SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Rising Stars in Concert at Lyric Opera Chicago: René Barbera (tenor), Andriana Chichman (soprano), Paul Corona (bass-baritone), Corey Crider (baritone), Sam Handley (bass-baritone), Craig Irving (bass-bartone), Paula La Rosa (baritone), Kathryn Leemhuis (mezzo-soprano),Katherine Lerner (mezzo-soprano), Amanda Majeski (soprano), Angela Manino (soprano), David Portillo (tenor), Amber Wagner (soprano), Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis, conductor, Civic Opera House, Chicago, 3.4, 2010. (JLZ)


The Ryan Opera Center Lyric Opera of Chicago is a place for young singers to gain experience as their careers begin, and is an important part of the artistic community. During the three-year program there,, singers take on roles in the current season, understudy various performers, take part in matinees, and have other opportunities to develop professionally. Alumni of the Ryan Opera Center include a number of impressive performers, including Nicole Cabell, and some of the current members of the center are already striking out in solo roles in Chicago and elsewhere. The annual gala “Rising Stars in Concert” celebrates these performers, and this year’s program offered another unique opportunity to hear them in arias, duets, and other ensembles.

Among the memorable performances at this concert were those by Amber Wagner, a soprano who is particularly effective in her Verdi roles. Wagner’s “Pace, pace” from La forza del destino was dramatically and musically appealing, and it gave audiences to hear the mature and appealing efforts of this fine young singer. In a more extended scene, the duet between Violetta and Germont from the second act of La traviata, Wagner worked well with baritone Corey Crider in bringing out the drama of this excerpt. Both singers gave fine performances of this familiar music and, better than that, made the audience want to hear more. Crider also performed the “Vision fugitive” aria from Massenet’s Hérodiade, which suggests a talent who could easily take on roles in Thaïs and other nineteenth-century French opera. His sense of line and his ability to project the text made this particular excerpt nicely effective.

Another pair of singers in the program, Amanda Majeski and David Portillo, gave an exemplary reading of the duet “Fra gli implessi” from Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Both singers were fine individually and also sang well together in this ensemble. They captured all of the work's the spirit  and demonstrated their full command of the music. This was a persuasive performance because of the polish it brought to this piece, and it would be intriguing to hear both singers take on a full production of the opera at some point.

Likewise, the tenor René Barbera made the aria from Delibe’s Lakme “Fantaisie aux divins mensonges” appropriately evocative. As much as the “Bell Song” remains the most  familiar extract from Lakme, this tenor aria is equally appealing, especially when delivered with the intensity that Barbera brought to it. The soprano Angela Mannino, recently heard at the Lyric as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro performed two pieces from comic operas, the duet “Signorina, in tanta fretta” from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale with bass Paula Corona, and the aria “Caro padre” from Rossini’s Il turco in Italia, and was engaging in both. Her sense of rhythm, diction, and timing, work well in her command of these pieces.

The program also included the final scene from Straus’s Arabella (sung by Amanda Majeski, with tenor Craig Irvin), the Finale from Bellini’s La sonnambula performed by Andriana Chichman (who portrayed Valencienne in this season’s production of Léhar’s The Merry Widow, and the letter scene from Massenet’s Werther sung by Katherine Lerner. The entire group of first-, second-, and third-year artists in the Ryan Center program were commendable in their efforts, which were accompanied by Sir Andrew Davis. The orchestra offered a uniformly fine support of the  twenty or so piece program in what must have been a challenging evening in the pit.  The evening concluded with all the soloists on stage to support the “Champagne Trio” from Johann Strauss II”s Der Fledermaus.

James L Zychowicz