Ready for Her Lesson Scene

Joyce DiDonato gives a Master Class at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Joyce DiDonato gives pointers to mezzo Kayliegh Decker (right) at Saturday's master class.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2015 courtesy Carnegie Hall.

As they're not always open to the paying public, a  master class taught by a major international opera star  is always a special occasion. Master classes provide deep insight into what makes the great singers tick, where a great singer guides younger artists in pursuit and perfection of their craft. When that master class is given by mezzo Joyce DiDonato in a room held high above W. 57th St. during a spectacular February snowstorm, the occasion becomes unforgettable.

A Golden Voice at Stonewall Inn

Joyce DiDonato gives New York another reason to like...Joyce DiDonato.

La donna in taberna. Joyce DiDonato at Stonewall Inn. 
Photo © 2015 by National Public Radio and WBC Classics.

In town to rehearse the Metropolitan Opera's new production of La Donna del Lago, mezzo supreme Joyce DiDonato stopped by the Stonewall Inn to sing Purcell. Here she sings the aria "When I am Laid in Earth" accompanied by members of the Juilliard 415 Ensemble. The performance was in memory of Mark Carson, shot in a hate crime near the historic taven.

Concert Review: Rowing With the Current

Joyce DiDonato sails into Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

We can talk about Joyce: La DiDonato in a publicity still.
Image courtesy Warner Music Group.

When Joyce DiDonato last gave a recital in New York, she sang on the upper level of a metal shop located next to Brooklyn's heavily polluted Gowanus Canal. At Tuesday night's Carnegie Hall recital, the second performance of her 2014 Perspectives series, the diva was in a much more opulent setting. However, waterways--in this case the canals of Venice, Italy--continued to play an important role.

Concert Review: The Night Was Sultry

Alice Coote sings French chansons at Zankel Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Hot house: The mezzo Alice Coote. Photo © IMG Artists.

The grand tradition of French art song (usually referred to as chanson or melodie) is not as instantly familiar as the German lied. In this country, French music of the Romantic and Modern era  is usually heard in the concert hall, ballet theater or opera house, with the vast trove of songs relegated to academics or silently ignored. On Thursday night, English mezzo-soprano Alice Coote sought to correct that oversight with a vast and wide-ranging program of chansons, plucked and proudly displayed in a recital at Zankel Hall, the modern recital space tucked neatly beneath its parent, Carnegie Hall.

Injured Mezzo Sues Metropolitan Opera

Singer sues following 2011 Faust fall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Wendy White (right) as Marthe in the Met's production of Faust,
with bass René Pape as Mephistopheles.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

According to a story published today on the official website of The New York Times, opera singer Wendy White has filed suit against the Metropolitan Opera following an injury suffered onstage in 2011. A copy of the complaint appears here, hosted by her good friends at parterre box. (The pertinent parts of the document are on pages 8 and 9).

Brass Tacks: Mezzo-Sopranos and Altos

Discussing the female voices that are lower than the soprano.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mezzo extrem: Susan Graham in the title role of Handel's Ariodante.
Mezzo-sopranosoften play travesti ("trouser") roles in opera.
Photo by Terrence McCarthy, © Santa Fe Opera Festival.

Our series on voices and continues as we talk about mezzo-sopranos and contraltos (or altos), the lower ranges of the female voice. As usual, there are nice clips to go with the discussion.

It is a common misconception about opera that all works in the genre are written with a soprano in mind as the leading lady. Many composers (especially in French and Italian opera) wrote their works around the duskier sounds of the mezzo-soprano, a rich, chocolatey tone that may not soar to the same heights but can convey maturity, maternity, and above all, sexuality to the listener.

Carmen is written for a mezzo-soprano. So is Dalila. So is Verdi's Eboli in Don Carlo. All are great seductresses. Berlioz (another great French composer) was a big fan of this voice, writing mezzo parts for Didon (in Les Troyens) and Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust.

