Schwabacher debut is doubly delightful
For the last three decades, the Schwabacher Debut Recitals have introduced up-and-coming opera singers to Bay Area audiences. Endowed by the late singer, scholar and teacher James Schwabacher, the esteemed series gives artists from San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera program the opportunity to perform in an intimate setting and the public a chance to hear them as they prepare to embark on professional careers.
Sunday in the San Francisco Opera’s Taube Atrium Theater, the 2017 series – Schwabacher’s 34th – got underway with an excellent duo recital featuring mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven and bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum.
Presented by the Merola Program and the San Francisco Opera Center, and accompanied by pianist Mark Morash, the program was a splendid introduction to these impressive young American artists.
Raven, a 2016 Merola alumna, and Quattlebaum, a 2017 program participant, performed separately and together in the recital’s English, French, German and Spanish works by Purcell, Debussy, Ibert, Berg, Korngold, Montsalvatge, Antón Abril and Marc Blitzstein.
Raven started the recital with a fitting solo selection: Purcell’s “Music for a while,” which sings the praises of a song’s ability to soothe our frazzled nerves. In Benjamin Britten’s arrangement, her rich-toned mezzo sounded lustrous.
She continued with Debussy’s “Chansons de Bilitis” (Songs of Bilitis), illuminating Pierre Louys’s texts, which evoke a dreamlike world of nymphs and satyrs, in a shapely, sensuous reading. These songs were performed in this space earlier this month by the great Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci, yet Raven immersed herself in them as if they were something new. Morash’s playing was ideal, spooling out the piano part with beauty and sensitivity.
Indeed, Raven appeared at home in whatever music was before her; in “Cinco canciones negras” (Five black songs) by Montsalvatge, her voice seemed to deepen and acquire a sultry tone redolent of the tropics. “Chévere” (The Braggart) was a potent little drama; “Cancion de cuna para dormer a un negrito” (Lullaby for a little black boy), brilliantly accompanied by Morash’s lilting piano part, was luxuriantly paced and haunting. “Unvergänglichkeit” (Eternity), a set of songs by Korngold, was just as elegant and suffused with warmth.
Quattlebaum also made an excellent debut, deploying his oaken, resonant bass-baritone with assurance in the recital’s first half performance of Berg’s “Vier Lieder” (Four Songs). The cycle’s darkest moments afforded Quattlebaum abundant opportunities for intense expression, and he met the challenge with forceful vocalism.
His finest moments came in Ibert’s song cycle drawn from the opera “Don Quichotte” (Don Quixote), approaching each one with the right mix of heroism, adventurous spirit and amorous intent. His performance of the “Chanson à Dulcinée” (Song for Dulcinea) was gorgeous — ardent and expansive. Quattlebaum finished his solo contributions with four Spanish songs on Galician texts by Abril, eloquently projecting the melancholy longing and fragrant pleasures of Rosalía de Castro’s texts.
Raven and Quattlebaum finally sang one piece together, and it was dazzling — Blitzstein’s “Stay in My Arms,” an affecting duet for lovers who long to retreat from the craziness of modern life. Blitzstein wrote it in 1935, but it’s never sounded more timely.
The Schwabacher Debut Recitals continue on Sunday, April 2, with baritone Sol Jin accompanied by pianist Kirill Kuzmin. On April 9, mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier and bass Anthony Reed sing a “RomCom” recital, accompanied by John Churchwell. The series concludes on April 30, with 2017 Adler fellows soprano Amina Edris, tenor Amitai Pati, and baritone Andrew G. Manea accompanied by Warren Jones. All programs are presented in the Atrium Theater. Tickets are $30. 415-864-3330; sfopera.com/ schwabacher.
Raven and Quattlebaum finally sang one piece together, and it was dazzling — Blitzstein’s “Stay in My Arms”