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Thursday, 30 September 2010 22:50

Written by Andrew Druckenbrod

Pittsburgh Opera’s 2010-11 resident artists gave their first recital of the season Saturday [9/25] in the company’s posh headquarters on 25th Street. There are seven young singers this year: three of them new, the others in their second year of this excellent training program. The format was that of an audition. Each singer chose the first piece. Then general director Christopher Hahn chose a second from a list of four more that they had prepared. To add a bit of spice, the audience was invited to select one more aria among those not yet sung, which would be performed at the end.

It was notable among the returning participants that all had improved measurably since they were first heard last year – some in the quality of their vocalism, some in their interpretations. Mezzo-soprano Lindsay Amman, who has been engaged by the Metropolitan Opera to appear in the new production of “Die Walkuere” next May, sang Erda’s Warning from “Das Rheingold,” showing herself already a true Wagnerian, with robust sound and excellent German diction. Baritone Dan Kempson, fresh from a summer at San Francisco Opera’s renowned Merola program, charmed with Pierrot’s dance song from Korngold’s “The Dead City,” and gave a virtuoso rendition of an aria from Handel’s “Rinaldo” – previewing the resident artist production set for January. It was Kempson who got to sing the audience’s choice at the end: one of Papageno’s arias from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”

Shannon Dooley expanded her light soprano to the demands of Michaela’s aria from “Carmen,” then scaled back for a boyant Musetta’s Waltz (“La Boheme”). Tenor James Flora, too, went from the heavy (Lensky’s aria from “Eugen Onegin”) to the lyrical (the popular “Una furtive lagrima” from “Elixir of Love”).

Most impressive among the newcomers was Adam Fry, a booming bass who started with a rarity from Bernard Herrmann’s “Wuthering Heights: a sermon on good living from a servant who quotes biblical platitudes. He followed with a subtly nuanced rendition of “La calunnia,” a hit number from “The Barber of Seville,” which will be Pittsburgh Opera’s first mainstage production, opening Oct. 9.

Stephanie Lauricella showed off a high soprano-ish mezzo in arias from Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Rossini’s “La Cenerentola.” Alexandra Loutsion, a native Pittsburgher who has been away, stayed with verismo, offering melodious favorites from Puccini’s “La Rondine” and Catalani’s “La Wally,” sung lyrically with just a touch of metal in the tone.

If there was one consistent failing it was in the French repertory. Almost every French aria performed was wanting in idiomatic diction and style.

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