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Eight performers wow at Annapolis Opera vocal competition
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Stellar Voices Shine at Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition by David Lindauer
Stellar voices shine at Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition
By DAVID LINDAUER For The Capital
Published 05/19/10
As much as I am used to the fantastic array of vocal talent that is found in the Annapolis area, I was unprepared for the stellar quality of some of the voices I heard Sunday at the Annapolis Opera's 22nd annual Vocal Competition.
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Even though we are told the contestants are pretty much still vocal students and young singers at the inception of their respective careers, I would have to assess the professional caliber of several of these young performers as world-class.
This year's competition was a particularly interesting one: Eight remarkable vocalists had been culled during the previous week from a field of more than 80 contestants. But what made the selection unusual was the profusion of lower voices, for these competitions normally feature four or five female vocalists combined with a tenor or two, and then one or two baritones. This year's competition highlighted the fledging talents of no fewer than three baritones plus one bass, with one soprano, one mezzo-soprano, one tenor and one countertenor rounding out the mix of contestants. The competition offered nearly $10,000 in prize money to encourage and subsidize further study.
The variety of musical selections differed from previous years as well. We are used to seeing a selection of 40 arias which represent typical opera composers like Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Richard Strauss. But there has been a consistent trend toward the more unusual, a pattern upon which I have remarked in past years: Now we are seeing composers like Bernard Herrmann, Handel, Gluck, Benjamin Britten, Douglas Moore, Carlisle Floyd and Samuel Barber show up more and more. This year Verdi, Puccini and Rossini were featured in only one selection apiece, and to me this represents a very healthy shift to a broader view of opera by the young people who are its future practitioners.
Bryan DeSilva, one of this year's contestants, is a perfect representative of this shift in emphasis. DeSilva is a highly talented countertenor, which means he can tackle the very high vocal range that Baroque composers like Handel wrote for the original versions of their operas. Thus DeSilva distinguished himself in selections from Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" and Handel's "Giulio Cesare" by emphasizing the purity and clarity of tone that is one of the hallmarks of excellent countertenor vocal production.
DeSilva, who received the Todd Duncan Study Award at Sunday's competition, was the first countertenor I have ever encountered at the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, but I have a feeling he won't be the last.
As distinguished as DeSilva's contribution was, the highlight of the competition was clearly the lone tenor on the program, Rolando Sanz. His was a voice used with exquisite care and great sensitivity. When power was required, he had it to spare, as in his radiant high notes in Puccini's aria, "Che gelida manina," from "La Boheme"; when the need for tenderness and elegant diction was paramount, as in Mozart's "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schon," there, too, Sanz excelled.
In fact, I was so overwhelmed by his versatility and performance that at several points my critical notes degenerate into wildly inarticulate scribblings like "Wow!!" and "What a great voice!" Evidently the competition judges and the audience felt as I did, for Sanz was awarded the grand prize in the competition and received the Audience Choice award as well.
As fine as Sanz's performance was, his colleagues, particularly soprano Carrieanne Winter and mezzo-soprano Cynthia Hanna, gave him a run for his money. In her two selections, by Tchaikovsky and Donizetti, Hanna exhibited an impressive command of a formidable vocal range abetted by sustained power. The luster of her voice and the force of her portrayal of Donizetti's character, Leonor di Guzman, garnered Hanna the competition's second prize, the William Boldyga Incentive Award.
Winter sang a poignant and sweet "Caro Nome" from Verdi's "Rigoletto," and followed that up with a spectacular rendition of "Olympia's Song" from "The Tales of Hoffmann." In the latter selection, Winter captured every bit of the humor in her portrayal of a windup doll that runs down in the middle of the aria and, naturally, has to be rewound. This was as classic a portrayal as you could get, highlighted by Winter's virtuosity, in that the humor was evident in her singing voice as much as it was in her antics and gestures.
Within the realm of the lower male voices, the most enjoyable portrayals were bass Adam Fry's hysterically comic Don Basilio in Rossini's aria, "La Calunnia"; baritone Kevin Wetzel's Sergeant Belcore (Donizetti again); and baritone Jason Ott's Count Almaviva from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." The remaining baritone, Andrew Sauvageau, failed to make much of an impression on me; his delivery was choppy and inconsistent, and his phrasing bland.
As I've noted previously, this competition exposes Annapolis audiences to a formidable array of vocal talent with singers who represent new directions in their respective repertoires and generally consistent levels of vocal excellence. As it is, I am certain that several of Sunday's competitors will become well-known in operatic circles.
And this competition, with its investment in time, effort and funding, speaks volumes about Annapolis' sincere commitment to foster the development of the vocal artists of tomorrow.
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David Lindauer, a lifelong student of music, reviews classical music for The Capital.
