Prize Song

Lisette Oropesa has won a 2007 Sara Tucker Study Grant ($5000). Her prize-winning aria  was 'O quante volte' from Bellini's CAPULETI ED I MONTECCHI. For me, it is quite rare to hear a young singer with this level of vocal and interpretive accomplishment. Watch this! {Hey, Lisette: if you are going to keep winning prizes I'm going to need to take some new photos for my blog!}

In the same Competition, my buddy Jason Collins won a Richard Tucker Career Grant ($10,000). These prizes are for young singers already established in their careers. I first heard Jason when he was at Juilliard and was very impressed with the warmth and power of his voice. He is also just about the sunniest guy you will ever meet. Last season Jason lit up Avery Fisher Hall in his debut performance there in Schumann's PARADIES UND DIE PERI. That's where I took this photo. Since then we have sort of lost touch. When I worked at Tower, all my young singer-friends would stop in whenever they were in NYC so I could keep track of them. That's one aspect of the job I really miss. {The power of positive thinking: "e-mail from Jason Collins" has just popped up!}

On Tuesday I had lunch with Nicole Piccolomini who is spending a couple weeks in NYC before flying back to finish her first season at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. One of her featured roles there was Flosshilde in Wagner's RING Cycle (photo). When she goes back to Berlin her schedule includes a chamber performance of the two Brahms 'viola' songs; excellent choice, they should really suit her voice. She will return to Berlin for her second season next Fall, with her roles to include Maddalena in RIGOLETTO and Fenena in NABUCCO.

After catching up with Lisette at Pain Quotidien today, I went to the Liederabend at Paul Hall in the Juilliard School. It was at Paul Hall, exactly nine years ago, that I first heard my late friend Makiko Narumi sing. For three years thereafter, I spent many evenings at Juilliard listening to vocal recitals and chamber music performances. I got to know several of the singers, some of whom became my good friends (like Nicole and Jason) and all of whom were regular Tower customers.

After Makiko's death, I went back to Paul Hall a couple of times but I found there were too many memories in that room. Often when Makiko wasn't singing she would sit with me to cheer her classmates on. Her presence was very strong there.

But the recent series of recitals by the Met Young Artists has reminded me of how much I enjoyed discovering singers right at the outset of their careers. I've missed several 'classes' of Juilliard singers, so tonight I decided to to back. I sat in my usual seat and was reassured to see Brian Zeger, head of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Department, in his usual spot at the back of the Hall.

The four singers were all very young and displayed varying levels of vocal and interpretive skills and stage assurance. Having Schubert's joyous 'Hirt auf dem Felsen' as the opening piece erased any lingering thoughts that I'd feel uncomfortable in Paul Hall. Soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke has a very appealing voice and manner, and with her pianist Tomoko Nakayama and excellent clarinetist Alexey Gorokholinskiy gave a very enjoyable rendition of this demanding music.

Two bass-baritones, Benjamin Clements and Thomas Cannon, and lyric baritone Matthew Moore all gave good performances and Mr. Cannon especially showed a surprising intensity in his Wolf set. It will be interesting to observe how these singers develop.

Random notes: By the time you read this, Oberon's Grove will have had it's 30,000th visitor. The blog is coming up on its first anniversary later this month. Earlier today I took some time to polish up the links in the right-hand column; I wanted to make it easier to get to the sites of some singers who I have been fortunate enough to befriend.

I've also put a link to a beautiful tribute to my late friend, the Japanese contralto Makiko Narumi, by Robert White. On that page is a link to a sound clip of Makiko's voice; I can't bring myself to play it yet but April 30 will mark the 5th anniversary of her death and I'm going to try to listen to her again. Last night I took out some of her cassettes; it's lovely to see her hand-writing and her charming 'Japanese-phonetic' spellings...did you know Mahler wrote the "Ruckelt Lieder"? She'd be annoyed with me if she knew I hadn't listened to her for five years.

Comments

[tonya]

Wow! Congratulations to her!

[philip]

Finally, I got the link to the Google Video to work. You have to do one more click once you get there. Take ten minutes to listen to her and tell me what you think.

[tonya]

Wow, what a gorgeous voice!! I can see why she won! I'm going to have to start going to the opera...