GROWING...GROWING...GROWN!

Kady Evanyshyn onstage at Paul Hall

We have been writing about Kady Evanyshyn for at least five years and witnessing her growth as an artist. What we recognized from the very beginning was her gracious stage presence, engaging personality, and finely textured mezzo-soprano instrument. It took us longer to learn to pronounce her name than it took us to perceive her star potential. Some singers just stand out right away and we are not alone in recognizing this feature.

We have heard Ms. Evanyshyn in recital, singing everything from Monteverdi to Brahms, and have seen her perform in operas, notably Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor and in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. We have heard her in many languages as well. Perhaps what stands out for us most was her performance of Moussorgsky's Nursery Songs. She applies the same sense of drama developed on the operatic stage to her performance of art songs.

Last night we attended her Master of Music recital at Juilliard (that polisher of gems!) and had the opportunity to greet and share opinions with her teacher Edith Wiens. Both of us were thrilled.

The program she chose was an interesting one, marked by variety and adventure. Three chansons by Reynaldo Hahn opened the program. Although Hahn composed in the first half of the 20th c., his songs show a great respect for the past by virtue of their melodic delights and their themes. As we understand it, Ms. Evanyshyn auditioned for Juilliard with a Hahn song and saw its inclusion last night as a means of coming full circle.

"A Chloris" is a love song without a single dark note and perfectly suited to the singer's joy in singing. "L'énamourée", on the other hand, let us share the feeling of wanting to bring a dead lover back to life. "Fêtes galantes" is filled with charm like the Fragonard painting that springs to mind when we hear it. The works were performed in fine French with long lovely lines, just as Hahn intended. Collaborative pianist Bronwyn Schuman reflected the same joy in harking back to the past.

The next set was in German and we are pleased to report that the singer's German is just as good as her French. We found nothing to pick on! For the Strauss lieder, the always wonderful Chris Reynolds provided the piano collaboration. Two of our favorites bookended the set. In "Du meines herzens Krönelein" we loved the way Ms. Evanyshyn used different vocal coloration when the poet describes his beloved and when he describes other women.

The set ended with a passionate delivery of "Zueignung" that ended in a thrilling crescendo that filled Paul Hall with overtones. In between the two we heard "Die Georgine" (from the same Op. 10) in which the poet compares the autumn dahlia to his late blooming love. Mr. Reynolds captured the lush late Romantic harmonies.

Of the three Marc Blitzstein songs, our favorite was "Stay in my Arms". The text "Let's just be lazy; the world's gone crazy!" resonated with us. The other two were settings of text by e.e. cummings which look fine on the page but resemble Dada. It was quite an accomplishment for the singer to make sense out of what psychiatrist call "word salad". We don't know why Blitzstein chose to set them but...there they are.

The second half of the program found Ms. Evanyshyn "on the book" but we can understand why. Joseph Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne are written in a language unknown to us--Occitan. On the page the words are clearly from a branch of Romance languages but as different from French as is Portuguese.

Ms. Evanyshyn clearly demonstrated the humor of "Lou boussu" in which a hunchback courts a maiden without success. In "Oï ayaï" a woman refuses to get out of bed until her husband goes to the fair on several errands to buy her various articles of clothing. The verses repeat and repeat and our singer's facial expression showed us how the husband felt. The humor of both songs was good natured and sweet. For this set, the accompaniment was played by Jonathan Stauffer on the theorbo. He played as beautifully as he did yesterday at another Juilliard concert we reviewed. The choice of theorbo was a happy but unexpected one.

The program ended with a group of folk songs set by Luciano Berio in typical mid 20th c. modernism. The stage was filled with musicians: violist Lauren Siess, cellist Philip Sheegog, flutist Emily Duncan, clarinetist Nikki Pet (doubling on piccolo), harpist Deanna Cirielli, and percussionists Benjamin Cornavaca and Simon Herron.

Our curiosity made us want to inspect the panoply of percussion instruments. We heard some mighty strange sounds! The orchestration was interesting but, truth to tell, we might have preferred hearing Ms. Evanyshyn singing a capella! The modernism of the music did not seem to carry the simplicity of the folk songs.

