Every year, the concert concluding the Merola Opera Program in the War
Memorial is an important event: it puts young singing stars of the next
generation before a large audience, ends the summer doldrums, an acts as
a warm-up act of the opening of the season, just around the corner
(Sept. 9).
This years, there was something extra: a thoroughly, delightfully
enjoyable evening of opera with consistently excellent performances,
some mind-bogglingly so, and the "summer-replacement" orchestra, under
the direction of Antony Walker playing sensationally. The
evening-closing "Falstaff" finale could have made any opera house in the
world proud.
Among the surprises: baritones were the stars just once - and not for
lack of competition from sopranos, mezzos, tenors... and countertenor
Ryan Belongie, with a drop-dead gorgeous aria from "Xerxes." It's just
that baritones are so often also-runs, and this was different, right
from the very beginning and a wonderful performance of the Prologue from
"Pagliacci."
Born in Odessa, raised in San Francisco (where he played the guitar in
high school, rather than sing), Aleksey Bogdanov showed off a warm,
appealing, sensitive, intelligent baritone, startlingly mature for
somebody in his mid-20s.
Exactly the same adjectives applied to another Odessa-born baritone,
Michael Sumuel, whose Alidoro from "La Cenerentola" was a triumph.
(Sumuel's Odessa is in Texas, by the way, not Ukraine, and he may be a
bit older than Bogdanov.) Both baritones excelled in diction,
projection, stage presence.
In the concluding Verdi, they appeared side by side, Bogdanov as
Falstaff and Sumuel as Ford. I'd give an eyetooth to hear the whole
opera with those two. Defying age and career standards, Bogdanov also
sang briefly as Hans Sachs in a "Meistersinger" excerpt.
Yet another talented baritone, Yohan Yi, sang Aleko's aria from the
Rachmaninoff opera, with deep feeling and impeccable Russian.
During the Merola season, soprano Susannah Biller and mezzo Maya Lahyani
distinguished themselves, but tonight they both reached new heights:
Biller's Zdenka (with Lori Guilbeau's Arabella), Héro (from "Béatrice
[Lahyani] et Bénédict" (Suzanne Hendrix as Ursule), and - especially - a
playful and winning "Fledermaus" Rosalinde showed a young artist ready
for the big time.
Lahyani's Carmen (with Brian Jagde's Don José) was both seductive and
vocally satisfying. To return to "Fledermaus" for a minute, there was
something remarkable about John Chest's Eisenstein - a voice full of
promise in an undemanding role (I know, I know, there are no easy
roles... but still) - there is another singer to watch.
The youngest singer of the Class of '09, Eleazar Rodriguez, showed off
his elegant lyric tenor in an "Entführung" aria, needing only more work
in German diction... and a more supportive editor, who doesn't drop him
from the program (which didn't arrive until the intermission anyway).
There were a couple of fine, but rather "generic" tenors, and then
Gregory Carroll with the obvious distinction of a
helden-tenor-in-the-making. His "Flying Dutchman" Erik (with Kate
Crist's Senta) was impressive. Ditto for Nathaniel Peake's powerful
Duke, with Sara Gartland's effortless Gilda.
Programming for the evening was delightful, with some lesser-known
selections pre-empting the customary warhorses. In addition to "Aleko,"
the Berlioz, and Suzanne Hendrix's affecting performance of Cornelia's
aria from "Giulio Cesare," there was a duet from Thomas' "Mignon" (with
Ellie Jarrett and Evan Boyer) and Lothario's aria (with Boyer), and
Margaret Gawrysiak sang Joan's aria from Tchaikovsky's "Joan of Arc."
I am afraid with Youtube or an MP3, I cannot do justice to that closing
"Tutto nel mondo e burla." It was all there, and all good. Take
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igCZGOO0u-E as a poor substitute.
--
Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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