let loose with silver showers of coloratura that provoked goosebumps.

She did not ignore the 20th c.; Francis Poulenc composed Fiançailles pour rire  at the onset of World War II, settings of texts by Louise de Vilmorin.  The meanings are often elusive and the accompaniment a bit spare.  Although we enjoyed the piano imitating the violin in "Violon", our favorite was the clever play on words of "Il vole"; the reflection of the sun on the shiny surface symbolizes the cheese in the fable "Le corbeau et le renard" with the scissor standing in for the beak of the crow.  Ms. Dessay's rapid-fire and sassy delivery offered many delights.

As encores, Ms. Dessay performed Debussy's "Clair de Lune", Rachmaninoff's "How Fair This Spot" and "Tu m'as donné le plus doux rêve" from Leo Délibes' Lakmé.  One could not have asked for more!

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A POLISHED PERFORMANCE

Julia Bullock (photo by Christian Steiner)

What a pleasure to see a lovely young woman step onstage and hold the audience fast for two hours.  Soprano Julia Bullock was a budding star the first time we heard her and now she has blossomed into an artist of great stage presence and in full command of her prodigious assets.  With communication this involving, we do not even notice the flawless technique, just the connection with the material and with the audience.  Young Concert Artists could not have chosen better.  Collaborative pianist Renate Rohlfing was also a fine choice, switching styles as readily as Ms. Bullock.

Let us begin at the end when Ms. Bullock brought the audience to their collective feet with her well chosen encore, "Somewhere" from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim).  The moving but non-histrionic delivery confirmed our impression that the work is truly an opera.  There was not a hint of distasteful cross-over compromises.

The entire second half of the program put Ms. Bullock's interpretive gifts to use.  Her hommage to Josephine Baker was charming, sassy and life-affirming.  The two women both originated in St. Louis; one couldn't help thinking how times have changed in our lifetime.  Ms. Baker had fled American prejudice to find fame and adulation in Paris whereas Ms. Bullock can enjoy fame and adulation right here in New York.

The songs were arranged by Jeremy Siskind.  We especially enjoyed the sensual "Madiana" by Mairiotte Almaby, Vincent Scotto's gorgeous melodic line in "J'ai deux amours" and the funny/sad lyrics of Léo Lelièvre's "Si j'étais blanche".  Mr. Siskind also arranged three further songs.  Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "Brown Baby", Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Feels to be Free" and Harry T. Burleigh's "Little David".  All were delivered with deep feeling and appropriate simplicity.

Three selections from Xavier Montsalvatge's Cinco canciones negras served to make us want to hear the other two!  The menace present in "Chévere" was well limned as was the underlying pain in the tender lullaby "Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito", with the rumbling bass of Renate Rohlfing's piano conveying the troubled emotions of the mother.

We wish we had had the same pleasure from the first half of the program.  Ms. Bullock was courageous in choosing some very difficult and grim material which she sang with deep conviction; it was just not our taste.  To begin the evening, three songs by Luciano Berio were sung, interleaved with two very brief songs by Rossini from his post-opera writing period.  There must have been a point to this alternation which we did not grasp; we only knew we preferred the Rossini by a long shot.

Young Concert Artists Composer-in-Residence David Hertzberg, inspired by Ms. Bullock, wrote a piece which was premiered last night entitled Ablutions of Oblivion.  Ms. Bullock negotiated the wide leaps of register with ease and showed admirable word coloring in the plentiful descriptions of wind and leaves and bare places in Wallace Stevens' poetry.  The text was supposed to "express dichotomous states of sensory oblivion".  What???  Were it not for Ms. Bullock's fine delivery we would have longed for some sensory oblivion for ourselves.

We could not find anything to like about selections from Olivier Messiaen's works and would be happy never to hear them again.  That being said, there was nothing disappointing about Ms. Bullock's impassioned performance and fine French.  She clearly connected with every song on the program and we were only sorry that we lacked appreciation.  She could sing the phone book and hold our attention.  We kept thinking "Loved the singer, hated the song".

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SOME ENCHANTED AFTERNOON

John Relyea and Lori Guilbeau

"Some Enchanted Evening" was chosen by soprano Lori Guilbeau and bass John Relyea for their encore duet at the George London Foundation recital this afternoon.  Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, it became an enchanted afternoon with marvelous Warren Jones at the keyboard keeping pace with the artists.

We remember Miss Guilbeau as a promising young voice from her days at Manhattan School of Music and are happy to report that she has fulfilled that promise, opening the program with a stirring rendition of "Dich, teure Halle" from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. Her sizable soprano filled the hall at the Morgan Library--and then some.  Not only is the instrument one to celebrate but the feelings were up front and personal as she rejoiced over her lover's imminent arrival.  No wonder her career has taken off!