Actually, the first two songs "Black is the Color" and "I Wonder as I Wander" are not folk songs but were composed by John Jacob Niles. The first was introduced by some harsh dissonance on the viola. Now what does that have to do with a man admiring his beloved?

"Loosin yelav" was sung in Armenian and included the piping of the piccolo.

"Rossignolet du bois" was sung in French and featured the clarinet.

"A la femminisca" was sung in the Sicilian dialect and had the feeling of a dirge.

"La donna ideale" was sung in ancient Genoese dialect whilst "Motettu de tristura" utilized Sardinian dialect and involved some rather eerie sounds. The nightingale was represented by the piccolo.

We recognized the Occitan dialect from the previous Auvergne set in the next two songs "Malurous qu'o uno fenno" and "Lo fiolaire". Both were filled with humor.

The set closed with "Azerbajian Love Song" which permitted our lovely singer the opportunity to indulge in some lovely melismatic singing and even a trill.

This was an opportunity and an adventure. We are unlikely to hear the work again. One of the advantages of being in a music conservatory is having such a variety of artists available for such events.

We have high hopes for Ms. Evanyshyn's future. We are sure that she will successfully bridge the gap between conservatory and professional life.

(c) meche kroop

ANOTHER GREAT LIEDERABEND AT JUILLIARD

Richard Fu and Michelle Geffner

We alway enjoy a liederabend at Juilliard because we get exposed to a variety of material sung by different students of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Department.

This was the first time we heard Mishael Eusebio who sang Beethoven with a lovely easy tonal quality, impressive for its tenderness.  No pushing here! The vibrato varied from the enthusiastic "Adelaide" to the melancholy An die ferne Geliebte, showing sensitivity to the text and plenty of vocal and facial expressiveness that would benefit from some gestural expression..

An die ferne Geliebte amounts to a song cycle about longing, text by Alois Jeitteles. The sorrow comes not from rejection but from physical distance and this longing was beautifully expressed by Mr. Eusebio in excellent German, and by Richard Fu's collaborative piano. It was unutterably sad.

Joseph Marx composed songs in the early 20th c. and we are always happy to see them on a program. Like those of Hugo Wolf they require repetitive hearing; they are less accessible than the lieder of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Beethoven.

Katerina Burton has an ample soprano that we think would be perfect for Strauss. She and piano partner Seoyon MacDonald performed five of Marx's lieder; our favorite was the sensual "Selige Nacht" (text by Otto Erich Hartleben), the sensuality of which was matched by our two artists. 

Shelby Cox was listed on the program as a mezzo-soprano but we did not hear any mezzo quality to her voice which was nevertheless quite lovely. She made sense out of three selections from Aaron Copland's settings of text by Emily Dickinson. We enjoyed Tomomi Sato's piano in "Going to Heaven". In "The Chariot", Ms. Cox spun out the end like a fine silken thread.

All singers love a mad scene and that of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet was set by contemporary composer Benjamin C.S. Boyle. Now what's a mad scene without some coloratura fireworks? You will have to ask Mr. Boyle! We didn't find that his music added anything to Shakespeare's words. Still, Ms. Cox and Ms. Sato gave it a fine performance.

Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is taken from James Agee's prose, later used as a preamble to his  book A Death in the Family. It was composed in 1947 for soprano and orchestra but was here performed by soprano Michelle Geffner and pianist Richard Fu. Clearly Ms. Geffner loves this work and, we learned later, read the book; this explains the clarity with which she painted a picture of life a century ago. We have not read the book and cannot claim to be enthralled by the work but we were drawn in by Ms. Geffner's involvement with the text which she communicated effectively in clear English.

(c) meche kroop

SING WHAT YOU LOVE!

Chris Reynolds and Dominik Belavy

Dominik Belavy and Joshua Stauffer

"Sing what you love" was the advice offered by a famous conductor/coach to a Juilliard student (now world-famous) during a master class. That was his only comment. And it was great advice. Perhaps some of our readers were there and know of whom we are speaking. We will keep mum on that point unless pressed to reveal.  Hint: The former was JL and the latter was IL.




