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Post-Romantic Lieder Opera singers in recital
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
By John OrlukOpera Festival of New Jersey. Alexis Barhelemy (mezzo-soprano), Jason Collins (tenor), William Ferguson (tenor), Josepha Gayer (mezzo-soprano), Mikael Eliasen (piano); Mahler: Von der Jugend; Schoenberg: Waldtaube; R. Strauss: Heimliche Aufförderung, op. 27, no. 8, and Ich trage meine Minne, op. 32, no. 1; Korngold: Wo ist mein Heim; Webern: Four Songs, op. 12; Berg: Seven Early Songs; Weill: Ballad of the Prisoner of Sex, Nanna's Lied, Wie lange noch, Der Abschiedsbrief, Es regnet, and Und was bekam. Gambrell Room, Scheide Hall, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton.
The Opera Festival of New Jersey's (OFNJ) Lieder recital featured works of Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg and Weill, a pleasant departure from the more commonly heard romantic repertory. Pianist Mikael Eliasen, head of vocal studies at Curtis Institute took charge of the evening, talking briefly about the choice of program between pieces. The twentieth-century lieder were chosen specifically to create a companion program to Berg's opera Wozzeck, performed as part of this year's festival.
Three young singers, all of whom played roles in OFNJ's operas this season, sang the majority of the program. All three had fantastic voices and delivered technically pleasing performances. However, it seemed that they may have been lacking experience in interpreting Lieder.
Jason Collins had a large voice, appropriate for any major operatic stage. He often seemed to take great effort to use the uppermost extreme of his dynamic range, an effort that seemed unnecessary considering the small venue. Alexis Barthelemy was not as overpowering but she often lacked the smooth legato line necessary for expressing the text. William Ferguson had the most maturity in terms of control and expressively. The sound he produced was also much more appropriate to the venue.
The most interesting part of the program came in the final set when Josepha Gayer, a more mature singer who recently made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, joined the three younger singers, who sang Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs. Following each Berg song Ms. Gayer sang one of Kurt Weill's cabaret style songs. This may seem like an unusual concept but as Mr. Eliasen explained, the harmonic styles of Berg and Weill compliment each other well and often spill over into one another. What seemed more interesting than the purely musical relationships between the songs were the relationships between the texts and the singers. The Berg texts deal with youthful love while the Weill songs, performed in an English translation done by the performers themselves, showed a much more mature view of the subject. The younger singers' performance of the Berg songs, somewhat naive and inexperienced, displayed a poignant contrast to Ms. Gayer's strength in expressing the more mature and often vulgar songs of Weill. This contrast almost certainly provided appeal to audience members throughout the spectrum of emotional development and made a good choice for the closing of the program, exemplifying one of the most important aspects of lieder as a genre, the expression of human emotion.
The Count Gets His Gal: Reasons to be suspicious of music teachers
Saturday, July 26, 2003
By Barbara ThomsonMetro Lyric Opera, Anton Coppola (conductor). Gioacchino Rossini: The Barber of Seville. Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park.
The Barber of Seville is a very funny opera light, effervescent, and full of silliness. It is fun to attend but is full of challenges for the performers - fearsome *fioratura for all and technical difficulties galore. It is the kind of music which should sound as though it is just lightly tossed off, when in reality it is hard work to make it sound effortless.
The Metro Lyric Opera's performance had many strengths. Tenor Ronald Naldi in particular was a terrific Count Almaviva. His ringing tenor voice is the real article, and he can move it around without losing support or volume. He is also very comfortable on stage, making a very funny drunken soldier in Act II, and an even better voice teacher for Rosina in Act III, playing the onstage keyboard like a 19th-century Liberace.
Shon Sims's Figaro was excellent. He is handsome and engaging, and has a nice baritone instrument with an excellent top. The rapport between Sims and Naldi was good, and they worked well together as both actors and musicians.
The weak link was soprano Amy Van Roekel's Rosina. While she sang with the requisite agility and range, her small voice lacked color, was often covered by the orchestra, and was lost in ensembles. She was also not nearly as natural a stage presence as the men, who really stole the show, from both the singing and the acting points of view.
In smaller roles, basso Stephan Kirchgraber sang with a big, rich sound as the music master Don Basilio. Ettore Bertolino made a good portrayal of the pompous Dr. Bartolo, but his voice was not big or distinguished enough to keep up with the other men. Mezzo Marybeth Hazel as the maid made the most of her single aria, singing with a nice round sound and plenty of volume. Rossini's music is so often fast, light, and precise that it is hard to keep everyone together. The ensemble work between the singers and the orchestra was not always tidy, and some orchestral passages were sloppy. As is often the case when funds are limited, rehearsal time was inadequate. Conductor Anton Coppola is clear and knows what he wants, but what I imagine he really wants is more rehearsals to overcome these problems, which are certainlysolvable.
The other major flaw in the production was that the inequality in voice size between the singers led to imbalance in the ensembles. Soprano Van Roekel, in particular, was lost in the bigger sound of the others, and the soprano line really should really be the easiest to hear, being on the top.
Nonetheless, the production as a whole was definitely a success. The silly business came off well, and there is a lot of silly business in this work. In the end though, opera is not just about theater; it is about gorgeous singing, otherwise we'd all be going to plays not operas. It was tenor Naldi who had the goods, and who stole the show.