Schwabacher Summer Concert, Merola Opera Program, July 5 2012

Each summer, the Merola Opera Program invites 20-25 young singers, five apprentice coaches, and an apprentice stage director to San Francisco for several weeks of training, highlighted by a number of public performances. The first such performance is the Schwabacher Summer Concert, in which some of the “Merolini” perform not just arias but extended scenes from several operas. Costumes are generally limited to formal concert attire, but in that attire they act their parts, supported by minimal stage props and no sets. They are also supported by a full orchestra. It’s our first exposure to many fine young singers, some of whom may go on to become names to conjure with. Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson are just two such well-known Merola graduates.

This year’s Summer Concert presented excerpts from four operas: Anna Bolena, Mefistofele, The Fair Maid of Perth (Bizet), and The Rake’s Progress. Our cast:
Hadleigh Adams, bass-baritone
Elizabeth Baldwin, soprano
Joshua Baum, tenor
Seth Mease Carico, bass-baritone
Erin Johnson, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Kroes, bass
Yi Li, tenor
Chuanyue Wang, tenor
Melinda Whittington, soprano

I was thrilled at the choice of Boito’s Mefistofele. San Francisco Opera’s production of that opera in 1989, with Samuel Ramey, is more or less tied with my first Ring (Seattle, 1980) for the most overwhelming operatic experience I have ever had. Wang and Kroes gave us a respectable performance of Act 1, Scene 2 in which Faust sings of his love of man and love of God (“Dai campi, dai prati”) and Mefistofele describes himself as the spirit that negates everything (“Son lo Spirito”). Then Elizabeth Baldwin joined them for Act 4, in which Marguerite in prison explains how she killed her baby and her mother (“L’altra notte”); then she and Faust sing of the happiness that awaits them after he has helped her escape (“Lontano, lontano, lontano”). Baldwin, in the only costume of the evening (a frilly, soiled white dress) was tremendously impressive in her role. At the end I turned to my companions (who had never heard a bit of this music before) and, wide-eyed, we all said “WOW!” And the applause from the audience was thunderous. Mefistofele alone was worth the price of admission.

My other two favorites of the evening were Hadleigh Adams and Seth Mease Carico, both bass-baritones. Adams sang the role of Ralph in an excerpt from Act 2 of The Fair Maid of Perth, amidst a lot of coming and going whose meaning escaped me. Carico was also on stage for Perth, but he was saving himself for the role of Nick Shadow in the graveyard scene of The Rake’s Progress. He sang with splendid tone and dramatically portrayed the oily, evil Nick.

An alpha for the Mefistofele, a beta for the whole evening.