Music News
Merola: The Future Is Here, Again
Big talent is one thing, a great performance is another. Blessedly, at Saturday’s Grand Finale, closing the 51st annual Merola Program, there was plenty of both. In a three-hour musical orgy of a superbly prepared and executed program, the War Memorial Opera House once again served as the venue to an event that could (and perhaps should) be part of the subscription season.
Among two dozen young singers — a group without a weak link — two sopranos and two tenors took gold. Leah Crocetto and Amanda Majeski have both crossed the line between talent and accomplishment, and they were equally impressive, until just before the end when Crocetto brought down the house with one of the most spectacular performances in Merola finale history. (She bested even that of Elza van den Heever a few years back — coincidentally, the same evening, Saturday, van den Heever took first place in Seattle Opera’s second International Wagner Competition.)
Leah Crocetto at the Grand Finale
Photos by Kristen Loken
Already having distinguished herself in a Don Pasquale excerpt at Herbst Theatre a month ago, and after a searing performance of Leonora’s aria from Il Trovatore earlier in the evening, Crocetto’s Luisa in a duet with Ben Wager’s imposing Wurm from Luisa Miller (”Il padre tuo … Tu puniscimi, o Signore”) went from strength to strength, provoking premature (but well-deserved) applause before the cabaletta, and ended to a major chorus of “Brava!”
What is special about Crocetto is her absolute certainty, an intensity that amplifies an already huge voice (but never in excess), and an unparalleled flexibility of the voice. Add to that a command of drama (or comedy, in case of the Donizetti), and an innate, irresistible musicality. An Adler Fellowship for Crocetto and a long-term binding contract thereafter would well serve San Francisco audiences.
An Adler Fellowship is certain to await Majeski as well: There was last month’s spectacular Donna Anna, with two wonderful performances Saturday; a soaring Nedda in a Pagliacci duet with Silvio (Austin Kness, in a rock-solid performance), and also, in the title role of Barber’s Vanessa, the “At last I’ve found you” duet with Anatol (James Benjamin Rodgers). The quality of Majeski’s voice, her projection, and legato coalesce in a thing of joy.
Merolini: Adam Cioffari, Ben Wager, apprentice coach Alan Hamilton, Austin Kness, David Lomelí, Joélle Harvey, Carlos Monzón, Amanda Majeski, Rena Harms, apprentice stage director Jimmy Smith, apprentice coach Dennis Doubin
There are no fewer than four excellent tenors in this Merola class, and in the Grand Finale, two of them performed in personal-best fashion.
Nathaniel Peake’s Werther (in the “Ah mon courage m’abandonne” scene, with Renée Tatum’s Charlotte) was elegant, smooth as silk, and appealing. Listen to some of his online amateur recordings — a thrilling voice.
David Lomelí, made to strip in seducing Maddalena (would a Duke of Mantua struggle with his suspenders instead of just commanding his prey?), belted out (in lieu of suspenders?) the role in the Quartet most impressively. In the too-brief mezzo role, Nicole Birkland made her mark. Lomelí showed another aspect of his voice in a fine performance of the Italian Singer’s “Di rigori armato il seno” from Der Rosenkavalier.
Among lengthy excerpts, standouts were from Pelléas et Mélisande (with Joélle Harvey, Eugene Chan, and Ben Wager), and from Lohengrin, the Act 2 duet with Kate Crist as Elsa and Nicole Birkland as Ortrud. Diction coaches — Patricia Kristof-Moy for French, Anja Strauss for German, and Alessandra Cattani for Italian — did excellent work with the young artists, most of whom are already exhibiting professional-plus level in diction.
Adam Cioffari and Tyler Nelson in the Cosi fan tutte excerpt
Stage director Jimmy Smith, a member of the Merola class, has a wicked sense of humor, mocking (you would like to believe) Eurotrash in the evening-opening Cosi fan tutte scene, and especially in a Magic Flute segment, in which the Three Ladies — Rena Harms, Natasha Flores, and Birkland — appear quite wasted; smoking, drinking, and staggering about. They offer a revolver to Tamino (René Barbera) instead of the flute, and a plastic bag of white powder to Papageno (Darren Perry), instead of the customary magic bells.
