United States Joyce DiDonato Master Classes: Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano) with Anchal Indu Dhir (soprano), Marissa Moultrie (soprano), Rael Rent (mezzo-soprano), Lawrence Barasa (tenor), Łukasz Zientarski (baritone), Justina Lee & Ken Noda (piano). Weill Music Room/Resnick Education Wing, Carnegie Hall, New York, 11-13.12.2022. (RP)
Joyce DiDonato gave her first grasp class at Carnegie Hall in 2015. Apart from a Covid-imposed hiatus, she has returned yearly to work with younger singers on opera arias. This yr, over 400 singers utilized, from which 5 have been chosen to take part within the courses. They not solely have extraordinary voices, they’re courageous too.
It is stress sufficient on a younger singer to have one in every of opera’s superstars critique an aria one has simply sung. Delving into issues reminiscent of character growth, vocal method and language are the nuts and bolts of turning into a singer. DiDonato, nonetheless, turns a grasp class right into a drama worthy of the artwork type that she ranks the best of all.
For DiDonato, it’s all about course of. She repeatedly reminded the viewers that the singers have been at completely different ranges of their vocal and creative growth. This wasn’t a live performance, though every aria was carried out in its entirety. Once DiDonato went to work, most of the time the singer by no means received previous the primary web page of the aria.
The youngest of the singers, soprano Anchal Indu Dhir, is a college undergraduate. She has a burning want to sing and a lyric soprano that desires to soar. Dhir is an keen learner and absorbed DiDonato’s recommendations like a sponge.
DiDonato centered on the nitty-gritty with Dhir, reminiscent of connecting thoughts, physique and voice, establishing a personality and refining a trill. Through this course of, Dhir remodeled the primary web page of ‘Ah! douce enfant’, La Fée’s aria from Massenet’s Cendrillon. It was a lot the identical course of in ‘Deh! vieni non tardar’ from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and ‘Caro nome’ from Verdi’s Rigoletto. The latter will certainly develop into one in every of Dhir’s calling playing cards as her profession advances.
When American soprano Marissa Moultrie completed Elettra’s super outpouring of fury in ‘D’Oreste, d’Aiacearia’ from Mozart’s Idomeneo, DiDonato instructed her there have been solely a handful of singers on this planet who may sing the aria as she simply had. DiDonato went on to say, ‘You don’t know the way extraordinary you’re’. That’s rather a lot to course of, particularly in entrance of an viewers.
With the ‘Embroidery Aria’ from Britten’s Peter Grimes, DiDonato had little technical recommendation to supply – biting right into a consonant extra, suggesting a unique phrasing – however she waded into deep waters, albeit with the younger soprano’s consent.
It is solely whether or not this extravagantly gifted younger singer is prepared to share her voice with a world that’s desperate to embrace it. For these steeped in operatic lore, it hearkened again to Caruso’s feedback upon listening to the younger Rosa Ponselle. Then, as now, solely time will inform whether or not the top will let Moutrie’s voice and coronary heart comply with their star.
Estonian mezzo-soprano Rael Rent has a monumental voice. Wisely, at this stage of her profession, she leans in the direction of the lyrical and the romantic. The first notes that she sang have been ‘Cruda sorte!’ from Isabella’s entrance aria in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. After a couple of minutes of labor, Rent was remodeled right into a commanding but beguiling girl, who immediately dominated the stage with a gleam in her eye. She additionally knew the significance of these two phrases.
Handel and Massenet are pure suits for Rent’s wealthy, alluring voice. As with the Rossini aria, DiDonato guided Rent in establishing a personality bodily and vocally in ‘Pena tiranna’ from Amadigi di Gaula and ‘Va! laisse couler mes larmes’ from Werther. This was a catharsis for the younger singer, and it moved all of these watching.
Lawrence Barasa needs to be some of the wonderful tenors on this planet and return to his native Kenya to begin its first opera firm. He melted hearts with ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amor. That didn’t forestall DiDonato from zeroing in on textural and musical components that lifted it to a different degree when he sang your entire aria once more.
In Mozart and Verdi, Basara’s full lyric tenor was equally thrilling. DiDonato’s most cogent recommendation to him was to seek out the physicality of the character that he’s singing, in order that what an viewers sees is what they’re listening to. He received the message.
Łukasz Zientarski wears his ambition to be a fantastic Verdi baritone on his sleeve. For his first aria, he sang ‘Perchè, perchè non m’ami più?’ from Puccini’s Il tabarro, after which yearned to dig into ‘Eri tu’ from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. He is simply too younger for all that, however along with his allure and beauty, he’s a pure for romantic and comedian roles.
In introducing himself, Zientarski stated that he wished to work on his dramatic expertise. DiDonato took him up on it, however with a twist he most likely didn’t anticipate. Both have been on their knees and DiDonato coaxed Zientarski into establishing an emotional reference to Valentin, as he sang ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux’ from Gounod’s Faust. The end result was outstanding, and Zientarski appeared overwhelmed by the expertise.
Zientarski has already sung Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, however with DiDonato posing as Donna Elvira, he found larger nuance and depth within the ‘Catalog Aria’. He even needed to admit he discovered the function attention-grabbing, one thing he was reluctant to do on the onset.
In her remarks earlier than the primary class, DiDonato recalled that whereas on a safari in Africa, the information stated, ‘I can’t promise you what’s going to occur, however I can inform that one thing thrilling will occur’. DiDonato predicted the identical for the three days of grasp courses. She was proper.
A DiDonato class has singing and drama to equal any night time on the opera. But greater than that, it gives the hope that we are going to hear extra from these 5 wonderful younger singers quickly.
Rick Perdian
To view the 2022 Joyce DiDonato Master Classes at Carnegie Hall, click on right here.
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