ANNAPOLIS OPERA’S 22ND ANNUAL VOCAL COMPETITION FINALS CONCERT
Annapolis Opera's 22nd Annual Vocal Competition Finals Concert will be held on Sunday, May 16, at 2 p.m. at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. The concert is free and open to the public.
Eight singers chosen from a pool of 80 applicants will compete for more than $10,000 in cash prizes.
This year’s grand prize winner will also receive a two-week trip to the Amalfi Coast Music Festival & Institute’s Vocal Program in Vietra sul Mare, Italy. Costs for the trip as well as administrative costs of the entire vocal competition are underwritten by Jim and Sylvia Earl’s Helena Foundation.
An annual favorite of the vocal competition is the Audience Choice Award, a cash prize given to the singer judged best by audience members. Other prizes, which range from $500 to $2,500, are awarded by a distinguished panel of music educators and opera singers.
“Annapolis Opera’s Vocal Competition is eagerly anticipated by outstanding young singers in the mid-Atlantic region,” says Carmen Balthrop, chair of this year’s competition. “Finalists often go on to successful professional careers,” she added, “so Annapolis audiences have the opportunity to see the opera stars of tomorrow early in their careers.”
“Opera is expensive to produce and tickets to opera events are costly,” said Leah Solat, president of Annapolis Opera. “That means many people never experience opera live. This free concert is a great way for everyone to experience the joy of hearing wonderful singers perform some of the greatest music ever written.”
For further information contact the opera office at 410-267-8135, or visit our website, www.annapolisopera.org.
Opera Lite Review by Mary Johnson
Selections by Strauss, Lehar, Herbert and Gilbert and Sullivan performed
By Mary Johnson, Special to The Baltimore Sun
April 23 2010
The folks at Annapolis Opera celebrated the end of tax-filing season
and the arrival of spring last weekend with an "Opera Lite" concert
featuring tuneful moments from comic operas and operettas. The program was created and conducted by Annapolis Opera artistic director Ronald J. Gretz.
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Annapolis Opera's "Tosca" a resounding triumph
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/ent/2010/03/18-24/Review-Annapolis-Operas-Tosca-a-resounding-triumph.htmlReview: Annapolis Opera's 'Tosca' a resounding triumph
By DAVID LINDAUER For The Capital
Published 03/18/10
The Annapolis Opera staged Giacomo Puccini's perennial favorite, "Tosca" last weekend at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, and I am delighted to say that by and large, the production was a triumphal success.
Puccini's "shabby little shocker," an opera full of passion, lust, torture, murder, suicide and other unpleasant activities, was characterized by a very strong singing roster of voices backed by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra under the firm and guiding hand of Annapolis Opera Music Director Ron Gretz.
From the weighty dramatic first notes, it was clear that Gretz was going to wring every ounce of passion out of Puccini's colorful score, and so my first impression of the orchestral music was one of power and, to be frank, loudness. But there was nuance and feeling as well in Gretz's handling of the orchestral duties, particularly in the way he highlighted repeating musicals ideas. For example, the tiny theme that first appears in Act 1 as Tosca and her lover, Cavaradossi, sing of the joys they find at his villa, received properly tragic phrasing in Act 2 and was fraught with despair when it reappeared in Act 3 as Cavaradossi contemplated his imminent execution. Little felicities like that can distinguish a really fine performance from a merely good one.
Then there were the singers themselves. An opera company can consider itself lucky if it can produce "Tosca" with one or two good singing voices; the Annapolis Opera's production was marked by no less than five excellent voices, so uniform was the vocal strength of the performances.
In the role of the police spy Spoletta, tenor Patrick Cook projected a devious fellow who knows that his boss, Baron Scarpia, is lustful and sadistic, but who seems to relish his supporting role if it will ingratiate himself with the police chief. His vocalism was of a high order and was matched by acting skills that gave the audience some insights in the character he was playing.
Bass-baritone Ryan Kuster's fine portrayal of the escaped political prisoner Angelotti was characterized by powerful emotional delivery and a commanding, lustrous voice. He projected so well, in fact, that in his brief Act 1 scene with tenor Jon Burton, he came off as the stronger of the two roles. This is a voice, and a stage presence, I would definitely like to see in larger and more challenging roles.
Of the three principals, tenor Burton was the most variable. His is a ringing clarion voice, and when he was on his best behavior, as in the great Act 3 aria, "E lucevan le stelle," the portrayal is both musically thrilling and expressively exciting. In contrast, his Act 1 aria, "Recondita armonia," was imprecise, with sloppy attacks on many of the notes, and so unemotional that one would have thought he was comparing brands of breakfast cereal rather than the charms of two beautiful women.
Fortunately, such lapses in Burton's generally excellent portrayal were rare; he recovered to finish Act 1 in fine style, and his duets with Elizabeth Richter, as the title character, were the highlights of the entire performance.