It came to mind yesterday when Dominik Belavy performed his graduation recital; he will receive his Master of Music Degree from Juilliard this year. We have had six years to appreciate his gentle lyric baritone and now it is time to see him move on. This is always a bittersweet time for the young artists and for this not-so-young reviewer. We love to see them move on to a professional career but we will miss them.


The reason we thought of that memorable moment from so many years ago was our witnessing the stunning manner in which Mr. Belavy came alive for the final set of his program, comprising Maurice Ravel's Histoires naturelles. This would never be on our short list of favorite cycles because of it's prosy quality, but Mr. Belavy's interpretation brought it up several levels in our estimation.

With great involvement he limned the self-important peacock, the frightened cricket, the cloud-obsessed swan, the combative Guinea hen, and above all, the image of a Kingfisher alighting on a fishing rod. His commitment to the text helped us to see everything in our mind's eye. It was a brilliant performance. We are sure that Mr. Belavy adores these songs. Oh, and did we mention that his French was as fine as one would wish and perfectly understandable?

What we adore is Schubert and collaborative pianist Chris Reynolds appears to share our feeling. His partnership with Mr. Belavy was most successful; still it is fair to say that Mr. Reynolds partners well with just about everyone. 

What we love about Schubert's lieder are the memorable melodies. The strophic nature of the songs helps these melodies to play over and over again in one's head so the delight is more than momentary. The major/minor shifts remind us that every joy has a touch of sadness and every grief has a touch of joy. Mr. Belavy responded by matching Mr. Reynold's variety of dynamics and color.

It is difficult to pick a favorite but "Des Fischers Liebesglück" is so filled with peaceful pleasure that we lean in that direction. Mr. Reynolds created the rocking of the boat and Mr. Belavy successfully negotiated the upward skips as he related the images of a courting couple out on the lake for a midnight row.

"Alinde" is right up there as well. Even though we just heard it recently it felt fresh and gave us the same pleasure at the end when the long-awaited Alinde finally arrives. Better late than never!

We found no flaw in Mr. Belavy's German and heard the same clarity in his performance of a selection of 17th c. English songs by Henry and William Lawes. These songs were accompanied by the theorbo, that magnificent instrument, here so well played by Joshua Stauffer, who also switched to baroque guitar for one song.

If we didn't relate to them we can attribute that to the use of the detestable music stand. Perhaps Mr. Belavy was too busy with other work to learn the songs sufficiently well to perform them off the book but we felt absolutely no connection. The tone was sweet, the words were clear, but the message stayed on the page. We found ourself focusing on that magnificent theorbo.

It occurred to us that perhaps Mr. Belavy did not love those songs so they stayed forlorn on the page. To give a song wings, one must love it and want to share it. So, JL was astute in his advice.  Mr. Belavy, sing what you love!

(c) meche kroop

NEW BEGINNINGS FOR MR. LIZ

Mr. Liz Bouk at Dixon Place

What an astonishing performer! Mr. Liz is on a courageous journey and his performances invite the audience to share in his journey. Yes, this beautiful person has chosen the label "transgendered" and has come out as a man, a very beautiful man, but a man just the same, preferring masculine pronouns, a request which we honor. We ourself do not like labels and prefer to experience him as a unique being with a striking mezzo-soprano voice and the ability to portray "breeches roles" with preternatural artistry.

To begin at the "old" beginning, Mr. Liz first came to our attention five years ago as Elizabeth Bouk, and we have reviewed him at least a half dozen times or more since then with Utopia Opera, dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, and Gramercy Opera. He has brought life to the brutally raped Lucretia, the abandoned Augusta Tabor, a witch in Macbeth, Count Almaviva's latest conquest, and Strauss' Komponist. If you put "Elizabeth Bouk" in the search bar, you can read these archived reviews. Some of those roles were revived last night in his new show, but we are getting ahead of ourself.

Having come out as a man, our first hearing of Mr. Liz was two months ago in a show you can read about if you insert "Liz Bouk" in the search bar. That will detail his life story in detail. Last night he was very open about the decision to avoid hormonal or surgical intervention. Preservation of his voice is the most important issue and with that we can heartily agree.

