Singers celebrate foliage with art song
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Pianist and vocal coach Dalton Baldwin, center, accompanies Spanish soprano Julia Cubo, left, while her voice teacher, Cynthia Sanner, right, turns pages. Jim Lowe/Times Argus |
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By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: October 6, 2009
MONTPELIER – Art song – called lieder by the Germans, melodies by the French – is a rarified niche in classical music, but you'd never know that if you experienced the passion of both the participants and audience at the Foliage Art Song Master Classes over the weekend.
Pianist and vocal coach Dalton Baldwin, who performs and records with the likes of Elly Ameling and Jesse Norman, and Juilliard voice instructor Lorraine Nubar have been conducting master classes, sponsored by Vermont Opera Theater, for 11 years now in the Montpelier area.
This weekend, some 31 young up-and-coming singers and pianists from Ottawa, New Brunswick, Boston, and even Spain, as well as from central Vermont, converged on the Unitarian and Bethany churches all day Friday and Saturday to learn from the masters.
The weekend culminated, Saturday evening at the Unitarian Church, with an impressive public master class/concert. The participants first performed a song or aria, then comments were made by Baldwin and Nubar and, occasionally, they tried again. Still, there were no failures in the bunch.
One young singer, in particular, understood the power of art song. New Brunswick soprano Carol Léger's performance focused not on her voice – though she has a fine one – but upon the music and the message. Her performance of Francis Poulenc's "Fêtes gallantes" was powerful and riveting. Supporting her all the way was the fine pianist Juliane Gallant, a New Brunswick native now living in Ottawa.
Perhaps the most polished singer was Canadian soprano Morgan Strickland, now studying at Boston's New England Conservatory. She has a brilliant, penetrating voice, but never edgy, and has an attractive and inviting intensity. She had some minor intonation issues with two Marx song, and Baldwin was quick to notice. But, when she did them again, well-supported by Ottawa pianist Joanne Moorcroft, her performance was beautiful and compelling.
A truly intriguing musician was mezzo-soprano April Babey, a senior at the University of Ottawa. Her first delivery of Hugo Wolf's "Kennst du das Land," also accompanied by Moorcroft, sounded nice but was unconvincing. After being pushed by Baldwin, her performance took on a musical intensity and depth that proved quite compelling.
Quietly beautiful and tenderly sensual was soprano Geneviève Colletta's performance of the aria, "L'extase de la Vierge," from Jules Massenet's "Vierge." Another senior at the University of Ottawa, this French-Canadian performed without pretense and Baldwin and Nubar's following comments were only about minor technical matters.
The young singers were all clearly that, young, made even clearer by performances by two veteran singers. Vermont soprano Margot Button, with Montpelier pianist Eliza Thomas, delivered a quietly powerful performance of two songs by Vaughan Williams that was simply riveting. Montreal baritone Simon Chaussé, who lived for many years in Montpelier, with local pianist Mary Jane Austin-Reynolds, ripped at the heart-strings with the tenderest of performances of Gabriel Fauré's "La lune blanche." These four veteran musicians' experience gave their performances a compelling distinctiveness.
A number of other singers performed opera arias instead of songs. Most spectacular was a brilliant performance of the virtuosic "Bell Song" from Leo Delibes' "Lakmé." Spanish soprano Julia Cubo, 21 and currently studying in New York, managed these high-register pyrotechnics with aplomb, a light and lyrical voice, and amazing accuracy.
At the other end of the vocal spectrum was mezzo-soprano Ghislaine Dionne, a recent University of Ottawa with a voice of Wagnerian proportions. Although her performance of "Il est doux" from Massenet's "Hériodade" wasn't terribly refined, it was as powerful emotionally as it was vocally.
One of the most promising singers was baritone Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk, another University of Ottawa senior. His performance of selections from Franz Schubert's song cycle "Die schöne Müllerin" only lacked gravitas; otherwise it was warm, lyrical and natural.
Delbaere-Sawchuk was accompanied by Ottawa pianist Christopher Kornienko, who proved a musician of particular sensitivity. The pianists were of tantamount importance throughout, usually more dependable than the singers they were accompanying, including the aforementioned Austin-Reynolds, Gallant, Moorcroft and Thomas who all most able.
Every singer had a special quality to offer. Despite a few awkward moments, Ottawa soprano Cara Gilberston delivered an unaffected and naturally lyrical performance of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Handel's "Messiah." Soprano Ania Hejnar, another University of Ottawa senior, proved both entertaining and vocally brilliant in the "Doll Song" from Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffman." After taking a bit to warm up, soprano Monica Betelho, a University of Ottawa graduate student, with a bell-like sound, delivered a virtuosic performance of "Suis-je gentille ainsi?" from Massenet's "Manon."
Vermont Opera Theater's Fall Foliage Arts Song Master Classes are yet another example of the high level of music, particularly classical music, in central Vermont.
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