Photos by Kristen Loken
Casey ("At the Bat") Candebat hit it way out of the ballpark tonight. The tenor from New Orleans caused a sensation in the War Memorial Opera House with a rapturous "Pourquoi me réveiller?" — his impassioned Werther to Sarah Mesko's gorgeously sung Charlotte was one of the truly memorable scenes of the evening.
A lyric tenor with unusually powerful projection, Candebat was first among equals at the Merola Grand Finale, which presented — and said farewell to — one of the finest Merola classes in years. Just how many such programs for young artists can claim six (6) tenors, all good ones?
Another impressive lyric tenor is Chuanyue Wang, whose Ernesto from Donizetti's Don Pasquale had an exciting inner energy and beauty of tone, with the promise of walking in the footsteps of Carlo Bergonzi.
Theo Lebow's graceful tenor shone in "Ô blonde Cérès" from Les Troyens, and Joshua Baum stood out in the program-closing "Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso" from La Rondine. AJ Gluckert partnered Melinda Whittingon's winning Vanessa in "At last I've found you" by Samuel Barber, and Tenor No. 6, Yi Li, scored with "M’apparì" from Flotow's Marta.
Six young tenors — all ready for prime time! That's certainly worth endless circling of the inaccessible Civic Center in search of elusive-to-impossible parking.
Programming for the three-hour long evening was commendable. There was only one Puccini aria (from La Rondine, to close) and only one Verdi, and even that wasn't a warhorse: "Non so le tetre immagini," from Il corsaro, in a powerful performance by Elizabeth Baldwin.
Otherwise: "Nein, das ist wirklich doch zu keck!" from Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, with Jacqueline Piccolino and Carolyn Sproule; Charon's "Il faut passer" from Lully's Alceste, with Matthew Scollin; a chilling "Piff, paff," from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, with Andrew Kroes; "Their spinning wheel unwinds Dreams" from Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, with Mesko, Erin Johnson, Rose Sawvel, and Carolyn Sproule as Lucretia.
Jennifer Cherest's "Credete al mio dolore" from Handel's Alcina was outstanding; Rose Sawvel's Eurydice and Joseph Lattanzi's Jupiter-as-fly, from Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers, hilarious.
The long program also featured a trio from Mozart's Don Giovanni, a duet from Strauss' Arabella, and a scene from Handel's Semele, with Hadleigh Adams as Somnus.
Against the fabulous promise of the young artists on the acoustically advantageous, large curved Moby-Dick set, staging was, well, loathsome. The aria from Semele is "Leave me loathsome light," and the audience might have been tempted to sing along.
Where in the hell (Offenbach's? Lully's?) did the idea come from to put a ghost light (a naked bulb used normally when the theater is dark) in the middle of the stage and leave it there for the entire evening, shining the light in the eyes of the audience, while stage lighting itself varied from poor to atrocious?
Why give an antique microphone to Iopas (the poet in Les troyens) to sing about the Roman deity Cérès? What's the point of an overturned chair, waiting for an hour to be put upright?
Why a busy mime scene to set up the subsequent Merry Wives scene during the utterly unrelated Béatrice et Bénédict Overture?
Why, for that matter, did (the otherwise great) Nicholas McGegan rush through the overture, and then cover the singers for most of Nicolai duet? Balances got better later, but conductors of past Merola Finales seemed to be more singer-friendly.
And these are singers deserving support and even admiration. The Class of 2012 is now "going out into the world," and we will assuredly hear from them soon, performing in major opera houses.