LAVA Opera Blog

Nostalgia and Anticipation: A Time of Reflection

The complete list of current AVA resident artists – “veterans” and “novices” -  has been published (I urge AVA fans to read all the bios carefully), and the annual Friends of AVA Summer Fling has been celebrated. For me, these events, signaling the start of a new season, also spark a time of reflections -nostalgic, as I recall in my mind’s eye and ear immensely exciting, thrilling, deeply moving performances of residents, many now alums engaged in the vaster opera world "out there" - and anticipatory, for the upcoming season, as I play a personal guessing game of trying to match artists with roles. 

One is amazed and delighted at the accomplishments, since last May, of returning resident artists; of the itineraries of May 2011 graduates for the imminent opera and concert season; of the academic and stage credentials of incoming resident singers. 

I will dedicate this blog to surveying the recent achievements and activities of resident artists returning to AVA for the 2011-2012 season. The overview is by no means all-inclusive. 

Maria Aleida, soprano, starred in Rossini productions at two prestigious Italian opera festivals, singing Zenobia in Aureliano in Palmira for Martina Franca, broadcast worldwide, and Contessa Folleville in Il viaggio a Reims for Pesaro, about which one reviewer rhapsodized, “Maria Aleida as the Countess of  Folleville was totally inside this comic role and dispatched the vocal fireworks with a deliciously, almost-impertinent aplomb. What a technique!” 

Michelle Johnson, soprano, poised and charming as always, still cresting on the tidal wave of her Met Grand Finals triumph, was interviewed on Houston Public Radio. Michelle confirmed that she will be Glimmerglass’s Aida next summer and that her complete Trovatore Leonora will be debuted with Opera in the Heights, two highly anticipated (by Michelle herself and us!) 2012 performances. http://www.thefrontrow.org/articles/1314330066-Soprano-Michelle-Johnson.html 

Chloé Moore, soprano, spent the summer of 2011 at the Crested Butte Music Festival, singing Frasquita in Carmen and Giulietta in I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, while preparing Antonia, Melisande and Adina for AVA’s current season. 

Margaret Mezzacappa, mezzo-soprano, rehearsed a show with Suzanne duPlantis, AVA alum, class of 1992, and Emily Bullock, entitled The Three Altos. It was slated for performance on Friday, September 2 at the Mount Gretna Playhouse: http://calendar.lancasteronline.com/mt-gretna-pa/events/show/208495385-the-three-altos 

Viktor Antipenko, tenor, spent the early summer with Opéra National de Lyon, singing two roles in Tristan und Isolde - the Young Sailor, whose voice is the first heard in the opera, taunting Isolde (Act 1), and then, 31/2 hours later, the Shepherd, who plays his pipe to signal the arrival of Isolde’s ship (Act 3).  

Sean Arnold, tenor, sang a run of La bohème in Israel and was contracted for a concert, Shakespeare in Love, with Annapolis Opera, appropriately, close to Valentine's Day. 

Luigi Boccia, tenor, spent part of his 2011 summer immersed in the score of a rarity, Thomas' La cour de Célimène, in which he'll sing the role of Chevalier de Mérac. The opéra comique will be exhumed as the opening presentation of the AVA-friendly Wexford Festival Opera in October: http://www.wexfordopera.com/programme/event/la_cour_de_celimene/

Zach Borichevsky, tenor, was soloist in a centennial performance of Gustav Mahler's “extraordinary meditation on life and death and eternal renewal”, Das Lied von der Erde, in Vail, Colorado with the Philadelphia Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Theodora Hanslowe. In conjunction with the concert, Zach was interviewed by the local press: http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20110713/AE/110719930 

John Viscardi, tenor, participated in Ghena Meirson’s extremely successful Russian Opera Workshop held at AVA’s Warden Theater. I was in the audience for Eugene Onegin in which John sang Lensky. Everything you dream about in that role was fulfilled: gorgeous legato, sublime mezza voce, soaring power, profound feeling, abundant temperament. Passionate in “Ya vas lyublyu, Olga”, infinitely moving in “Kuda, kuda …”, John’s performance was an apical achievement. 

Christian Bowers, baritone, was an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera this summer, covering the role of Abdul in a revival of Menotti’s The Last Savage, which, coincidentally, his teacher at AVA, William Stone, performed under the composer’s direction in 1981 at Spoleto Festival USA.

