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OPERA
December 1, 2005
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By Janos Gereben
The lofty, if somewhat suspect, claim in the title of "The Future Is Now" was
made good Thursday in Herbst Theater. The San Francisco Opera Center's
final concert of the 2005 Adler Fellows showcased 10 superb young singers,
every one of whom may well be part of the longed-for "Future," as advertised.
They put on such a great show that it was easy to forget to marvel over the
physical impossibility of the Opera's 80-piece orchestra being squeezed onto a
stage that usually holds a piano or a string quartet.
Even in their extremely cramped quarters, the musicians — under Mark
Morash's businesslike baton — managed to play beautifully, and without
overwhelming the hall that's one-third the size of the War Memorial, their
normal habitat. Two of the young singers did what the orchestra wouldn't, and
tried to blow the walls down.
There were no balance problems with Sean Panikkar, nor is there any doubt
that he will soon become an acclaimed tenor in Global Opera, Inc. What
remains to be seen is if he'll become a Wagnerian heldentenor. If he does (and
he may), he will add another unique distinction to his resume (in addition to
being "the tenor from Sri Lanka"), based on his Wagnerian debut here in a role
from ... Verdi's Macbeth.
It went like this: Panikkar was the only one among the Adler Fellows to appear twice, and that was only right after he "sang" Walther in a Meistersinger scene ("Fanget an!"), taken up entirely by Thomas Glenn's brilliant performance as David, instructing the clueless knight in proper academic singing. So Panikkar's Wagnerian debut came in the form of listening for some 15 minutes, asking only — in flawless German — "what's that?" and encouraging the other to advise him ... which Glenn did, hilariously, in a remarkably fluent and authentic performance.
When Panikkar returned to sing Macduff's aria, "Ah, la paterna mano," he was singing Verdi right and proper, but I couldn't help listening for the heldentenor sound he didn't have a chance to display fully in the Wagner excerpt. It may well be there, but for now, what is clear (and impressive) is his ability in both verismo and bel canto.
For height and weight, Nikki Einfeld looks like a very young and redheaded Bidu Sayão, but her power and security in stratospheric high notes are without comparison. She nailed "A vos jeux, mes amis," from Thomas' Hamlet, in diction, accuracy, dramatic impact ... every way. The Canadian soprano also has It, the charisma that passeth mere attention-getting effort. When she sings, you listen, and root for her.
Tall, willowy Jane Archibald also did her similarly amazing best in the role of another crazy lady, ending the concert with a full (applause-interrupted) version of the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor. The rest of the concert: Eugen Brancoveanu (not up to his admirable par this time) in the Massenet Hérodiade "Vision Fugitive"; Kimwana Doner as a statuesque and powerful — if not sufficiently nuanced — Tosca, with "Vissi d'arte"; Joshua Bloom, an already accomplished singing actor choosing an aria to show off his vocalism only, in "Sibillar gli angui d'Aletto" from Handel's Rinaldo.
Handel was featured again, in the best sense of the word, with countertenor Gerald Thompson singing a sensational "Vivi, tiranno!" from Rodelinda; and there were the two louder-than-the-orchestra singers: the potential operatic superstar Elza van den Heever, with a brassy "Dich, teure halle!" and Lucas Meachem, born to the stage, with another Hamlet aria in this Thomas-excessive program, "O vin, dissipe la tristesse." There is still some learning ahead of these young artists — such as that "less is more," especially in a small hall — but otherwise, they are definitely the future ... now. As to the remarkable program that has helped them — and scores of others — along the path to a career in opera, it's named after Kurt Herbert Adler, artistic and later general manager of the Opera from 1953 to 1981. This "performance-oriented residency" for young advanced singers and stage directors was created by Adler's successor, Terence McEwen, in 1982. Former Adler Fellows include Patricia Racette, Ruth Ann Swenson, Deborah Voigt, Dolora Zajick, Laura Claycomb, Norman Shankle, and John Relyea.
(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org; his e-mail
address is janosg@gmail.com.)
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