Still, what is more important than the vocal quality is the ability to connect with the audience and to convey the important message that we are each entitled to express ourselves in a way that is authentic and honest. Our culture fortunately allows us this freedom and we have the choice to take advantage of this freedom.

Mr. Liz' expressiveness is so colorful and varied that we have had the very devil of a time paring down a hundred photos we took to the ten we can post on Facebook. We refer you to our FB page Voce di Meche to see the ten we ultimately selected.

Curating songs for the show must have been a great deal of fun. Mr. Liz was able to revisit many of the arias we enjoyed before. The show opened with a clever and funny song by Zina Goldrich called "The Alto's Lament" in which a mezzo-soprano expresses her boredom with the line she is given to sing.

Then we heard the aria from Douglas Moore's Ballad of Baby Doe in which Augusta Tabor receives a loving letter and a pair of gloves from her husband Horace--and learns that they were meant for his mistress.

Later, he sang "Warm as the Autumn Light", Horace's baritone aria from the same opera. Who else beside Mr. Liz could have performed both roles with beauty and meaning and with not a hint of irony!

As Octavian, he sang "Wie du wärst" from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, a role in which we had not heard him. Any opera company would do well to snap him up, for the beautiful tone and the convincing presentation.

From Felix Jarrar's Tabula Rasa, we heard Bea Goodwin's smartly written aria about Dada for the character Tristan Tzara and Hannah's aria "Three Words" from As One, written by Laura Kaminsky, libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. That opera is about the converse conversion--a male to female transgendered person trying to find her identity.

"Somewhere" from Bernstein's West Side Story is a plea for finding a place where one feels safe and fulfilled. We venture to offer that Mr. Liz is well on his way to such a place.

The closing number was upbeat and fun--"I'm a Stranger Here Myself" from Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus. Can we find ourselves strangers in strange places and yet find that "somewhere". We think so!

Excellent piano accompaniment was provided by Kathryn Olander who played for the last show as well.  A fine team they are!

(c) meche kroop

MARILYN HORNE SONG COMPETITION WINNERS

Andrew Sun and Kelsey Lauritano at National Sawdust

GUEST REVIEW BY CULLEN GANDY:

The Music Academy of the West held its annual Marilyn Horne Song Competition winners recital tonight in Williamsburg.

MAW is one of the few companies for young opera talents that also heavily nurtures the craft of art song interpretation. Every year, during the glorious summer stint that each of the artists spend in Santa Barbara, the singers and collaborative pianists come together to perform and compete against one another.

The prize? A whirlwind, multi-city recital tour and $5000 toward the future development of the artists. As I can attest, such opportunity for exposure/financial assistance goes a long way for a musician who is transferring from apprenticeships into the world of professional artistry.

The setting at National Sawdust was cozy, but with a modern-art type of sensibility. It was a large enough space to feel more formal than a parlour evening, but intimate enough to have the music feel as though it reached out and touched you individually — But that could have just been the talent we had.

Kelsey Lauritano is a vocal empath. More than that, she is a conduit for the emotion of a song; she makes everyone else empathize with the characters in the music. The young mezzo-soprano has a supple voice, but it isn’t really just the one aspect that makes her performance stand out. It’s the whole package.

Her’s is the level of preparedness and easy technique that makes you forget about the singing. It actualizes and elevates the music and the poetry, and doesn’t boast in its depth and agility (though she has those qualities in spades).

It made me question what I thought I knew about my musical tastes. I never remembered much enjoying Ravel’s Histoires Naturelles before having heard it tonight. During the Ricky Ian Gordon debut Without Music, people were actively sobbing behind me; almost to the point of distraction. This is the kind of effect that Lauritano wove throughout the whole 90 minutes.

A fellow Juilliardie, this level of expression and attention to detail is likely baked into her artistic id. That program is exceptionally devoted to the advancement of art song, and features many singer/pianist duos in liederabend evenings; all throughout the year. The people who study there have access to some of the industry’s foremost authorities on diction and musical coaching. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend going and catching one of those, as they are free to the public.

