{"id":45377,"date":"2012-12-23T03:17:43","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T01:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=45377"},"modified":"2016-12-16T02:21:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T01:21:58","slug":"vivica-genaux-and-daniel-okulitch-in-recital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/vivica-genaux-and-daniel-okulitch-in-recital\/","title":{"rendered":"Vivica Genaux and Daniel Okulitch in Recital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum<\/em>, New York City<\/em>
\nThe George London Foundation Recital Series presents<\/strong>
\nVivica Genaux\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Mezzo-soprano
\nDaniel Okulitch\u00a0<\/strong>Bass-baritone
\nCraig Rutenberg\u00a0<\/strong>Piano
\nProgram order to be announced
\nSongs on Text from \u201cLamento\u201d by Th\u00e9ophile Gautier (Ms. Genaux)
\nFaur\u00e9<\/em> :\u201cChanson du p\u00eacheur,\u201d Op. 4, No. 1
\nBelioz:<\/em> \u201cSur les lagunes\u201d from Les nuits d\u2019et\u00e9
\nViardot<\/em>: \u201cLamento\u201d,\u00a0 \u201cMadrid\u201d, \u201cBerceuse cosaque\u201d,\u201cL\u2019Ausencia\u201d
\nFrom Zarzuelas (Ms. Genaux)
\nSerrano:<\/em> \u201cCancion de la gitana\u201d from La alegria del batall\u00f3n<\/em>
\nChueca:<\/em> \u201cTango de la menegilda\u201d from La gran via<\/em>
\nGim\u00e9nez:<\/em> \u201cZapateado\u201d from La Tempranica
\nSongs on the Yeats poem \u201cCloths of Heaven\u201d by DUNHILL, ELWYN-EDWARDS, ROVEN, and EVANS
\n(Mr. Okulitch)
\nSongs of Sleep (Mr. Okulitch)
\nGurney:<\/em> \u201cSleep\u201d
\nLiebermann:<\/em> \u201cGood Night\u201d, \u201cShe Tells Her Love While Half Asleep\u201d, A Variation on \u201cTo Say To Go To Sleep\u201d
\nSviridov<\/em> \u201cThe Virgin in the City\u201d from Petersburg: A Vocal Poem (Mr. Okulitch)
\nRachmaninoff:<\/em> Aleko\u2019s Cavatina from Aleko
\nDuet to be announced (Ms. Genaux & Mr. Okulitch)
\nDecember 9, 2012<\/em>
\nEstablished by the Canadian bass-baritone some 14 years before his death, the George London Foundation for Singers<\/strong> provides financial assistance to young artists, and also presents a handful of recitals in New York each season. In recent years, these recitals have been given in an intimate performing space at the Morgan Library & Museum, a true gem too often overlooked by visitors. For the performance on 9 December, the Foundation presented two artists who can boast notable credits in Italy (and elsewhere), the Alaskan mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux<\/strong>, who maintains a home in Italy, and the Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch<\/strong>, whom La Scala audiences will remember from Britten\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> and Peter Grimes<\/em>, as well as Leh\u00e1r\u2019s La vedova allegra.<\/em> In this joint recital, accompanied by Craig Rutenberg<\/strong>, the singers alternated in programs of wide-ranging repertoire that didn\u2019t overlap at all chronologically, stylistically, or thematically. Nevertheless, both singers approach their work with a kindred intelligence and clarity of expression that made this a unified, satisfying afternoon \u2014 made altogether delightful during two duets at the end.
\nGenaux has earned a global reputation for her interpretations of Rossini and of Baroque music,<\/strong> but recently she has been branching out, notably with her first performances of Carmen<\/em>, in Rouen earlier this season. Many of the selections she offered in this recital (as well as her sleeveless, lace-trimmed gown) suggested a nod to Bizet\u2019s Gypsy heroine, though Genaux never sang a note of that score. At the start, a trio of songs by Rossini spoke of Spain, as did two of three numbers by Pauline Viardot, and a winning collection of zarzuela numbers that revealed her playful wit (something that Baroque repertoire seldom allows her). Even the duet that closed the formal program was \u201cLa ci darem la mano\u201d from Mozart\u2019s Don Giovanni<\/em>, set in Carmen\u2019s own Seville.