We are not great fans of Samuel Barber but we admired the crisp diction that made his English words totally understandable in "Give me some music" from Antony and Cleopatra; Ms. Guilbeau's acting chops were on fine display as she brought the seductive Cleopatra to musical life.  We preferred Ms. Guilbeau's choice of Rachmaninoff's Midsummer Nights.  "Lilacs" was sung and played with delicate filigree; "To Her" was filled with sad longing; "The Pied Piper" was suitably jaunty and the passionate and familiar "Spring Water" seemed quite timely.  In the final offering of the recital, "Or siam soli...Una donna son io" from Verdi's Forza del Destino we loved the way she portrayed the desperate Leonora seeking refuge from the guardian at the monastery, stunningly portrayed by Mr. Relyea whose booming base lent authority to the role.

We liked Mr. Relyea best in this operatic role, much as we loved his portrayal of The Water Sprite in Dvořak's Russalka, just seen at The Metropolitan Opera.  He is as well known as a recitalist as he is on the opera stage and we did enjoy his performance of Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death in which he employed his sizable bass to good advantage.  The songs involve Death as a character who comes to relieve the suffering of a sick child, then as a knight to rescue a sick young woman, then as a woman to escort an elderly drunk to his final rest and ultimately to gloat over all the bodies in a battlefield. Thinking of Schubert's "Erlkonig", we would have liked a little more variety of color between the two characters in the first song as the mother dialogues with Death.

Mr. Relyea's choice of Strauss songs appeared to us as unfortunate. Our ears yearned for a far higher register than a bass can muster! Nonetheless, we greatly enjoyed Mr. Jones piano and the variety of colors he evinced.

The many pleasures of the afternoon served to overcome the lassitude engendered by the sleep deficit caused by the onset of Daylight Savings Time and we emerged into the still-sunny afternoon with a lighter step.

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LA DOLOROSA

Anton Amendariz

Amaya Arberas

Ashley Bell

Eliam Ramos

José Daniel Mojica

We always jump at the chance to hear zarzuela; when we were alerted to a production of José Serrano's La Dolorosa we knew there was no place we would rather be on Saturday night.  That it was being produced by a small company heretofore unknown to us--Divaria Productions--was an added inducement.  That one of the four leading roles was being performed by Amaya Arberas whom we reviewed twice before (see archive) sealed the deal.

The somewhat abridged production was mounted in collaboration with the Spanish company La Rioja Lirica and was charmingly introduced by Mr. Angel Capellán from the Spanish consulate who discussed this uniquely Spanish art form, filled with vitality and passion.  For those readers unfamiliar with zarzuela, it is the Spanish counterpart to operetta and was very popular in Latin American countries from about the mid 19th c. to the mid 20th c.  The plots can be funny or tragic but the music is always glorious.

La Dolorosa is a love story--young innocent love between Perico (tenor Anton Armendariz Diaz) and Nicasia (soprano Amaya Arberas) and ambivalent mature love between Dolores (soprano Ashley Bell) and Rafael (José Daniel Mojica).  Dolores and Rafael were sweethearts from the same village where she was seduced and abandoned by someone else.  The broken-hearted Rafael had come to a monastery where he is painting a portrait of the Virgin who has Dolores' face.

Fate has arranged that Dolores has wandered far from home with her newborn and has collapsed on the road where she is rescued by a local couple, José and Juana.  Perico, Rafael's apprentice, recognizes her resemblance to the portrait. The remainder of the story is how Rafael comes to realize that his motivation to protect this woman and her baby is greater than his devotion to spiritual pursuits.  The Prior (Eliam Fuentes) is a humanist and accepts Rafael's departure. We cannot help wondering how the Spain of 1930 reacted to such a rejection of religion and embracing of humanism.

The performances were, in every case, first-rate.  Soprano Ashley Bell has a fine full voice that is strong in the lower register and brilliant in the upper register.  She was convincing as the dishonored woman and sang especially well in a glorious duet with Rafael in Act II.  She is also the President of Divaria Productions.

Soprano Amaya Arberas has a bright resonant instrument which she uses well.  She was particularly charming in a duet with Perico in which they plan their wedding.

Tenor José Daniel Mojica has a sweet generous voice that is filled with sazón, the Spanish equivalent of the garlic in the voice of an Italian tenor.  He created a sympathetic portrait of a man unable to forget his lost love and struggling with his own ambivalence --religious obligation versus a secular and humanistic life.  He was particularly moving in his confessional aria towards the end; this would make a wonderful stand-alone concert aria.

Tenor Anton Armendariz Diaz made a fine Perico, the none-too-bright assistant to the painter Rafael.  Not only does he have a pleasing voice but he also served as director.