Mezzo-sopranos also play crucial travesti parts in operas: the title role in Handel's Serse for example.  Richard Strauss, who loved the sound of a mezzo voice singing with the soprano, created some memorable "male" roles: two famous examples are the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and one of the greatest roles ever written for the range, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

The typical mezzo voice ranges from the G below middle C (the center of the piano keyboard) to the B two octaves above. Some mezzo-sopranos can sing a high C. (These are usually former sopranos trained to the note who take advantage of being able to span both ranges.) There is a wide variety of voices and a wide variety of roles--from the saucy heroines of Rossini operas to Wagner's own embodiment of Mother Earth.

Concert Review: The Pants Come Off

Susan Graham returns to Carnegie Hall.

by Paul Pelkonen.

Angelic, yet heroic: the sublime Susan Graham.

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is a paradoxical artist. Her rich, agile instrument is lush and seductive, but New Yorkers usually see the tall Texan in travesti roles: Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

This recital, her first solo appearance at the Hall in five years, ignored that image with a program focusing on heroines from history and literature. It opened with the singer coming onstage in a shell-like white gown, to sing "Tell Me, Some Pitying Angel." In Henry Purcell's scena, the Virgin Mary worries about the absence of her Son. Ms. Graham used several different approaches to this music, producing smooth, sweet tone but also evoking the Madonna's distress.

She then produced a ravishing effect in a second monodrama: Berlioz' La morte d'Ophelia. Ms. Graham sounds especially at home in French repertory, producing ravishing tone and lush, smooth vowels. This was the Ophelia of Berlioz' obsession, a Romantically heightened version of Shakespeare couched in rich piano figurations supplied by accompanist Malcom Martineau. (This is also one of Berlioz' few works for that instrument.)

Then, Ms. Graham embarked on a fascinating exercise. She sang a cycle of art songs by Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Duparc, Tchaikovsky and Hugo Wolf, all depicting this tragic heroine Mignon from Goethe's play Wilhelm der Meister. The works increased and developed in harmonic richness, starting with Schubert's sturdy accompaniment and climaxing in the Wagnerian excesses of wolf. New light emerged from each song, as Ms. Graham explored different aspects of her personality in multiple musical voices and three different languages. A tour de force. 

The second half of the program began with a change in wardrobe and attitude for the mezzo. She offered another monodrama, the little-known Lady Macbeth by composer Joseph Horovitz. This is a different, more melodic take on the character than that in Verdi's opera, with tremendous opportunity for psychological exploration in the spare, haunting chords. Ms. Graham shifted rapidly from the Letter Scene, to the Murder, then bringing pathos to her final "to bed, to bed, to bed" at the end of the Sleep-walk.

Mr. Martineau and Ms. Graham then leapt into Fiançalle pour Rire, a cycle of six songs by François Poulenc that sit in the center of this singer's comfort zone. She alternated between joy and grief in these moving songs, based on poems by Louise di Vilmorin and reflecting on the rapid cycle of emotions caused by the onslaught of World War II.

The program seemed short, but a note in Playbill mentioned further selections "to be announced from the stage." These proved to be an entertaining potpourri, in a lighter vein. Highlights included comic songs by Cole Porter ("The Physician" and Stephen Sondheim ("The Boy From...") The concert ended with "Sexy Lady," a reflection on Ms. Graham's own career on the operatic stage, which pastiched the travesti scenes of Strauss and Mozart with the alternating with the original music of composer Ben Moore. 

Listen to Susan Graham's 2006 Carnegie Hall performance of "Sexy Lady."

The concert ended with Ms. Graham returning for one last song: À Chloris by Reynaldo Hahn. Introducing this melodie as her "favorite song", Ms. Graham caressed its curves with her lush instrument, crafting a sensual spell that stopped the audience in its tracks to reflect on the brilliance and invention of this sublime singer. With singing like this, who needs trousers?


Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Concert Review: Canciones Con Gusto

The New York Festival of Song at Merkin Concert Hall

Wallis Giunta. Photo by Barbara Stoneham, 
from Wallis.Giunta.Ca

The New York Festival of Song kicked off its final concert series of the season on Tuesday night, with Spanish Gold, a thorough exploration of the music of the Iberian peninsula, curated and led from the piano by Festival director Steven Blier.

