The annual Palm Beach Opera vocal competition Grand Finals concerts are notable each year for two things above all: The atmosphere of fun and interactivity in the audience, and the exceptional level of youthful talent that soon will be replenishing the stores of the opera houses of the world.
Sunday’s concert, which was the 41st in the series that began in 1969, saw 13 young singers competing for about $77,000 in prizes, and it ended with the top awards of the afternoon going to a 23-year-old baritone from Ohio and a 27-year-old soprano from Maryland.
Michael Young, who sang Ford’s aria (È sogno? O realtà?) from Act II of Verdi’s Falstaff, and Corinne Winters, who sang the Ah, fors’è lui/Sempre libera scene that closes Act I of the same composer’s La Traviata, deservedly won top honors, and not least because these two singers already have internalized these pieces in a thoroughly operatic, stage-ready way.
Young, a singer with a strong, clear voice and a nice top range, was thoroughly believable as Ford, a man who thinks he’s being cuckolded. But this is also a set piece without a straight-ahead song (unlike all the other arias on the program), and Young handled its rapid changes of mood masterfully.
And Winters, who also was chosen the audience favorite by text message at the end of the contest, not only showed off a powerful high E-flat at the end of Sempre libera, she also demonstrated wide emotional range, even in the way she gulped out the syllables of “misterioso” in Ah, fors’è lui. Winters does not have a huge voice, but it’s a mature, affecting one, quite well-suited for dramatic roles and a pleasure to hear.
But there was much other good singing Sunday afternoon, which was heard to the accompaniment of the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra under the deft leadership of Metropolitan Opera staff conductor J. David Jackson. One of the most impressive moments came with the second-prize advanced division winner, mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts.
Roberts, 27, a member of the Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artists troupe, has been a familiar face this season, appearing on the mainstage as Elvira in Verdi’s Otello and as Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen, as well as Dorabella in a workshop version of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. It seems to me that Roberts’ voice has blossomed over the season, and is now in a powerfully rich phase, with dark coloring and serious lung heft to boot.
The Sacramento, Calif., native did a smart thing with her choice of aria: Nobles seigneurs, salut!, from Act I of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. Many prominent mezzos have recorded this aria (Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, to name two), but it’s rarely heard in the opera house these days, and it’s a well-constructed piece that allows the singer to show off some vocal display and long legato phrases, which Roberts did very well. Towards the end, coming off her trill, she demonstrated enviable breath control by holding the final note over into the recurrence of the aria’s main melody without stopping for air.
Other singers also showed a knowing sense of theatricality, perhaps none quite as charming as baritone R. Kenneth Stavert, 25, of Fullerton, Calif., who won sixth prize in the advanced division with his reading of the Largo al factotum from Rossini’s Barber of Seville. I would have given him a higher ranking than that (third or fourth), not just for his funny, audience-pleasing performance of this great comic aria, but for his confident stage manner and his big voice, which had a marked tenor quality to it.
I also liked tenor Edward Mout’s version of Ah, mes amis, quel jour de fête, from Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment. This aria is famous for its nine high Cs, which the San Diego, Calif., singer sang out with youthful, unforced vigor (and he added a couple others at the end, too). Mout, 30, who won fourth prize in the advanced division, has a good top register, a fine sense of phrasing and a forthright way of putting a song across.
Other notable moments: Bass Matthew Anchel’s forceful rendition of Sorge infausta una procella from Handel’s Orlando; soprano Betty Allison’s sweet, full-voiced performance of the Song to the Moon from Dvořák’s Rusalka; tenor Martin Bakari’s passionate version of Spirito gentil, from Donizetti’s La Favorita. Also, mezzo Sasha Hashemipour, of San Diego, who won sixth prize in the junior division, has a very large, beautiful voice that perhaps would have been shown to better effect with a different aria (she sang Laisse couler mes larmes from Massenet’s Werther). But she’s only 21, and I’m confident we’ll hear her again soon.
The Palm Beach Opera Orchestra played quite well throughout, especially in the Falstaff aria, and it did a creditable job with the two overtures – Weber’s Oberon and Rossini’s William Tell –it performed while the judges – Leonore Rosenberg, Richard Gaddes, Susana Meyer and Palm Beach Opera artistic director Bruno Aprea – were deliberating.
In the end, the feeling you had at the close of the concert was happiness and optimism, knowing that there is so much fine young talent out there working in this magnificent art form. It’s one of my favorite events of the season, and this year’s version did not disappoint.
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Here is the list of the winners and prizes:
Junior division: Michael Young, 23, baritone, of Cortland, Ohio, first prize ($5,500); Martin Bakari, 23, tenor, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, second prize ($5,000); Matthew Anchel, 22, bass, New York City, third prize ($4,500); Rebecca Nathanson, 22, soprano, New Haven, Conn., fourth prize ($3,500); Joseph Lattanzi, 22, baritone, Macon, Ga., fifth prize ($3,000); Sasha Hashemipour, 21, mezzo-soprano, San Diego, Calif., sixth prize ($2,000).
Advanced division: Corinne Winters, 27, soprano, Frederick, Md., first prize ($8,500); Irene Roberts, 27, mezzo-soprano, Sacramento, Calif., second prize ($7,500); Zulimar López-Hernández, 30, soprano, San Juan, Puerto Rico, third prize ($6,000); Edward Mout, 30, tenor, San Diego, Calif., fourth prize ($5,000); Betty Allison, 28, soprano, Ladysmith, B.C., Canada, fifth prize ($4,500); R. Kenneth Stavert, 25, baritone, Fullerton, Calif., sixth prize ($4,000); Rena Harms, 25, soprano, Santa Fe, N.M., seventh prize ($3,000).
Finalists who did not place also shared a $15,000 Palm Beach Opera Guild Encouragement Award.