A splendid mid-summer night in the park Wednesday was the backdrop for a singularly beautiful opera recital; the stars were out, the sky an inky blue, the audience enthralled, and the material chosen, everyone from Dowland to Puccini, seemed based upon a single concept: let's have fun.
This was the fourth annual Met Opera Summer Recital series presented by the Metropolitan Opera and produced by the nonprofit City Parks Foundation’s Summerstage, but only one of six nights (every Borough and two in Manhattan) . Two different Recitals will be played, and this exact one is playing again tonight (Friday, July 27th) at Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7pm. For the non or casual fan, this is a great introduction.
And it is free, of course.
Still, even if it was a paid ticket, money can't buy the guiding intelligence behind this night: the musical selections were so easy going, so much fun. This was obvious at the intermission, when the second selection of songs from a Donizetti (1800s composer) comic opera, the deeply romantic "The Elixir Of Love" were shared by all three vocalists, Bass-Baritone John Del Carlo, Tenor, Dimitri Pittas, and Soprano Danielle de Niese. It is as if the singers had decided to perform a mini-opera in the middle of the recital. Pittas, lapping up and guzzling the love potion, eyes bugged out, is a visual treat and de Niese and Del Carlo, play off each other with a light heartedness that builds as Del Carlo tempts her with the potion, and de Niese resolves not to use it, is like a Shakespearian Comedy: not the ingenue but the shrew.
More amusing in its own way, though actually a distillation of the end of a marriage, again from Donizetti before the break, is Del Carlo's sparkled eyed sustained fury and Danielle's all sass and stormy weather in an excerpt from "Don Pasquade".
It reminds you that opera singers are also opera actors.
Danielle de Niese is the lyric soprano Australian via Sri Lanka, and is there anything warmer than her singing of two Dowland songs? Dowland is the English Renaissance composer and Danielle had performed some of his material on her lovely Beauty Of The Baroque album a couple of years ago. Tonight, her voice is more powerful, and hearing her sing "Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite' a song about romantic love from the period where romantic love was institutionlized (Dowland died in 1626) is a warming and moving thing. And though she is less good on the other material, there is sustained pleasure in watching and listening to her here.
Del Carlo's singing of the American Musical classic "Can You Remember" (from "The Fantasticks) is equally memorable. The song, a look back at youth, is given a note perfect rendition, more fuller bodied than the original (and played in a different key). Again, the ability to take on the part is astounding. The song never meant much to me before, I always found the hook, "… and follow", a trifle contrite, Del Carlo makes it meaningful with a hand movement. It was like hearing it for the first time. Del Carlo doesn't having a booming voice, he isn't Rick Ross, he doesn't lower the hammer, but given the evenings music, and given this song, it still deepens from the tenor original.
Despite the composers being performed, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini among others, there is something light about the evening . Maybe I mean buoyant. Danielle is master of ceremonies, and she is giggly and easy going, and never funnier than when bemused by a Diva forcing Mozart to rewrite an aria because it doesn't have enough highs and lows. John De Carlo, who was very popular in his native San Francisco, and has sung many times at the New York City Met (all three vocalists have), has a mischievous face and he uses it to great effect and all night, bantering with Danielle he is a force of nature, and spitting out a lyric as fast as any rapper, he is to be marveled at. Dimitri Pappas, a local lad, has a swarthy Byronic look, and voice, but he can bug his eyes out, guzzle elixir, and keep the proceedings moving.
The first half were mostly solos, the second half mostly duets. And there was one clear mistake, at no time do the three vocalists sing together. I think they planned it as a big finale (Dimitri said as much) but ran clean out of time. This was a shame because the evening seemed to suddenly end and it was the least satisfying thing. Also, nobody was in great vocie, thiough nobody was terrible either, and they all got by on at least personality. Danielle in particular was a delight.
Finally, I am no opera buff, but I feel there was some heft missing somewhere, the one moment when they broke all the way through. It didn't seem to happen.
Having said that, for over two hours, the quality never waivered and anchor man, pianist Dan Saunders, never faltered. I watched Saunders watching Danielle, reacting to her pauses with piano notes, searching her hand for signs of changes. Saunders has played with some of the greats, Marilyn Horne to name but one, and he is a steady unassuming and intelligent presence.
And Danielle: in a green dress with a plunging back in the first half, and a lovely sprinkling, skin tight full length dress in the second, she looks both Divaish and approachable. She is a wonderful singer and try and get to the show tonight and catch her.
A splendid mid-summer night in the park Wednesday was the backdrop for a singularly beautiful opera recital; the stars were out, the sky an inky blue, the audience enthralled, and the material chosen, everyone from Dowland to Puccini, seemed based upon a single concept: let's have fun.