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ConcertoNet |
Arlene Judith Klotzko |
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Richard Tucker Gala, Avery Fisher Hall, New York, 6. November 2011 |
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Richard Tucker Remembered
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The Richard Tucker Foundation has honored and supported the careers of
singers including Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee, and Aprile Milo. I
attended the Gala last year and was delighted to be invited again. This
year’s honoree is the marvelous soprano, Angela Meade, who has already
embarked on a high-profile career. This season, she has appeared at the Met
singing the title role of Anna Bolena. In February, she returns in Ernani.
Meade opened the program with “Santo di patria” Odabella’s aria from
Attila, an opera first and last heard at the Met under the baton of Riccardo
Muti. She sang with a huge, luminous voice, rich timbre throughout her
range, impressive vocal dexterity and thrilling high notes. Her second
appearance on the program as Norma, in the Act I Trio, alongside Dolora
Zajick as Adalgisa and Frank Porretta as Pollione was simply electrifying.
The lives of opera singers being what they are, there were
cancellations. Meanwhile, Jonas Kaufmann’s name had been added. Good thing
too. He and his 2009 co-star from the La Scala opening night production of
Carmen, Anita Rachvelishvili, stepped into the programming gap and performed
the opera’s last scene. Rachvelishvili, with her burnished, opulent lower
register, was a fine Carmen as she had been at the Met last season.
Kaufmann’s Don José had graced the stage of the Met last spring for
just two performances. There as here, his portrayal of this decompensating
character was so vivid, his singing so extraordinary, that for a time it
seemed the audience barely seemed to breathe. Last night, out of context and
with virtually no room to move around on the stage, Kaufmann was José –
still besotted, scorned, tormented and finally a killer.
There were actually two Turiddos on the program, Kaufmann, singing
“Mamma, quel vino e generoso” and the Korean tenor, Yonghoon Lee, who sang a
duet with Dolora Zajick as Santuzza. Lee sang well with a bright ringing
tenor voice and Zajick was a force to be reckoned with in her intensity and
expressivity.
But again it was Kaufmann who drew us in and thrilled
with stunning high notes and exquisitely calibrated control of dynamics, all
the while maintaining such a lovely line. This was my third time seeing him
in less than two weeks. In every performance, every incarnation, every
style, Kaufmann continues to astonish. His NY lieder recital debut took
place at the Met exactly a week before the Tucker Gala. Six days before
that, I saw him in a concert program in London, where his Wagner was
thrilling. But it was in the verismo arias that he conveyed the strongest
emotions – freed to do so by his utter technical mastery.
Bryn Terfel, just one day after finishing the third of his performances as
The Wanderer in the Met’s new production of Siegfried, brought down the
house with a portrayal of the most mischievous of his Bad Boys, Dulcamara He
sauntered onto the stage and, with the first words of his aria “Udite,
udite” and a wicked grin, Terfel waggled his finger at latecomers just
taking their seats. He had bottles of beer crammed into every pocket.
Stephanie Blythe, seen at the Met last season as Fricka in Das Rheingold
and Die Walküre, scaled back her powerful voice to deliver a charming,
elegantly sung “Connais-tu le pays” from Mignon with a lovely lilt and fine
legato. The other mezzo on the program, Dolora Zajick, sang not just a
vibrant Adalgisa and the thrilling Santuzza with Yonghoon Lee, but also
appeared as Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans. The gifted
singers of the New York Chorale Society were superb here as they were all
evening.
Fine contributions from the rest of the singers, included
Maria Guleghina in a gentle, touching “Vissi d’arte”, Zeljko Lucic in
Verdi’s “Eri tu”, and Yonghoon Lee in “O Souverain” from Le Cid. In the
ebullient final selection, the fugue from Falstaff, the featured singers,
led by Bryn Terfel, were joined by Deanna Breiwick, Renée Tatum, Theo Lebow,
Ta’u Pupu’a, Edward Parks, and Keith Miller. And, of course, throughout this
marvelous evening, the audience basked in the sight and the sound of the Met
Orchestra – here under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume. The superb program
notes by the Foundation’s Executive Director, Peter Carwell provided a
richly evocative context for the music. It was simply a lovely evening.
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