Wes Mason, baritone,  spent the summer at Glimmerglass, singing Corporal Morales in Carmen, an opera which has been giving employment to so many AVA residents and alums, and Mac in Annie Get Your Gun, while  covering Frank Butler in the Berlin piece.  Those of you who swoon over a handsome man in uniform could have doubled your pleasure in Cooperstown: once with Wes in military apparel,  and a second time with the Norfolk-born singing actor in cowpoke garb: http://www.wesmasonbaritone.com/_/rsrc/1312731387518/config/morales3.jpg
http://www.operatoday.com/JCERVANTES_2011-2265_0407.gif

Zach Nelson, baritone (YES, note the official vocal designation, no need for a double take), committed part of his summer to preparing Germont père for Lyric Opera Virgnia. Showtime is September.

Musa Ngqungwana, bass baritone, role-debuted Zuniga in Crested Butte Music Festival’s production of Carmen.

Scott Conner, bass, sang on the Dresden Semperoper stage, but, unfortunately, I do not know details! 

I'd like to close this edition of the blog with a question, if I may: "Which moments of YOUR AVA operagoing experiences do YOU like to replay in your mind, meditate on or ponder?"

 

 

 

An AVA Cornucopia in Tomasello Winery's Harvest Gala

Tomasello Winery has announced two spectacular AVA casts for its Harvest Gala:
http://www.tomasellowinery.com/opera-galas.html

In addition to the programmed selections, can we dream a little about possibile further inclusions and encores? How about ...

Alum Jan Cornelius, class of 2011, who will be fresh from a Salzburg sojourn, in Mozart?

Michelle Johnson, previewing her Glimmerglass Aida?

Viktor Antipenko, Opera National de Lyon's Junger Seemann and Hirt (double duty in Tristan und Isolde), continuing his Wagnerian forays?

Alum Steven LaBrie, class of 2010, ubiquitously comfortable in opera, operetta and musical theater, in Leigh, Kálmán or Rodgers?

Maria Aleida, changing her pace from an all-Rossini summer in Martina Franca and Pesaro, as Olympia?

Sean Arnold, Israel's latest Rodolfo, in another chestnut tenor role, Nemorino?

Zach Nelson, role-debuting Germont with Lyric Opera Virginia in September, offering "Di Provenza ..."?

As Italians and we Italian wannabes say: "Lasciami sognare, fammi volare" ("Let me dream, let me fly").



Ben Wager, the Prodigal Returns

Ghena Meirson of AVA's faculty invited me to sit in on a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, the next opera to be presented in the 2011 Russian Opera Workshop series. What a privilege to observe a working rehearsal!

With Maestro Meirson at the piano and Brad Cawyer conducting, familiar faces from the first session (Eugene Onegin) included AVA alum Cynthia Cook, '11. A special treat was listening to Ben Wager, '09. The voice is even richer and more powerful than the last time I heard it in person - a true "Russian bass" in the sense that Ben's lowest notes below the staff are now magnificently sepulchral.

Ben has recently returned to Philly from Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has been singing since his graduation from AVA, recently role-debuting Escamillo. AVA followers will remember Ben's performances as Sparafucile, Monterone, Basilio, Raimondo, Enrico VIII, Caspar, and the Bass Soloist in Rossini's Stabat Mater. The bass brings linguistic and musical authority to the character of King Rene' in Iolanta  drawn from his experiences as AVA's Gremin and Zaretsky, outings in the Russian Romances programs, and a staging of Boris Godunov in Dallas.

The upcoming 2011-2012 season will be a busy one for Ben, including appearances in Minneapolis, Newark, Portland and Boston. 

There's a new blogger at AVA!

Time to introduce myself...

I'm Lewis Loesberg  and I'll be blogging on AVA's website in a collaborative enterprise with Linda Ginsburg and Dan Pantano. I will post reviews, articles and interviews that regard current AVA resident artists and alums. Additionally, whenever possible, I'll post audio and visual selections of AVA singers in action. Where appropriate, I'll try to include a "historical context", from 60 years of operagoing.

My opera going encompasses a span of over 60 years now, so I've seen most of the great singers who were/are active in that period. Starting out at the Met, having been spoiled by the best voices on the planet, I came to AVA relatively late. I had seen  college and conservatory productions early on, and off and on, but they were - to put it kindly - not on a performance level that I'd been used to. So, I never became a regular attendee.  Then, in the late 90s, a friend invited me to see a Puccini double bill at AVA, and, based on the sublime level of that performance, I decided to give "vocal institution opera" another shot! And I've been shooting ever since, following with keen interest the careers of AVA alums around the globe

You can also follow me on my FB page