Superstar opera couple soars in local performance
Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov delight crowd at Jack Singer Concert Hall
There are stars and then there are supernovas. Today, in a post-Pavarotti world, the operatic supernova of our day is clearly Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. Taking time out from a busy schedule of opera performances at the most glittering opera houses internationally, Netrebko included Calgary in the list of cities she is visiting on her current North American tour, an event that brought out a large crowd to Jack Singer Concert Hall Sunday evening.
It would be hard to overstate the degree of enthusiasm with which both Netrebko and her handsome tenor husband Yusif Eyvazov were greeted by an ecstatic Calgary audience. Singing a program of mostly Italian opera excerpts, Netrebko was all that was expected — and more.
The radiance of her voice in live performance must be heard to be believed. Effortless in all that she sings, she delivered both beauty and brilliance as the music needed, a demonstration of the art of the singer at its consummate best.
Her husband Evyazof is less well known to Canadian audience at the moment, but this will not last long. Booked in the coming two years as a headliner in major opera houses all over the world, he is quickly making the transition to a front-rank tenor.
Despite his name, he is, for all practical purposes an Italian tenor: he studied with Franco Corelli, among others, and from the style of his singing — its strength, heroic ring, and his ability to soar with the best of them — he really is a tenor in the Corelli mould. His string of popular tenor hits provided the needed popular touch to a concert such as this.
Mostly, Netrebko sang musically interesting works just ever so slightly to the side of what has been her core bel canto repertoire. These included arias from Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Verdi’s Macbeth (a role she performed recently in the Met’s HD Broadcast Series), arias in which her now slightly broadening voice could show its depth and richness of tone.
This aspect was notably on display in the famous Aria to the Moon from Dvorak’s Rusalka, beyond description in it technical command and enveloping beauty. It drew from the audience the strongest applause of the night. But the lightness and brilliance of her voice is there to be drawn upon when needed, as in the bon-bon waltz song from I Pagliacci, a delicious moment in the evening.
Eyvazof, by contrast, mostly walked down the boulevard of the standard tenor repertoire, not shrinking from comparison with other legendary tenors or from pieces that are, simply put, make it or break it. These included two famous arias from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, E lucevan le stelle from Puccini’s Tosca, Vesti la giubba fro Pagliacci, and (as an encore) Nessun dorma from Turandot. With deathdefying high notes he managed all of these killer arias with complete success. Evidently a tenor in the if-you’ve-got-it, flaunt-it mode, he sang with supreme confidence in himself and his voice — no shrinking violet this tenor!
Together the two sang the beautiful first act duet from Verdi’s Otello and the closing scene of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier to close the concert — both totally captivating vocally and emotionally.
With Calgary Stampede hats at the conclusion, this was a high octane concert, with thrills galore and pure Italianate vocalism at its best. There were a few encores, inevitably Puccini’s O mio babbino caro and, as mentioned, Nessun dorma.
The concert was conducted by Jaden Bignamini, an Italian conductor just emerging into the big time of opera. Conducting by memory, he was professional to the last degree and led a willing CPO in not only beautifully crafted accompaniments to the arias and duets, but in fine performances of orchestral music by Verdi and Puccini. Responding to the clarity of musical gestures from the Bignamini, the orchestra played impressively well, including some exquisite cello solos by Arnold Choi.
The comic moment in the evening, a minor misstep, came at the end when, in an effort to conclude the concert in Viennese New Year gala style, the two stars sang Dein ist mein ganzes Herz, one of operetta’s most famous numbers — but they sang it in Italian, and incomprehensibly, in the baritone key. Largely inaudible, and singing well below their normal range, it was a humorous error of judgment on the part of someone — for which Netrebko felt she had to apologize.
But such a small musical goof could not tarnish the glow of such an enjoyable, melody filled concert sung by two of the finest singers before the public today — yet another present to Calgarians by outgoing Calgary Opera Bob McPhee, who the mastermind behind this fabulous concert.