Natasha Flores
Joel Revzen conducted the Opera Orchestra (in its summer manifestation) very well, serving the music, and helping to showcase the voices. With two minor exceptions, voices soared above the sound from the pit. (Does a three-hour vocal concert need an overture? Not really.)
Merola Concert, Another View
Jason Victor Serinus sat across the aisle from me Saturday night, and I asked him for his take on the Grand Finale:
About Majeski, I could not agree more. Also on display, more so than in her Salzburg-quality Donna Anna, was a glorious shimmering top, with all the glamor to set the heart aflutter.
Part of the appeal of Nathaniel Peake’s Werther was a rarely encountered, youthful purity. I wish we had been given other opportunities to hear him, as we were with the other singers you mention. I would say the same for mezzo Renée Tatum. I thought her Charlotte was gorgeous. Hearing her a second time would have been ideal.
Lomelí’s Rigoletto Duke had it all: power and beauty of tone. The only thing missing in his Rosenkavalier Italian Singer aria was absolute command of line (as heard, most prominently, in Tauber’s performances). In the Rigoletto, I would have held different notes longer, and swelled in different places, as does Caruso. But these are coaching issues that I trust can be worked out. (Hear Lomelí’s Granada here.)
What is most important is that Lomelí has an innate sense of drama, a gorgeous instrument, and musical wherewithal to deviate from strict tempo for musical ends. Thank God. There is nothing more dispiriting than a square, strict-time performance of the Quartet from Rigoletto.
Jason’s mention of iconic figures such as Tauber and Caruso in this context says more about the event and this Merola class than any rave review could.
Make Medici.TV Your and the People’s Choice
Wonderful Medici.TV, which this column has been plugging for a long time for bringing major music festivals to the computer screen, is in a race for a video “People’s Choice” award at the upcoming Flashforward Convention in San Francisco. Vote here, and vote wisely.
On Medici.TV this week: a Takács Quartet concert in Aspen, the Berlin Philharmonic at Aix-en-Provence, concerts at the Verbier Festival (including Rodion Shchredin’s Grusha’s Gypsy Song for mezzo-soprano and orchestra from the new opera The Enchanted Wanderer, with Krystina Kapustynska), and many more — a fabulous storehouse of contemporary performances.
Krystina Kapustynska
Awards to Berkeley’s Adams, ‘Our Lucia’
Composer John Adams, sopranos Natalie Dessay and Renée Fleming, mezzo Marilyn Horne, and baritone Sherrill Milnes are receiving this year’s Opera News Awards.
Natalie Dessay
Adams’ San Francisco Opera-commissioned Doctor Atomic will be produced at the Met in October. Dessay’s debut with the S.F. Opera last season, in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, was a sensation. Fleming, Horne, and Milnes have appeared at the War Memorial many times.
The awards will be presented Nov. 16 in a ceremony at the Plaza Hotel.
John Adams
Photo by Deborah O’Grady
Gershwin for Free
The San Francisco Film Society and the Presidio Trust begin their seventh annual Film in the Fog on Sept. 27, on the lawn of the Main Post Theater in the Presidio, with a free screening of An American in Paris. The classic MGM film, set to the music and lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin, stars Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, and Oscar Levant, and is directed by Vincente Minnelli. The feature is preceded by a vintage newsreel and a classic cartoon. Before the sun goes down, the audience will be entertained by a saxophone quartet and PI: The Physical Comedy Troupe, and even treated to free popcorn.
Cantabile Auditions
Cantabile Youth Singers, celebrating its 15th season, will hold auditions for 2008-2009 on Sept. 23, at Foothills Congregational Church in Los Altos. For information, call (650) 424-1410 or e-mail info@cantabile.org. Those contacts will also be used for participation in the September “Open House Month” at Cantabile, when the organization welcomes parents and children to meet teachers, fellow singers, and parents.
