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Visit La Scena Musicale Online Reviews. [Index] Critiques de La Scena Musicale Online
The Art of Orchestra and Voice: New Stars The Canadian Opera Company saved its best for last, in the final installment of a series of concerts at the George Weston Recital Hall on Friday. It was virtually sold-out, and for good reason. It featured two of the genuine "new stars" on the operatic scene: the dazzling soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and the equally talented baritone James Westman.
A highlight of the first half was the newly reconstructed aria for Susanna, Giunse il momento alfine...Non tartar amato bene from Le Nozze di Figaro. It was good of conductor Richard Bradshaw to publicly thank Peter Sandor, a long time patron of opera in Canada. It was Sandor who commissioned composer Derek Holman to complete this aria based on musical fragments by Mozart, and the work had its world premiere last November at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Both men were in the audience and graciously acknowledged the warm applause. The first half ended with Ford's aria from Falstaff, sung with great drama and finesse by Westman. Too bad Bradshaw got carried away and allowed the orchestra to drown out the singer in forte climaxes.
The formal conclusion to the concert ended with a duet, Dunque io son, from Il barbiere di Siviglia. This is a role Bayrakdarian sings frequently, having just stepped in at short notice for an indisposed Vesselina Kasarova, the scheduled Rosina at the Chicago Lyric Opera. Here both soloists camped it up to the delight of the audience, who was not about to let them go without an encore. They were rewarded with not one but three. Not known as a Wagner singer, and despite less than perfect diction, Westman nevertheless acquitted himself admirably in O du, mein holden Abendstern from Tannhauser. Bayrakdarian's version of Song to the Moon from Rusalka was every bit as lovely as the one sung by Renee Fleming in her Toronto recital, and according to my Czech companion, Bayrakdarian's pronunciation was perfect. Freed from the confines of the acoustic disaster of Hummingbird Centre, the COC orchestra played beautifully if albeit too emphatically in places, especially in the overture from La gazza ladra. The evening drew to a glorious close with the Susana-Figaro duet from Le Nozze di Figaro. If there ever was a more enchanting pair of young lovers, I have not seen it. Let's hope that as these two "new stars" continue to reach for greater heights, they will not forget their Toronto – and Canadian – roots.
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