At the piano, Andrew Sun‘s mastery of technique led me to forget just how difficult some of the music on offer really was. He was as adept at pulling out the lines of a strophic Schubertian melody, in "Du bist die Ruh' ", as he was at piloting the winding, harmonically denser passages of the Ravel and of the Gordon cycle. His playing, too, felt like it transcended showmanship or virtuosity; opting to get to the meat of the core emotion of the works at hand. It was as if he knew how to play the poetry that she was singing.

Another win, for me, was the pace and structure of the recital programming.

The duo initially eased the audience into the night with some more well-known Schubert pieces. This accomplished two things: 1) It gave the audience something pleasing to listen to, and fostered an enjoyable, comfortable beginning to a longer evening of song and 2) it introduced the animation of the presence and voice of the interpreters; reassuring the audience that they would be engaged through some of the more complex music.

Because of the acting, and its connection to the voice, I forgot to be critical. I became just a witness, wondering what would happen next.

There will be two more shows featuring the pair; one in Chicago (May 22nd) and another in Santa Barbara (May 24th). I definitely implore you guys, if you’re on-hand in the area, check this one out. You won’t regret it.

This review was done in cooperation with Voce di Meche.

ORA BELLISSIMA

Kenneth Merrill, Bénédicte Jourdois, Junseok Hwang, Jared Werlein, Michael McDermott, Katherine Herbert, Libby Sokolowski, and Song Hee Lee

We love reviewing students! The "students" we hear at Juilliard are generally not what one would think of as students since they are already performing around the country, and sometimes even abroad.  But last night we reviewed six first year students. We weren't expecting much but we were astonished at the high caliber of singing we heard. Apparently, a young singers needs to be quite advanced to get accepted at Juilliard.

Each singer had stage presence and a good command of Italian. Each one seemed to know what he/she was singing about and lent appropriate expression to the delivery. The raw material was all there and we hope we will be able to review them as they progress through the impressive training provided by the Juilliard Vocal Arts Department.

As soon as we saw the beautiful harpsichord onstage and saw Kenneth Merrill's name on the program we knew we would be delighted by some Baroque songs which are so suitable to young voices. Mr. Merrill provided the lovely harpsichord accompaniment for the first part of the program.

The excellent Bénédicte Jourdois was the collaborative pianist for the second half of the program which took us into the 19th and 20th c. The two were responsible for preparing and coaching the program. That's just an example of the fine training offered by Juilliard.

The appropriately named soprano Song Hee Lee opened the program with Claudio Monteverdi's "Quel sguardo sdegnosetto" the tempo of which was so fast that we could not understand the words. What we did understand is that this young lady has a voice of crystalline clarity most beautiful at the very top of the register. We liked the way she leaned into the appoggiatura at the end.

She closed the program with "Good Morning Midnight", André Previn's setting of a text by Emily Dickinson. The tempo here was slow enough for us to appreciate her excellent English diction and her ability to make sense of the text.

Soprano Katherine Herbert's bright instrument pleased the ear in "Ah! crudel, il pianto mio" from Händel's Rinaldo. In the fast section, her fioritura was crisp and clean. The ritornello offered some fine embellishments. We particularly enjoyed the trill. It was quite a treat to hear Mr. Merrill's accompaniment augmented by Ana Kim's mellow cello, also heard in several other selections.

Ms. Herbert was also fine in Britten's "The Last Rose of Summer" in which we enjoyed the vocal line, a familiar tune. We like the way she sustained the feeling during the silences; the spaces between the notes are also important!

Soprano Libby Sokolowski evinced an appealing vibrato and a pretty trill in "Credete al mio dolore" from Händel's Alcina. The sound is an exciting one with lots of resonance. Händel's arias do go on but Ms. Sokolowski provided plenty of variety of coloration and dynamics to keep the ear engaged.

Libby Larsen set Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I love thee?" and Ms. Sokolowski made excellent sense of the text, showing another side of her artistry.

Jared Werlein has a pleasing lyrical baritone and gave evidence that he truly understood what he was singing about in Giulio Caccini's "Non ha'l ciel cotanti lumi", a lovely song of deep sentiment that he colored beautifully. 

He also made sense of the text "Youth and Love' by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he brought to a quiet conclusion.

