By Scott Cantrell
11:29 October 30, 2020 CDT
High drama! Vocal chills!
Those were the opera offerings Thursday night, but not at the Winspear Opera House, where the coronavirus pandemic has condemned Dallas Opera productions since last March. No, at the Meyerson Symphony Center, we had a reduced edition of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, music director Fabio Luisi and 3-star singers to thank for an 80-minute concert of Verdi overtures, melodies and duets. And, yes, it’s quite exciting.
Luisi has as much experience in opera, adding an acclaimed period as principal conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as in symphonic music, but his plans for an annual opera concert have also been suspended due to the pandemic. Even Verdi’s Requiem scheduled for this week had to be cancelled.
Thursday’s show was a wise replacement, adding options for operas that haven’t been noticed here, at least not in recent years. With an Italian conductor who evidently has Verdi in his veins, there’s no dull moment. In fact, no there’s soprano Angela Meade, mezzo Jamie Barton, and tenor Bryan Hymel, who, after months of little to no work, were wildly excited to perform again.
Verdi’s operas dramatize forbidden love, betrayal and false identities. Political and even headaches upload volatility.
In Aida, the Ethiopian slave of the same name is debated between the infatuation of the Egyptian commander Radams and the love of his father and his homeland. This is dramatized in his aria of Act 1 “Ritorna vincitor”, in which Meade captures the set of love and suffering. with extravagant vocalism on the bass and a carbon intensity burning in the treble.
In an Act 2 duet, Aida confronts Amneris, her love rival of Radames, in a scene of increasing tension. Representing Amneris, Barton provided a smaller voice, but with a coloristic diversity as broad as the character’s diversity of emotions, from medium and brilliant diversity to strategically coppery chest vocals. Of the three singers, she made the most of the words.
In a duet through Il trovatore, Hymel’s huge muscular tenor captured Manrico’s cursed passage through Leonore, defying the recommendation of his adoptive mother, Azucena (here sung through Barton). In “Io l’ho perduta!. . . angels vidi, and il suo sorriso “through Don Carlo, Hymel deeply commented on the loss of his beloved’s main character to gain advantages from his father. From the same opera, Barton dramatized Princess Eboli’s horror of betraying Queen Elizabeth and endangering her father. mutual love, Don Carlo.
In fact, the singers weren’t the only playwrights. From the dull and mysterious overture of the longer Aida Symphony – itself a true sound poem of scenes and mixed feelings – to giant string pushes and metal explosions, Luisi put the orchestra on alert. All meticulously timed, scaled and molded, with a specific style. at the final opening of The Force of Destiny. There were eloquent solos through the main clarinetist Gregory Raden.
At some previous DSO concerts this fall, with musicians in socially remote chamber orchestra configurations, winds and metals have dominated the strings. This time, with up to 51 musicians on stage, sales were well judged.
It repeats at 7:30 p. m. Saturday and 2:30 p. m. Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. Limited tickets to seasonal subscribers. A video recording will be available on the DSO online page on November 6,214-849-4376, mydso. com.
Scott Cantrell, special collaborator. Scott Cantrell, classical music critic for The News and continues to set the pace as a freelance writer. the Ann and Gordon Getty. News Foundation makes all editorial decisions.
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