\nHowever, most of this material dates back much earlier than Carmen in Genaux\u2019s repertoire, and the works of Rossini and Viardot have special significance for her. (It might be said that, just as Genaux has championed Viardot\u2019s music, so Rossini\u2019s better-known music has championed Genaux.) The mezzo-soprano told this critic that she has not sung this kind of recital in five years: she is in such demand to perform Baroque concerts with period ensembles (to say nothing of complete operas both fully staged and in concert) that the opportunity simply hasn\u2019t arisen. By relying on material that is both familiar and meaningful to her, she was able quickly to communicate with her audience on the most direct and personal level.
\nHer voice remains an instrument of distinctly sensual pleasure<\/strong>: warm, vibrant, often startling in its combination of agility and hearty weight. Her program on this occasion placed far less emphasis on the vocal pyrotechnics that have given such a boost to her performances of Baroque music (as well as the title of her acclaimed CD), and in some respects her more lyrical singing is even more assured and expressive than her flamboyant coloratura.
\nWithout being ungentlemanly, one must observe that Okulitch<\/strong> is closer to the start of his career than is Genaux to the start of hers. Already, however, the young Canadian has developed a reputation for contemporary music, and he has taken the leads in two high-profile world premieres: Willy Wonka in Peter Ash\u2019s The Golden Ticket<\/em> and Seth Brundle in Howard Shore\u2019s The Fly<\/em>. (For the latter, Okulitch garnered worldwide attention during a well-publicized nude scene; in the press, his American colleagues now teasingly refer to nude scenes not as a \u201cFull Monty\u201d but as a \u201cFull Okulitch.\u201d He remains a good sport about the whole business.) In 2014, Okulitch will add to this list, playing Ennis, the Heath Ledger role, in the world premiere of Charles Wuorinen\u2019s Brokeback Mountain<\/em> at Madrid\u2019s Teatro Real.
\nFor this recital, Okulitch stayed resolutely within the 20th and 21st centuries.<\/strong> For his first set, he offered three settings of Yeats\u2019 poem \u201cAedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven\u201d by Dilys Elwyn-Edwards (1918\u20132012), Thomas F. Dunhill (1877\u20131946), and Glen Roven (still very active, and the producer of Okulitch\u2019s CD), whose more astringent composition provided a healthy contrast to the work of his predecessors. Okulitch also opened the second half of the program with a series of songs about sleep by another living composer, Lowell Liebermann (born 1961), rounded out with a decidedly backward-looking 20th-century \u201cSleep\u201d by Ivor Gurney (1890-1937), inspired by the Elizabethans. With excellent Russian diction, Okulitch also performed \u201cThe Virgin and the City,\u201d a melancholy song to a text by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok, composed by Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov (1915\u201398); and Rachmaninoff\u2019s \u201cCavatina of Aleko,\u201d picking up on the Gypsy theme of Genaux\u2019s songs.
\nIn English as in Russian, Okulitch is an excellent representative of the virtues of North American recitalists,<\/strong> most especially in the entirely conversational ease he brings to song and the subtlety of his psychological readings of the texts; no matter whether the drama is internalized or externalized, it is never fussy, always sincere. Each of these songs provided a worthy vehicle for his approach, and even when singing of passion at forte<\/em>, it seemed Okulitch was speaking directly to the listener.
\nCraig Rutenberg, head of music administration at the Metropolitan and one of the United States\u2019 most sought-after accompanists, nimbly embraced the various stylistic demands of the vocal soloists \u2014 and excelled himself with the Mozart and with the bis<\/em>, \u201cYou\u2019re Just in Love\u201d from Irving Berlin\u2019s Call Me Madam<\/em>. It\u2019s a comic duet in which both parties sing at<\/em> each other rather than with <\/em>each other, to entirely different vocal lines that interweave ingeniously: one character \u201chear[s] music and there\u2019s no one there,\u201d while the other advises not to worry, \u201cYou\u2019re just in love.\u201d These roles were sung originally on Broadway by Russell Nype and Ethel Merman, respectively, but here Genaux and Okulitch switched, with Genaux taking the showier vocal line and Okulitch reassuring her steadily, while Rutenberg\u2019s sprightly playing kept the whole thing moving along.
\nAlthough both singers have enjoyed noteworthy engagements with the area\u2019s leading opera companies (Genaux with both the Metropolitan and the New York City Opera, Okulitch with New York City Opera) and at Carnegie Hall, their local appearances are relatively infrequent. The London Foundation series offered a distinguished, intimate setting for a welcome reunion with these remarkable artists. Photo by Shawn Ehlers<\/em><\/p>\n

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