This was the "Merola Auditions for the General Director," which always sounds like someone's auditioning for that job. But this is auditioning in front of the General Director, as well as the music staff and some lucky audience members. Each of the 19 singers came out on stage, and with piano accompaniment, sang one 5-minute aria. There was a 15-minute break, and then some were asked back to sing a second aria. In some years, it seems that the director just wanted to hear certain singers sing something different, and this sometimes produces revelations, as it did with Nathaniel Peake two years ago. He sang La donna è mobile for his first aria. It was a fine, jolly piece, and the high B at the end was firmly in place, but when he was asked to sing again, he sang an aria from Faust that was astonishing.
This year, though, I thought that the seven singers who were asked back were the best of the crop, which is saying something, because this is a terrific bunch of singers, and it's going to be fun listening to them in master classes, in the Schwabacher concert, in the opera, and in the Grand Finale.
I won't comment on all of them, but here are some of my favorite moments.
Baritone Sidney Outlaw was the second singer of the evening, and he sang an aria from Rinaldo. There were several other baritones to follow, but when Outlaw was asked back and sang a piece from I Puritani, I decided I liked his voice more than the other baritones. Smooth and agile (for a baritone :-), he's just a tad showy, hanging on to a few notes a bit longer than necessary, but he also has great breath control. He sang one set of runs that was so long, I ran out of air just listening to him. At an event on Friday, "Meet the Merolini," we heard a few words from each of the artists, and Outlaw said he liked Handel and Bellini "because they make me sound glorious." No lack of self-confidence here.
Alexander Lewis sang a piece from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. At the Friday event, he talked about sports and had everyone in stitches, explaining his interest in "jumping off things" (e.g., bungee jumping from bridges), but his speaking voice left me unprepared for his singing voice. Talk about glorious!
Nadine Sierra sang Caro nome with wonderful high notes, and returned to sing a piece from Roméo et Juliette. I can't wait to hear her sing Adina in L'Elisir.
Kevin Ray is this year's Wagnerian tenor. He started with Winterstürme (which we heard just last week at the Summer Opera). That was good, but he was really impressive in his second aria, from Britten's Peter Grimes. This is a long, difficult, and dramatic piece, and is sung mostly without accompaniment. How he kept track of the key, I'll never know. Towards the end, a few of the high notes weren't there, but that hardly mattered. You won't be able to miss his voice at the Schwabacher concert.
Speaking of Britten, baritone Benjamin Covey sang a piece from The Rape of Lucretia that also revealed dramatic chops. Soprano Hye Jung Lee had the highest and most pitch-perfect notes of the evening; she sang Zerbinetta's aria from Ariadne auf Naxos and made it look easy. She's been studying in Germany, so her choices of Mozart and Strauss made sense. Eleazar Rodriguez, here for his second year, was practically a home-town favorite, with high notes that we watched Jane Eaglen teach him to sing last summer.
As good as these singers were, there was one who stood out. Way, way out. Tenor Daniel Montenegro sang Una furtiva lagrima and would have brought the house down if we had been allowed to applaud. (They allow only one round of applause, for the entire group, at the end.) I saw him at the event last Friday, where he said that his inspiration to become a singer started the day when someone took him to the LA Opera and he heard Placido Domingo for the first time. Well, he's been paying attention. This is an Italian tenor with a spectacular voice. He's at ease on stage, and it's hard to believe he's a newcomer. The top notes rang out clearly, seemingly without effort. One of the best parts of the Merola Opera program, which I actually enjoy more than the parent SF Opera, is that you occasionally come across someone like Montenegro and you think how lucky you are to have seen the beginning of what promises to be a great career in opera.
