Merola Grand Finale 2013

This year's Merola Grand Finale, an event which always reminds me summer is coming to a close, felt different this year, even before the program began. As Margarita and I entered the tiny side room in the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House to pick up our tickets I espied many of the usual suspects, but also a noticeable number of new faces scattered among them. Curiously, I didn't feel the sense of nostalgia which has permeated the event for me the past couple of years. Inside the hall I recognized a few Adler Fellows, former Merolini scattered among the audience, as well as a number of faces I've seen at earlier events in the summer long season. The tribe gathering for its annual rite.

The evening began with the orchestra performing the overture from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, most likely a nod to the bicentennial of the composer's birth. For the first few minutes this sounded like a mistake- the brass were doing their part in fine fashion, but the strings weren't soaring the way they should. About halfway through conductor John DeMain managed to get the orchestra where it needed to be and it ended up sounding decent, though it never hit the robust high it could have. For the remainder of the evening they provided well-paced foundations for each performance, allowing everyone to be easily heard.

Although each of the 23 singers who appeared onstage are highly talented, some enormously so, the evening didn't hit high gear until Casey Finnigan's selection from Weber's Die Freischütz. His warm, clear voice rang through the house, and it was the first selection which seemed not only to make sense for the singer, but also the house, whose applause brought the singer back for a curtain call. Following Finnigan were Rihab Chaieb and Linda Barnett in an excerpt from Barber's Vanessa, which I thought was an inspired choice not only for the pair, but for the event. Neither of these operas has been performed on that stage in a very long time. Chaieb impressed me here, as she did in Figaro a few weeks ago, and Barnett proved able bring a palpable dramatic presence to her performance to match her voice. 

Alisa Jordheim, one of my favorites in these year's group because of her beautifully bright voice and stage presence, but her selection' "Dal tuo gentil sembiante" from Mozart's Ascanio in Alba (no, I'd never heard of it either- turns out the then-fifteen-year-old composer wrote the role for a castrato), seemed chosen to supply Queen of Night-like fireworks without resorting to the easier, too obvious choice. Jordheim easily dispatched it, but it didn't provide her with a vehicle to knock it out and it felt like a missed opportunity for a truly stellar performance from someone who appears wholly capable of delivering one.

Maria Valdez and Pene Pati

 Such an opportunity wasn't missed by Maria Valdez and Pene Pati- definitely two of the most talented singers this year, who delivered a marvelous excerpt from Massenet's Manon. The pair had both physical and vocal chemistry together, chose material perfectly matched for their age and voices, and made everything work perfectly. It was the kind of moment one attends these events to witness. I would expect both of these singers to return as Adlers. Pati has a voice of rare quality and that same kind of ebullient presence Ramon Vargas had fifteen years ago.

The second half of the evening began with exceptionally strong performances by Robert Watson as Captain Vere and Alex Desorio as Billy Budd in a pivotal scene from the Britten opera. Thomas Richards sang Claggert's part quite well, but Watson was on fire and Desorio nailed Budd's stammering terror. All three sang with great clarity and enunciation.

Choosing to sing Monteverdi in a house this large looks like a mistake on paper, but Joseph Lattanzi's confidence must much the size of his voice because he turned in one of the most memorable, surprising, and impressive turns of the entire night as Ulysses with "Dormo Ancora." Happily, he was followed by Efrain Solis and John Arnold in a very campy, laughter-inducing scene from Rossini's La Cenerentola. Both singers were obviously having a good time and feeding off the audience's appreciation of the manipulated scene, which could have easily gone awry but in fact worked extremely well.

Zanda Svede

Zanda Svede possesses the looks, the glamour and the voice. There's not much more to say. She's ready. Bring her back, Mr. Gockley, so we can listen to her for an entire evening.

Issachah Savage. "You're gonna know my name by the end of the night" 

Following Svede was another likely sure thing, Issachah Savage. What a great name for an opera singer. Sometime in the future there will be reviews with the headlines "A Savage Lohengrin" and "A Savage Otello" and they'll be right. His voice is like a sharpened axe that cuts with the precision of a knife. 

Kate Allen's gown was the most well-chosen outfit of the night, turning her Helen into a temptation Matthew Newlin's Paris couldn't help failing to resist in their duet from Offenbach's La Belle Helene. That Allen's voice proved as seductive as the peek-a-boo fold in her skirt made their scene all the more pleasing.

The evening closed with "Make our garden grow" from Leonard Bernstein's Candide, a curiously bad choice despite the presence of Pati and Valdez leading the pack. Not only did the song make the singers seem like a ridiculously well-dressed and well-rehearsed college glee club seeking the audience's approval, but as a chorus the 23 soloists did not gel at all- instead, their individual voices created a cacophony of alarming discord. Weird.