Stylistically diverse Adler Fellows on vibrant display
This year’s crop of Adler Fellows at the San Francisco Opera, who gathered on the stage of Herbst Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 8, for their annual showcase concert, boasts all the usual hallmarks of this estimable training program. They sing with both power and subtlety, deploying their natural gifts and finely honed preparation in the service of memorable performances.
But this year brought an intriguing wrinkle, one that helped make Saturday’s concert — dubbed, as always, “The Future Is Now” — particularly striking. The eight singers who performed during the 2½-hour event turned out to be the most stylistically diverse crop of artists to come through the Adler Fellowship in many years.
In soprano Sarah Cambidge and tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, the program boasts not just one but two singers with the stamina, muscle and sheer lung power to undertake the demanding music of Wagner and Strauss. It has Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, a countertenor of remarkable agility and heroism, and the light, graceful tenor of Amitai Pati. And that’s on top of the singers who are clearly gearing up for eminent careers in the more traditional Italian and French repertoire.
So Saturday’s program offered an invigorating mix of music that we often encounter in these contexts (Donizetti, Verdi, Berlioz) together with the more specialized repertoire that has to wait for just the right singer. And those