Lieder Highs

It was a night of opposites. For the first half of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s semi-annual Lieder Alive concert series in SFCM’s Concert Hall, we had tenor Eleazar Rodriguez, a 2009 Merola Opera participant who is compact of voice and frame. The second half belonged to soprano Heidi Melton, a former Merolina and second year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow who is robust of voice and frame. Accompanying them both was John Parr, the tall, thin, far more experienced, Head of Music Staff at S.F. Opera who does a finer disappearing act than almost any accompanist around.

And there was an irony in the series’ title. How can series Director Maxine Bernstein presume to call the program Lieder Alive when the one-sheet audience handout does not include artist biographies or texts, and translations? That's hardly a way to keep the art song alive. It limits the audience to the already initiated.

Tenorial Satisfaction

Rodriguez chose two works well suited to intimate performance venues, Beethoven’s Adelaide and Schumann’s 16-song cycle, Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love). He has grown greatly as an artist since appearing in Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar two years ago. The voice, though modest in size, now tempers masculine declamation with winning sweetness. Phrases are beautifully rounded, and certain notes appropriately softened. The vibrato, however, sometimes has a palpitating, quivering quality that seems born as much of nervousness as emotional involvement.

Certainly the beginning of Adelaide calls for more repose than Rodriguez gave it. The words may translate, “Alone, your friend wanders in the Spring garden, mildly encircled by magic light that quivers through swaying, blossoming boughs, Adelaide!” But the piano accompaniment is marked dolce (sweet), and the sentiment is far more of gentle longing that of quivering passion. Rodriguez sounded far more like Fidelio’s imprisoned Florestan crying for freedom than a gentle lover.

Dichterliebe’s themes of longing, bitterness, and pain were far more more suited to Rodriguez’s now more controlled, quivering passion. There was a lovely lightening of the voice at the end of the first song, “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (In the wonderfully beautiful month of May), and a satisfying slowing before the final ritard of “Aus meinen Tränen spriessen” (From my tears sprout forth). True, dynamics were limited in the great song of spite, “Ich grolle nicht” (I bear no grudge). But the low range was solid and strong, and gems such as “Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen” (On a shining summer morning) were touchingly heartfelt and beautifully sung. By midcycle, the inclination to close the eyes and simply bask in the beauty of Schumann’s creation made for a far more satisfying Dichterliebe than fairly recent Bay Area traversals by Gerald Finley and Rolando Villazón. Which is saying a lot.

Melting with Melton

Melton chose three songs by Brahms, followed by music that could easily lend itself to orchestral accompaniment, Wagner’s five Wesendonck-Lieder. While it’s unclear

 whether she will forge a career as a versatile dramatic soprano, or choose Wagner as her major focus, one thing is certain. She is not cut out to sing intimate lieder. Not only is the voice naturally large, but it also does not take easily to scaling down.

There was nothing quiet, hiding, or mild about Melton’s opener, “Wie Melodien zieht es” (It pulls at me, like a melody). Not only did she fail to settle into Parr’s accompaniment — although that problem ended once the second song commenced — but the performance also revealed her one shortcoming of the evening, an inability to softly sustain higher tones. The fluttering, sweet little love messenger of Brahms’ “An die Nachtigall” (To the nightingale) she is not.

But the major news here, as in Major Artist Alert!, is that Melton has one of the finer instruments around. To these ears, the low tones are as gorgeous and rich as what recordings have preserved of Eileen Farrell’s, and the colors in her middle register are thrilling. Most important, when she stops trying to produce her sound, and simply lets it rip, she is nothing short of fabulous. If she can either learn to maintain focus and tonal integrity while softening on high, or choose venues and repertoire most complementary to her present strengths, she has the potential to become a major presence on the international stage.

Hence, the five songs to texts by Mathilde Wesendonck were far more suited to Melton’s strengths. “Der Engel” (The Angel) may have been too even in tempo, but her melting head tone was more than enough to compensate. And when she got going in the roaring and rushing of “Stehe Still!” (Stand still), even the great Wagnerian Kirsten Flagstad might have dropped her spear and taken a seat. Although Melton had trouble lightening the voice to express the change in emotion midway through the song, and curiously fell just a bit shy of totally wrapping herself around the finale’s grand paean to holy nature, the overall effect was thrilling.

Melton really extended herself for “Im Treibhaus” (In the Greenhouse). The opening was deeply felt, the sole floated head tone a thing of greatness, and the quiet of the final verse was all that the song wanted. It’s easy to get lost among this song’s six verses, but Melton and Parr made of it one satisfying piece.

Equally rewarding were the aching declamations of “Schmerzen” (Aching). If neither Parr’s accompaniment nor Melton’s emission were as smoothly sounded, deeply pondered, and mystically rapturous as the wondrous dreams of “Traüme” can be, the overall impression was one of greatness in the making.