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Tonight was my last evening in Chicago until next fall and we started off with dinner at the Moon Palace, our favorite Chinese restaurant, and then headed through heavy traffic to the Harris Center for a concert by Music of the Baroque.
After parking in the Millennium Garage and going up to the hall, we discovered the concert was actually at St. Michael's church in Old Town! (Read everything on your tickets before you go to the concert!)
St. Michael's Church, Old Town
Somehow David got us up there, found a semi-legal place to park on the street and actually got to the church before the concert started. It had been delayed because of traffic problems, so it all worked out fine. There was a teachers strike going on in mid town which was making traffic a nightmare.
Claudio Monteverdi
Tonight's concert was Music of the Baroque's performance of the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin by Claudio Monteverdi (1610). Monteverdi was the link between music of the Renaissance and that of the Baroque, his composition having elements of both periods.
Jane Glover
Jane Glover conducted the chorus and orchestra with her usual musical verve, The soloists were Yulia Van Doren, soprano, Agnes Zsigovics, soprano, Colin Ainsworthy, tenor, Thomas Cooley, tenor, Patrick Muehleise, tenor, Patrick Keys, bass, and Todd von Felker, bass.
The work was performed without pause, ninety minutes. All performed well, but in this very resonant space the fioratura, especially in the voices, was mushy. The instruments fared better, their articulation coming through neat and clear. Both the soloists and the chorus had very fast, intricate melismas to sing which sometimes resulted in a mushy passage which then resolved into a chord. Monteverdi wrote the work when he was in Mantua and it was first performed in Venice when he became music director at San Marco in 1613. Those acoustics are pretty ripe, too, so maybe that's what it sounded like originally. It was sometimes difficult to sort out the several voices moving quickly at the same time.
I am not that familiar with the work so I can't really criticize the performance except to say that it was good to hear this seldom performed work.
This has been a very good season for Chicago Lyric Opera as far as casting. Last night David and I heard another splendid cast perform Gounod's Romeo et Juliette.
The gorgeous score was conducted by Emmanuel Villaume and the Chicago Opera Chorus again stole the show in their various scenes.
Romeo was sung by tenor Eric Cutter. What a great voice! His singing was simply stunning, tossing off high notes like it was nothing at all. A tenor to be reckoned with!
Susanna Phillips sang the part of Juliette. She has a very beautiful voice with one small flaw. On her highest notes she does not allow the voice to follow through. The highest notes tend to lose energy and vibration and straighten out. If any of my readers have this same problem, here is my solution: first, be sure you take a proper breath leading up to the note, second, when you get there, allow the air to move through the note, and third, as you leave the note, allow a puff of soundless air to escape. Your high note will have focus, energy, and beauty. When you do not follow these three rules, the high note may straighten out, the vocal cords will close as you leave the note, and the note will sound a little tight and uncomfortable. I treat this problem in one of my books on singing. I call it 'Now that I'm up here, how do I get off???' Free voice lesson!
Christian Van Horn was the excellent Friar Lawrence, singing with a rich basso voice that covered the entire range beautifully.
The rest of the cast sang very well and the one set production worked.
This was my last opera of the season at Lyric and it has been a fine season. Almost all of the singers we heard were top level, the hall itself works beautifully, and the orchestra never drowns out the singers.
Met Opera take notice!
Last night David and I wallowed in glorious singing at Chicago Lyric Opera. The occasion was a superb performance of Der Rosenkavalier of Richard Strauss.
This was one of the best casts I have ever heard in this opera, and I've heard a few. Elizabeth Schwarzkoph at the Old Met, Regine Crespin at the new. Evelyn Lear, Cheryl Studer- I could go on and on. Tonight's singers could rival any of these.
The Marshallin was sung by Amanda Majeski, who has a perfect Strauss voice: sensuous, limpid, golden. Able to cover the wide ranging role with beauty and ease. Here is a great Strauss singer.
Equally fine was the Octavian of Alice Coote. Her large, rich voice commanded the difficult role with ease. She is a little short for Octavian, but anyone who can sing like this can be any height she chooses.
Matthew Rose was a fine Baron Ochs. He could reach the top and bottom (low E) of the role without seeming to try and was very funny in the part.
Sophie was sung by Christina Landshamer, who had the requisite float for this very high role and a lovely sound.
All of the other roles were very well sung and the orchestra, under Edward Gardner, was superb in this glorious score. The orchestration is a marvel.
My late, dear friend Dorothy Fee, told me that Vittorio Giannini had worked under Strauss. Dorothy studied composition with Vittorio and was a close friend. Vittorio, whom I knew slightly, said he learned as much about orchestration playing Skat with Strauss as in lessons. His opera The Taming of the Shrew bears this out.
The sets, 24 years old, don't quite come up to the Met but Act 1 was especially beautiful. The Met stage is much larger and they have equipment to move scenery around that Chicago Lyric is trying to obtain through a major fund drive.
In 1999 I presented three of my wonderful students, Judith Gray, Janet Brown, and Barbara Rearick in recital in Weil Hall at Carnegie all. It was titled Love, Women, and Song. Our final selection was the great Trio from Der Rosenkavalier and these fine singers sang it beautifully. This incredible piece was going through my head all night long and is still there this morning.
Bravi to a sensation cast and production of my favorite opera!
