United States Various – George & Nora London Foundation Competition Finals: Soloists, Michael Fennelly (piano), The Morgan Museum & Library, New York, 17.2.2023. (RP)
Mozart – ‘Se all’impero amici dei’ (La clemenza di Tito) / Alexander McKissick (tenor)
Thomas – ‘Je suis Titania’ (Mignon) / Karoline Podolak (soprano)
Tchaikovsky – ‘Kuda, Kuda’ (Eugene Onegin) / Ricardo Garcia (tenor)
Weber – ‘Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen’ (Der Freischütz) / Joseph Sacchi (tenor)
Gounod – ‘O ma lyre immortelle’ (Sapho) / Olivia Johnson (mezzo-soprano)
Bizet – ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’ (Carmen) / Matthew Cairns (tenor)
Strauss – ‘Ich bin Euer Liebden’ (Der Rosenkavalier) / Elena Villalon (soprano)
Berlioz – ‘Inutiles regrets’ (Les Troyens) / Jordan Loyd (tenor)
Puccini – ‘Addio mio dolce amor’ (Edgar) / Amber R. Monroe (soprano)
Handel – ‘Inumano fratel…Stille amare’ (Tolomeo) / Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (countertenor)
Rachmaninoff – ‘Ves’ tabar spit’ (Aleko) / William Socolof (bass-baritone)
Thomas – ‘A vos jeux, mes amis’ (Hamlet) / Erika Baikoff (soprano)
Twelve singers competed within the finals of the 51st George and Nora London Foundation Competition at The Morgan Museum & Library, that they had been chosen from a area of 75 singers over the course of the week. Each had the chance to sing one aria earlier than a panel of judges comprised of soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano Susan Quittmeyer, bass James Morris and Lenore Rosenberg, the previous Metropolitan Opera administrator.
Winning a George London Award will not be a ticket to worldwide stardom, however it signifies that a singer simply would possibly get there. In an prompt, a younger artist joins the ranks of among the nice American and Canadian opera singers of the previous 50 years, together with Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Matthew Polenzani and Sondra Radvanovsky, who have been all London winners. Five made that minimize this yr, with every receiving a $12,000 award.
This was an enormous yr for sopranos on the competitors. Karoline Podolak enchanted in ‘Je suis Titania’ from Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon. The aria was a fireworks show of coloratura, trills and bell-like excessive notes. Amber R. Monroe’s gleaming lyric spinto soprano is on a par together with her vogue sense. She poured out emotion in ‘Addio mio dolce amor’ from Puccini’s Edgar, which she topped off with a surprising excessive B-flat.
Five tenors sang within the finals, however solely Ricardo Garcia garnered a London Award. He gave a dramatically engrossing and vocally stellar efficiency of Lensky’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. The depth of his singing was matched by the fantastic thing about a burnished tenor that sobbed with sorrow as he sang of his love for Olga.
It was the stillness in countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen’s efficiency that made ‘Inumano fratel … Stille amare’ from Handel’s Tolomeo so emotionally devastating. Each repetition of Handel’s chic melody resonated with despair. The lightness of contact with which Cohen sang resulted in immaculately sculpted musical strains and pristinely executed trills.
Erika Baikoff, the final to sing, added some sudden suspense to the finals, having been referred to as to the Metropolitan Opera for an orchestral rehearsal as she is protecting the position of Nanetta in its upcoming manufacturing of Falstaff. All it took was a little bit of tinkering with the order of this system, a block-long taxi journey and a fast change for the soprano to seem on stage.
The viewers needed to wait a couple of minutes, however she made it worthwhile with a psychologically penetrating and vocally dazzling efficiency of ‘A vos jeux, mes amis’ from Thomas’s Hamlet. She is likely one of the uncommon singers whose voice is embraced by the difficult acoustics of the Morgan’s Gilder Lehrman Hall.
The different seven singers every obtained George London Encouragement Awards of $2000. There is not any second-guessing the judges, however different singers may have simply been high prize winners. One was tenor Matthew Cairns, whose attractive timbre and dramatic depth in ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’ from Bizet’s Carmen made for a riveting efficiency.
The different was bass-baritone William Socolof who sang ‘Ves’ tabar spit’ from Rachmaninoff’s Aleko. His compelling stage presence was at one along with his singing. Socolof earned one other notch on his belt by offering Michael Fennelly, who did yeoman’s work accompanying the singers, the chance to enthrall the viewers along with his enjoying within the aria’s extravagantly lush postlude.
This was the primary time that Nora Johnson was not seated on the judges’ desk since 1985 when, following her husband’s dying, she grew to become President of the George London Foundation for Singers. After her passing in June 2022, the group grew to become the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers: a becoming tribute for a outstanding girl who devoted her life to supporting younger singers and serving to to make sure the way forward for opera.
Rick Perdian