Baritone Jerett Gieseler made an authoritative first impression as Baron Scarpia, both physically and vocally. But his view of his role seemed to shift perceptibly at odd moments during the performance. I realize that Scarpia can be portrayed as wily and subtly persuasive or as blustery and bullying, but it's a bit disconcerting to have both stances in a matter of a few musical phrases. For all his wonderful singing, and there were many instances of that, I would have been happier if Gieseler had chosen one approach and stuck to it.
In fact, if there was a single overriding problem throughout the production, it was this lack of consistency in both the singing and portrayals. This concerned me, because such lapses distorted the dramatic values in the piece and left the musical ones unsupported in their context.
One glaring example was Tosca's last line in Act 2 ("And before him all Rome trembled!") delivered to Scarpia's corpse: The words, delivered after an emotionally draining scene, are meant as an ironic comment on Scarpia's demise: One minute he's all-powerful, and the next he's history. But Richter gave the lines a flippancy that was jarring in their milieu, and vitiated the powerful finale that Puccini composed.
That tiny cavil aside, I found Richter's portrayal of the opera singer Tosca to be the most memorable portion of the entire production. As I commented when I reviewed her Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana" last year, Richter's singing is simply ravishing, combining as it does exquisite tone with wonderful delicacy and impressive power. Her projection was such that her voice soared easily over the orchestra, but she used it with great skill, as to project the poignancy of her great aria, "Vissi d'arte." As mentioned earlier, her duets with Burton were splendid.
In reviewing my summary notes, I see that I gauged Act 1 as very good, with an amusing Sacristan played by Andrew Adelsberger; Act 2 as variable with some good highlights; and Act 3 as stupendous (except for the horribly overmiked Shepherd Boy).
Mostly, however, I feel a bit like Oliver Twist when he exclaimed, "Please, Sir, I want some more." So do I: more Kuster, more Burton, more Gieseler and especially more Richter. These are stunning voices that I am confident will continue to bring operatic enjoyment wherever there is an audience fortunate enough to encounter them.
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David Lindauer, a lifelong student of music, reviews classical music for The Capital.
ANNAPOLIS OPERA TO PRESENT TOSCA
Annapolis Opera’s fully staged production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca on Friday, March 12 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 14 at 3 p.m. will give audiences the chance to experience one of the most violent, salacious, and beloved operas of all time.
Damned in the 1950s as a “shabby little shocker,” Tosca has it all—political intrigue, lust, torture, murder, suicide, and some of the most glorious music Puccini ever wrote.
Set in Rome in 1800 as Napoleon’s invading army marches on the city, Tosca reflects the political intrigue and uncertainty of the times. The three-act opera features Cavaradossi, a painter; his lover, the famous singer Floria Tosca; Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner; and the corrupt and lecherous chief of police, Baron Scarpia.
The opera’s plot is simple: Cavaradossi’s got Tosca and Scarpia wants her. But in grand opera, stories revolving around love and lust rarely end happily. Tosca’s emotionally charged and sordid story quickly spirals out of control, leaving every star of the opera dead by the closing curtain.
Annapolis Opera’s music director, Ron Gretz, has assembled a brilliant cast for Tosca, featuring two memorable stars from last season’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.
The role of Tosca will be sung by soprano Elisabeth Richter, who (singing under the name Alison Meuth) thrilled Annapolis audiences with her breathtaking portrayal of the betrayed lover Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. Richter has appeared in opera companies in Florida, Utah, and Illinois and has an active concert career.
Tenor Jonathan Burton will sing Cavaradossi. Annapolis audiences will remember his spellbinding performance as Canio in last season’s production of Pagliacci. A winner of the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Burton has performed extensively in both opera and operetta in the Midwest and Southeast.
Baron Scarpia will be sung by baritone Jerett Gieseler. Hailed as one of the most promising young baritones today, Gieseler is an award winner in both the Liederkranz and Gerda Lissner vocal competitions and has achieved acclaim for his concerts of Wagner arias.
Ryan Kuster, a graduate of Boston University and a third-year student at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, will sing the role of Angelotti. He has been an apprentice artist with Chautauqua Opera and a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Competition.
Other singers in the production include Patrick Cook as Spoletta, Andrew Adelsberger as the Sacristan, Brian Henry as Scairrone, and Claude Smith and the Jailor.
Maestro Ron Gretz will direct the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in this production, which will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.
For more information, singers’ biographies, and tickets, see www.annapolisopera.org. Tickets are $45, $60, and $75 with a special student price of $25. For tickets only, call 410-280-5640.
Annapolis Opera performance at New Years Annapolis celebration
Annapolis Opera will provide performances starting at 8pm at St. Mary's Church as part of the New Years Eve celebration! For more information and to purchase tickets go to www.newyearsannapolis.org
Happy New Year!
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