The only low voice in this zarzuela was that of El Prior, played by Eliam Fuentes whose bass-baritone filled the bill nicely.  His compassionate demeanor was in counterpoint to that of the rigid close-minded Lucas (non-singer Ngo Okafor) who thought Rafael was under the influence of Satan.

The work was performed in the magnificent basilica of the original St. Patrick's Cathedral in Soho, dating to the early 19th c.  This historic landmark has a major asset--the only large 19th c. pipe organ left in the U.S. in its original space.  Its 2500 pipes, expertly  played by Jared Lamenzo, provided much of the accompaniment with pianist Marnie Laird supplying the remainder.

The acoustics of the basilica were kinder to the singers than to the actors, although Rafael Abolafia came across well as José.  As Juana his wife, Nana Gouvea was excessively histrionic and her words were swallowed up in the vast space.

Special mention must be made of the  Basilica Schola which served as the chorus under the direction of Joshua South.

MARIO, MARIO, MARIO!

Ekaterina Deleu and Mario Chang

Having witnessed Mario Chang's growth through three seasons at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, we are pleased to report that this young tenor is well on his way toward stardom.  He has a gorgeous instrument that exudes the promise of a dramatic tenor; he has a nearly flawless technique; his expressive Italianate style and diction are enviable; his contact with the audience has grown immeasureably.

Accompanied by the lovely pianist Ekaterina Deleu who kept pace with him in fine partnership, Mr. Chang opened the program with a Mozart concert aria "Misero! O sogno...Aura, che intorno"...K. 431.  His voice came across with consummate power and Ms. Deleu's piano technique was crisp.

The color of that aria is despairing and we were happy that the following set comprised selections from the prolific Reynaldo Hahn's Venezia, sung in Venetian dialect.  We heard Mr. Chang sing these songs a year ago when his contact with the audience was impaired by the use of a music stand.  Happily, Mr. Chang has now totally mastered the material and delivered the songs with great style and connection.  We especially enjoyed the jaunty "Che pecà!" and Ms. Deleu's rocking barcarolle style in the first few selections.

In "La mia letizia infondere" from Verdi's I Lombardi, Mr. Chang exhibited evenness throughout the register and a generosity of sound at the top.  His dramatic instincts served him well in this gloriously romantic aria and just as well in "Ed anche Beppe amo" from Mascagni's L'amico Fritz.

But perhaps the best was saved for last as Mr. Chang threw himself into an aria from Doña Francisquita, a zarzuela by Amadeu Vives I Roig, - "Por el humo se sabe".  The singer is torn between his love for one woman and his passion for another; Mr. Chang's story-telling skills were shown to great advantage.

"Sin tu amor" by Miguel Sandoval was delivered with intensity and a flamenco inflection.

As encore, Mr. Chang offered "Dein ist mein ganzes herz" from Franz Lehár's Das Land des Lachelns, an aria made famous by Richard Tauber.  (Our only tiny quibble of the evening was a dropping of the final "ich" in a few words.)  This passionate aria brought Mr. Chang's devoted fans to their feet for a well-deserved standing ovation.

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A FINE PAIR AND A FULL HOUSE

Matthias Goerne (photo by Marco Borggreve)

With a large dark baritone sound reminiscent of a glass of stout, Matthias Goerne held the Carnegie Hall audience spellbound for over an hour as he performed Schubert's deeply moving song-cycle Die Schöne Müllerin.  The most impressive aspect of the recital was how incredibly in tune with each other were Mr. Goerne and his collaborative pianist Christoph Eschenbach.  It would be fair to say that no subtlety in Wilhelm Müller's text went unrevealed, nor was any phrase not mined and explored.

We have heard this meisterwerk time and time again and have always heard something new in it as each interpreter finds something within to add to the words and notes on the printed page.  The tale is a simple one and typical of 19th c. German Romanticism; a young lad sets out on what may have been his wanderjahre guided by a brook in which he confides his thoughts and feelings; he gets himself a job as an apprentice to a miller, falls in love with the miller's daughter, loses her to a robust hunter and drowns himself in the brook.

What makes the work interesting is the wide range of emotions the lad experiences, all of which are reflected in music of astounding variety and lyricism.  We hear optimism and despair, pride and shame, curiosity and energy, confusion and anger, sometimes even within the same song.  The other major feature is the way the piano writing paints an aural picture for the listener; we hear the babbling of the brook, the roaring of the mill wheel and the warbling of the lark.

Mr. Goerne took on the role of the lad with complete abandon, investing every song with high drama. We were particularly moved by the softer gentler songs.   If we should utter a sole complaint, it would be that his body movement was a bit excessive and distracting.  We are sure his dramatic instincts will serve him well at The Metropolitan Opera as he takes over for an ailing Thomas Hampson in Wozzeck!

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