Vivaldi's "La tiranna avversa sorte" from Arsilda, regina di Ponto, is a strange aria in which the harpsichord and cello play staccato with the vocal line written in legato.  Tenor Michael McDermott met that challenge neatly and demonstrated some impressive melismatic singing in a forceful tone suited to the determination of the character. We liked what he did with the dotted rhythm.

Mr. McDermott achieved a different mood, one of quietude, in Charles Ives' "Berceuse". We liked the clarity of enunciation and the expressiveness.

Baritone Junseok Hwang's first number was Purcell's "Music for a While" which we generally associate with a voice belonging to a fach of higher register. Once he let go his grip on the harpsichord and stepped forward toward the audience, his hands were free to gesture which added significantly to his performance. He successfully lightened the weight of his voice for the embellishments and brought the piece to a beautiful end. 

He also sang our favorite Bellini song "Vaga luna che inargenti" which has been running through our head all night long. The texture of his voice was well suited to the song and his gestures were appropriate, once he let go of the piano and stepped forward. It's a small point and once Mr. Hwang realizes how much more he connects when he steps forward, he will have made a giant step forward, so to speak. We are sure his teacher must nag him about it!

We enjoyed the program and the singers and Ms. Kim's cello, which made such a fine addition to the program. We look forward to hearing these singers again and watching them grow.

(c) meche kroop

METROPOLITAN OPERA NATIONAL COUNCIL FINALS

MONC Finalists onstage at the Metropolitan Opera

It was a wild rollercoaster ride yesterday at The Metropolitan Opera when nine young singers competed in the MONC finals. Host Anthony Roth Costanzo, who won in 2009, made an excellent and witty host; he explained to the crowd of opera fans how the National Council is run by volunteers and about how rigorous the selection process is, narrowing down applicants in several stages.We were happy to hear that the competition is extending to include Mexico! There are so many fine voices coming from our southern neighbor!

We love so many things about this competition except for one issue which we will mention later. If you want to know which of the nine singers "won", you won't get that from us. For us, they are all winners.

We love that each singer gets two chances to show different aspects of their artistry. We love the fact that they get generous coaching. Each singer used the stage with "presence" and effectively conveyed the emotions of the character they were portraying. Everyone was linguistically adept. Although all are in their twenties, they are already singing around the world, winning competitions, and participating in young artist development programs. So, winning this competition is another feather in the cap and perhaps a step up on the path to stardom.

Here, we will issue a disclaimer. We confess to being partial to singers we "grew up with", those whom we have been reviewing for a few years. This means students from Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music; both schools were well represented as well they should be.

We are also more involved when a singer's repertory is consistent with our taste in opera, which favors the 19th c.  That being said, we make every effort to overcome our biases.  So here goes!

Knocking it out of the box was tenor Miles Mykkanen whose very unusual artistry has always delighted us at Juilliard and with New York Festival of Song. Mr. Mykkanen has sung some very unusual arias and duets that show off his unique personality. Yesterday his presentation was on the conservative side but the artistry survived intact. His "Kuda, kuda" from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin plumbed the depths of Lensky's soul and left us with tears rolling down our face. He used the consonants well to project his gorgeous tone up and out. His Russian was impeccable.

We also loved his "Je crois entendre encore" from Bizet's Les Pécheurs du Perles which was delivered with long Gallic line and perfect French. The dynamics he chose were highly effective as was the vibrato. There was a decrescendo that spun out to a fine thread and high notes that floated up to the balcony and hung in the air. We scarcely breathed!

The bass fach was never one of our favorites, except for James Morris. That is until we heard William Guanbo Su at Manhattan School of Music.  Mr. Su is now at Juilliard and did credit to both institutions. The bass voice is considered to be a late maturing fach; we do expect there is a Wotan in his future. 

Yesterday he sang the rapid fire "Sorge infausta una procella" from Händel's Orlando and demonstrated plenty of flexibility in the embellishments, in spite of the substantial weight of his voice. Fortunately, his second selection "Vi ravviso" from La Sonnambula showed off his facility with Bellini's long legato lines which were beautifully phrased. We enjoyed hearing both sides of his artistry.

