The combination was irresistible and there was no attempt to resist it: big young voices in a 400-seat over-resonant hall, with a large orchestra driven by a conductor who never met a forte he wouldn't make into fortissimo. And so it was, the first public event of Merola Opera Program's 58th season, which took place in the S.F. Conservatory of Music's Concert Hall on Thursday night, was very loud and impressive, with some voices to be treasured beyond the constant high volume.
Valéry Ryvkin put his stamp on the concert from the very beginning by leading an impressive 50-piece pickup orchestra (no longer identified as San Francisco Opera's and including some of the stars of the Freeway Philharmonic) in the overture to La Forza del Destino, which was bouncing off the walls.
The Schwabacher Summer Concert featured just seven of the 29 singers in the 10-week training program — the others will get their turn in staged operas and the grand finale.
The three-hour-long program consisted of scenes from four operas, the singers appearing in more than one work. The most impressive performer, for example, Toni Marie Palmertree, with a bright, big-and-beautiful voice and appealing musicality, sang two very different Verdi roles — Violetta in the Act 2 scene of La traviata and Elisabetta in the first part of Act 4 of Don Carlo.
The soprano from Fleetwood, PA, managed to maintain an affecting lyrical quality in face of Ryvkin's orchestral storm, especially in the deafening Don Carlo excerpt, which culminated in the orchestra almost — but not quite — drowning out even Raehann Bryce-Davis' mighty Eboli, whose humiliation and despair here have turned into a sustained battle cry.
In an unintentional musical joke, the least amount of belting and some orchestral restraint came in a Wagner excerpt, the Act 2 Death Announcement of Die Walküre, with Meredith Mecum's measured and appropriate Brünnhilde and Michael Papincak's Siegmund. Mecum also appeared in the title role of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah (Act 2 Scene 3).
A major rafter-shaking performance came from Chinese bass Ming Zhao as Filippo in the Don Carlo scene, which started with the king's "Ella giammai m'amò" (supported by Victoria Ehrlich's brilliant cello introduction and obligato) and ended with Eboli's "O don fatale." Korean baritone Sol Jin had a brief appearance here as Rodrigo, but he had the center stage, along with Palmertree's Violetta, as Germont. The two men have resonant, powerfully projected voices.
Another bass, Scott Russell from Virginia, did his vocal-dramatic best as the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo and the Rev. Blitch in Susannah.