|
RECITAL REVIEW Little Wunder Here November 25, 2002
|
By Janos Gereben
The idea is simple and splendid: combine opera and chamber music, one illuminating the other. Earlier this
month, SF Opera and SF Performances combined forces and came up with a brilliant execution of the concept: to
"supplement" Janacek's Kat'a Kabanova, the Alexander Quartet played the composer's two quartets and
musicologist Robert Greenwood connected the dots in the musical/thematical picture.
With a greater stretch and drastically less communication (in speech and performances alike), the Opera went
it alone tonight, and provided a poorly publicized recital in Herbst Theater. The half-filled house further
thinned out in the intermission when about two dozen patrons left.
The occasion was the current Opera production next door, of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, and the
program consisted of German Lieder with the theme of The Youth's Magic Horn, including 10 songs from
Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and music based on romantic folklore by Humperdinck, Brahms, Schumann
and Strauss. Instead of opera and chamber music mingled to enlighten and enrich, this event turned into a
plain old recital, with an unvaried musical vocabulary, and some surprisingly sub-par performances.
The exception was mezzo Helene Schneiderman, who not only sang consistently well, but also provided some oomph to an otherwise curiously staid occasion. Unlike many other opera singers, Schneiderman adjusted to Herbst's very different atmosphere and acoustics, singing "to the hall" with exactly the right amount of power, appropriate projection, and great warmth, fetching simplicity and directness. From the program-opening Rheinlegendchen to the closing Verlor'ne Müh, Schneiderman got it all exactly right. Adler Fellow Twyla Robinson had a mixed evening. She hasn't mastered all the songs assigned to her, just got through some. A talented young singer with numerous accomplishments to her credit in the Opera House already, Robinson this time ranged from a deadly dull Urlicht to an excellent, charming performance of Strauss' Hat gesagt . . . bleibt nichts dabei. The evening's biggest and most disappointing surprise was the brilliant young baritone David Okerlund's indisposition. Nothing was said, but it was painfully obvious that he was fighting some problem. The voice was dry, effort was audible, and his attempts at melodrama, especially in Der Tambourgesell, failed to mask the vocal problems. Okerlund, who has special musical and theatrical abilities came up short in both departments at this concert. To his credit, he persisted in his efforts, and by the end, the voice almost returned in Der Schildwache Nachtlied, but the listener never really had a chance to hear what this singer is about. But Okerlund's problems are not responsible for the lack of spark at the recital. John Parr was the accompanist for the evening, playing well, but mostly without conveying the passion and excitement that was in short supply throughout. The company's new logo, with a portion of the word "opera" torn off the page, provides a good image for The Youth's Magic Horn: a "sophisticated," fashionable attempt to be different, ending up in poor communications, revealing lack of honest substance and true excellence.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the
Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.)
|