Meghan Kasanders, also known from many recitals at Juilliard, has a sizable soprano and "Dich, teure Halle" from Wagner's Tannhäuser revealed her Wagnerian promise with an heroic quality that never compromised the tender aspect. Her top notes soared and thrilled the ear.

We don't recall hearing her Russian before but she sounded superb in an aria from Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame which she brought to an expressive climax.

Tenor Dashuai Chen, also from Juilliard, is less well known to us but we found the sweetness of his instrument to be immensely appealing. In "Fra poco a me ricovero...Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, he established his character in the recitativo and never let up. The performance was exquisitely modulated to evoke our sympathy.

In "Salut! demeure chaste et pure" from Gounod's Faust, his French flowed like miel and the delivery emphasized the character's motivation to seduce, rather than a tenor's grandstanding. We loved every minute!

Tenor Piotr Buszewski also has roots in Juilliard. His first selection was "Seul sur la terre" from Donizetti's Dom Sebastien, an aria with which we are not familiar. We loved the sweetness of his tone until he pushed on a few high notes. We enjoyed the way his voice played against the harp.

We preferred his second selection which was in Polish. We never heard Moniuszko's opera The Haunted Manor but we were inspired to learn about the opera; all we could find is that it is a romantic and patriotic comedy written in the 1860's, much loved in Poland but rarely produced outside of Poland. We would love to get one of our local opera companies to mount a production. (But where would they find all those Polish singers?) The melody was gorgeous, the orchestration colorful, the harmonies inventive, and Mr. Buszewski's delivery was stirring, even though we had no idea what it was about. Sometimes we just love the beauty of sound. 

Alaysha Fox is a soprano of great promise with a sizable instrument and fine dramatic instincts. We recently heard her at a salon which we enjoyed a great deal but admit to being unprepared for her artistry in a huge house like the Met. She was a highly persuasive Donna Anna in "Or sai chi l'onore" from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Her second selection was "Ich ging zu ihm" from Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane, another aria with which are unfamiliar. The overtones were bouncing around the Met in great profusion. It made us want to hear this opera.

Soprano Elena Villalón was the youngest singer of the group but already quite accomplished. She made a lovely Giulietta in "Oh! quante volte" from Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi. She and the harp made some lovely music, the harp with its arpeggi and Ms. Villalón with a lovely legato line. The coloratura was splendid and the embellishments in the final section very well handled.

We were even more impressed by Sophie's aria "Ich bin Euer Liebchen sehr verbunden" from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. Her voice literally sparkled and the top soared to the stratosphere.

Mezzo-soprano Michaela Wolz performed "Addio addio, o miei sospiri" from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice with some thrilling melismatic singing. So much for Gluck's rebellion against ornamentation!

She delighted the audience with Stefano's aria "Que fais-tu blanche tourterelle?" from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in which she pranced around the stage wielding an imaginary sword and created a very believable character. We have one quibble. If a female singer performs a breeches role wearing a man's suit, she shouldn't have to do it in pumps with heels!

Thomas Glass utilized a fine lyric baritone in the aria "Captain Ahab? I must speak with you". Although he made every word clear, he couldn't make us want to see this Jake Heggie opera Moby Dick. We cannot get a good idea of a singer's voice in English.

Fortunately, he turned to French for his second selection, the oft heard aria sung by Valentin in Gounod's Faust--"Avant de quitter ces lieux" which succeeded in giving us a better picture of his vocal assets. He created a long lyrical line even when the orchestra depicts a military march. He colored his voice differently for each section, which we appreciated.

Whilst the judges met to do their thing, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, a winner from 2003 who is having a successful career at The Met, entertained us with "Ella giammai m'amo" from Verdi's Don Carlo. It was technically fine but failed to limn King Philip II's character, neither the evil filicidal side nor the pathetic whimper of an old man.

Maestro Carlo Rizzi's handling of the always wonderful Metropolitan Opera Orchestra was always brilliant. Whatever he asked for, they delivered.

And then...the "winners" were announced and this is the part where we tell you what we do not like about this competition. Five "winners" are announced and the other four are left hanging out to dry. If there were three winners chosen out of the nine it would not be so egregious. Just sayin'!

(c) meche kroop