Cantabile Youth Singers is led by Elena Sharkova, artistic director and conductor of the Ensemble and Vocalise senior Choirs. Shane Troll is the conductor for the Intermediate Choir, and Darva Campbell is the preparatory choir conductor.
Among plans for the upcoming season: Hosting the Schaumburg Youth Choir from Germany with a joint free concert on Oct. 13, participating as the children’s choir in the West Bay Opera production of Carmen in October, appearing as one of five choirs in Grace Cathedral’s annual “Voices of the Future” concert (along with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, San Francisco Boys Chorus, Crystal Children’s Choir, and the Men and Boys Choir of Grace Cathedral), a tour to the Baltic — Finland, Estonia, and Russia — next summer, and participating in the 2009 Laulupidu Song Festival.
Cantabile singers
Photo by Joel Bartlett
An ODC Special
For two weeks, ODC Theater has been holding an international in-house dance residency, but tomorrow — on one night only — “House Special” is going public. Monique Jenkinson/Fauxnique, Charya Burt, Melody Takata, Vishnu Tattva, and Rabbit Research are showing off their stuff at the Project Artaud Theater on Aug. 20. Tickets are $15.
“For six years, ODC Theater has boldly presented the outcome of its experimental two-week residency project,” says ODC Theater Director Rob Bailis. “This year beautiful ancient Asian forms will commingle with cutting-edge European multimedia work, and the wild antics of our own resident drag queen.” That would be Fauxnique, Monique Jenkinson’s drag-queen alter ego.
Takata, Burt, and Tattva, a team of three artists from Asian American Dance Performances, take the stage for a work-in-progress showing of Of Spirits Intertwined, a new work drawn from their national vocabularies (Japanese, Cambodian, and Indian).
Two performers come from Rabbit Research, an art collective based in Savoie, France. The duo, Corine Englander and Emilie Camacho, present Vertigo, an exploration of falling.
Charya Burt
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.
I agree with every word of the great reviews! Anyone who loves Opera should not miss Merola, as we here in San Francisco are producing the stars of tomorrow. I loved it and floated home!
Posted by Eloise Bouye on August 19, 2008 at 5:26 pm
This had to be one of the best Merola Grand Finale concerts I have ever attended. I was tremendously impressed with Ben Wager at the July concert, and awarded him first prize (I awarded Kenneth Kellog first prize last year and look where he is now — an Adler Fellow. Insert “Twilight Zone” music — they are both Philadelphia Academy of the Arts graduates). Leah Crocetto absolutely blew me away, that is truly a voice with which to contend. Bravi to all but particularly to Ben and Leah.
Posted by Ruth C. Jacobs on August 19, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I just wanted to comment something, I loved the performance of Amanda Majeski and Leah Crocetto.
But in the reality for the world, the lack of tenors, with Rolando Villazon, Massimo Giordano, and even the italian tenor that sang in Lucia this past June in the SFO production strugling to produce a decent A or B flat. To just put a decent or fine or one star performance to the Rosenkavalier aria of Lomeli is actually bothering me a little. Or coaching issues for the Rigoletto.
This is a guy that already sang with Domingo, Dudamel, Barbacini, and is ALREADY hired in main stage at SFO in Traviata (look webpage). The world is avid of great voices, but a guy that can striptease, act, and also had the most gorgeous italian style top and and intensity of the Latin tenors as Domingo and Villazon, it is very unfair to just give a hint in your reviews or a sense of legato, I would dare to hear tauber sing those ringing c flat the same way. In Nathaniel Peake case also, his beutiful Gedda voice; for me the most impressive thing is not the great sopranos they had, sopranos are thousands, tenors like Peake or Lomeli 5 in the world.Of course Crocetto and Majeski are exceptional but for me even Tyler Nelson and Rene Barbera with Lomeli and Peake were the greatest discovery of the night.
Posted by Eduardo Lobo Sada on August 20, 2008 at 7:09 am