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RECITAL REVIEW
September 24, 2006
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A Tenor Who Sets the Tone By Robert P. Commanday
Now and then, a rare voice surfaces that has the special quality of producing sympathetic vibrations, a resonance that works sympathetically in the body of the listener — in the chest, the ear canals, and everything in between. The effect on the listener is an instant bond with the performer. Such a vocal talent is Rolando Villazón, the young Mexican tenor who not only has the voice, but the heart and presence to own you. For a few years now, he has been doing splendidly on the international scene. But he had not performed here since his term in the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program a half-dozen years ago. At the Cal Performances recital on Sunday afternoon, he took over UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall, lock, stock, and barrel.
For starters, he did what few opera tenors do — he sang lieder, and not a lied or two, but an entire cycle. (Jon Vickers comes to mind, but few others.) Villazón chose the best one for this early stage in his career, Schumann’s Dichterliebe (“Poet’s Love”) to 16 poems by Heine. Initially, Villazón fussed expressively over single words, only selectively letting his voice flow and find the line. When he reached the fourth song, the first that penetrates, Wenn ich in deine Augen seh' (“When I gaze into your eyes”), he began producing the desired lyric quality and sustained it from then on. His voice drew the music along and was compelling.
Of course, diction is crucial. And, his German was impeccable — clear, easy, and he never unnaturally colored or impaired the liquid-silver flow of that voice, which is so beautifully endowed and produced. His interpretive, expressive impulse was convincing; the ardor was youthful and appropriate. The famous and bitterly ironic Ich grolle nicht (“I bear no rancor”), found its stabbing peak at the right point. In subsequent songs, Villazón measured the growth of intensity with confidence. When it called for it, he modulated the tone with understatement, and even employed the plain, “dead” voice in “I wept in my dream.” It all worked to excellent dramatic effect, and the final Die alten, bösen Lieder (“The old, angry songs”), served as a powerful climax. To be sure, it was a young man’s impassioned go at the Dichterliebe, (he’s only 34) and it was a remarkably fine-tuned one.
After intermission, Bononcini’s "Per la gloria d’adorarvi" (“For the glory of adoring you,”) from Griselda, was the first piece to release the Italian cantabile and tone, the language for which his voice is ideally suited. The Handel favorite, Ombra mai fù, was too low for him (as were a couple of the Schumann songs). Next, he turned to three songs in French, a language that he produces finely and that leads him to a more open-voiced production. There he gave up the characteristic “metal” in his sound and the exciting vibrance of the voice. Massenet’s Ouvre tes yeux bleus was warm and charming. (In six performances beginning Saturday at the Los Angeles Opera, Villazón will sing the Chevalier des Greiux in Massenet’s Manon opposite Anna Netrebko. He had to be released from a rehearsal in order to give this Berkeley recital.) Fauré’s Après un rêve was sensitively done and Tosti’s Chanson d’adieu (“To part is to die a little”) was touching and graceful. It was nice to hear from that composer, who is known almost exclusively for one piece, Mattinata. However, because Villazón uses a different, more open production for French, he sang a bit too sharp and the tone was less focused. The final set demonstrated where Villazón lives and thrives, vocally and emotionally. He performed four songs by the Spanish early-modern composer Fernando Obradors (from Canciones Clásicas Españoles) and four Spanish and Italian encores. Obradors’ Al Amor and Corazón porqué pasáis, had all of the full expression, tempo variety, and zest he could put into it. He sang Del cabello más sutil with rhapsodic fervor and freedom. And in Coplas de Curro Dulce, he took off on those wonderful Spanish-Arabic melismas, “Ah------yee,” and displayed florid ornaments and cadenzalike gestures, ending brilliantly on his top. Villazón could not have been better served at the piano than by Bryndon Hassman, a member of the San Francisco Opera’s musical staff for 17 years. Hassman’s playing of the Schumann was light, subtle, and true. He gave refined accounts of the French songs, and for the Spanish and Italian pieces, he was splendid in precision, and in tracking the tenor’s rhythmic path. The sold-out audience gave Villazón a hero’s acclaim, and they were rewarded by encores: Te Quiero Dijiste by Maria Grever, Intima by — I’m not making this up — Nacho, Rossini’s La Danza, taking the whirligig saltarello at a daredevil, tongue-twisting tempo, and Tosti’s L'Alba Separa. Each was more captivating than the last. Villazón — whose stage presence and personal charm are wholly outgoing and infectious — let it all out with energy, showbiz pizzazz, and climactic final notes. Everyone seemed to catch his happiness, and a day later, the voice, spirit, and songs were still in the ear, where they just may remain for a spell.
(Robert P. Commanday, founding editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle from 1965 to 1993, and before that a conductor and lecturer at UC Berkeley.)
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Rolando Villazón