Aided by fellow pianist Michael Barrett, Mr. Blier led what he termed a "whirlwind tour" through the many genres, languages and traditions that, taken together, comprise the vast world of Spanish song. Well-known composers like Enrique Granados and Xavier Montsalvatge were represented, next to Basque folk melodies and Sephardic songs. The singers sang in Basque, Catalan, Ladino (the language of Spanish Jews) and of course, Castilian Spanish. 

The evening featured four young soloists on their way up. Corinne Winters has an impressive instrument, and she and mezzo Wallis Giunta sounded at their best when they were allowed to sing in duet. Ms. Giunta is a young Canadian mezzo-soprano on the rise. She was by turns fiery and moving, delivering her finest singin in "Maig", a Catalan song by Eduardo Toldrá.



Baritone Carlton Ford sang the "Canto negro" by Xavier Montsalvatge with rapid-fire delivery and gusto. He has a dark-colored baritone, agile enough for patter songs, and he is good at acting with his eyes. Tenor Andrew Owens had several opportunities to display his fine lyric instrument, most notably in Fernando Sor's "Mis descuidados ojos" and Turina's "Al val de Fuente Ovejuna."

The formal program ended with a set of excerpts from the Zarzuela, the far-reaching genre of Spanish light opera that enjoyed a vogue in that country from 1800 up until the mid-20th century. These excerpts allowed the fine cast to both sing and act. Most notable was Mr. Ford in "Despiarte negro", a dramatic aria about a black man trapped on a slavers' ship, and the erotically charged duet "Caballero del alto plumero" sung by Mr. Owens and Ms. Winters.

The concert concluded with "El arreglito" (The Little Arrangement) by composer Sebastian Yradier. This duet is best known as the inspiration for "L'amour c'est un oiseaux rebelle", the Habañera from Bizet's Carmen.. As Mr. Blier explained, a desperate Georges Bizet, confronted by a difficult demanding lady before the Carmen premiere, appropriated "El arreglito" with new lyrics, thinking it an old folk tune. It wasn't--and a lawsuit settled the matter. This was a charming, passionate ensemble for the four singers, and the Cuban-flavored encore that followed served as salsa on the paella.

Five Femme Fatales of Opera

Delilah (Samson et Dalila, Saint-Säens) Shear Madness

This scissor-wielding Philistine seduces Samson, only to give him the most famous haircut in history. She gets hers in the end though, perishing in a temple collapse when a shorn, blinded Samson gets his strength back and brings down the house--literally.

Salome, by Aubrey Beardsley.

Salome (Salome, R. Strauss): The Girl Who Wanted It All

All she did was demand that Herod, her stepfather, give her the head of John the Baptist in exchange for doing the Dance of the Seven Veils . At the climax of Richard Strauss' shocking one-act opera, the princess sings a final, bloodthirsty ode to the now-severed head. Disgusted by her, Herod orders his guards to crush her to death beneath their shields in the opera's final, crashing bars.

Carmen (Carmen) She's not bad, she's just composed that way.

The cigarette-smoking Gypsy captured the heart of Don Jose in order to get out of a prison sentence for slashing another girl who worked in the cigarette factory. Unfortunately for Jose, he followed Carmen into the smuggling business, seethed with rage as she ditched him for a bullfighter in tight, glittery pants, and then finally killed her outside the bullring.

Kundry (Parsifal, Wagner) The Worst of Both Worlds

The only female character in Wagner's final opera leads a complicated double life. In between stints serving the Knights of the Grail as a messenger, she acts as the agent of the diabolical mage Klingsor, luring the Knights to their doom in a seductive flower garden of evil. It turns out that she's cursed--payback for laughing at Jesus Christ as he suffered on the cross.

Lulu (Lulu, Berg) Death on Two Legs

This bisexual vixen tears through Berg's second opera like a hot knife through gouda, destroying the lives of almost every other character she encounters in the course of her sexual adventures. She finally becomes a prostitute in London, and is murdered by her last client, who turns out to be Jack the Ripper.