Saturday January 14th, 2023 matinee - Aside from the tenor aria "Amor te vieta", I knew none of the music from Umberto Giordano's FEDORA: I'd never listened to the opera on LP, tape, or CD, nor seen a video of it. So this afternoon was, for me, like being at the world premiere. Luckily I was able to claim the New York Public Library's only available score.
The opera is filled with beautiful music, but in the end do we really care about these characters? There is much passion, much remorse, and an onstage pianist (Bryan Wagorn, playing superbly), who is actually a character in the story. But a feeling of emptiness pervades the work.
On the podium, Marco Armiliato was in his element. And Sonya Yoncheva enjoyed a personal triumph, giving the opera's title-role the full verismo treatment, with powerful top notes, a true feeling for the lyricism of certain passages, and chesty voicings that were very effective. Partnering her, Piotr Beczala sang fervently, relishing the brief beauty of "Amor te vieta" and full of bitterness on realizing Fedora has betrayed him. Lucas Meachum's Met-sized voice was very welcome in the music of de Siriex, and Rosa Feola sang prettily as Olga.
Several singers made strong impressions this afternoon: Rocky Eugenio Sellers displayed great vocal power as Nicola, Lucia Lucas stood out as Gretch, Richard Bernstein (Dr. Boroff), the excellent tenors Tony Stevenson and Scott Scully, and baritone Jeongchul Cha - a very fine Marullo in RIGOLETTO earlier this season - had more sing today as Cirillo...and he sang handsomely indeed.
~Oberon