Die Fledermaus 2019 Review, Opera News, Steven Jude Tientjen

Die Fledermaus NEW YORK CITY Prelude to Performance 7/13/19

WHILE THE MANY BROADWAY THEATERS were left in the dark following a blackout in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, July 13, the Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on the Upper East Side was ablaze with the starry talents of Prelude to Performance’s one-night-only performance of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. Conducted by Valery Ryvkin and directed by Alan Fischer, the production celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s Prelude to Performance, a vital training ground and launching pad for the careers of many aspiring opera singers.

Fischer’s production was simple yet effective, with projected backdrops suggesting the three spaces in which the action of Die Fledermaus takes place: the Eisenstein home, Prince Orlofsky’s ballroom, and the prison. The focus, then, was fully on the emerging singers who made the shoestring production dazzle with sophistication.

The talent assembled for this Die Fledermaus was especially gifted and well-prepared, with every one of the leading and secondary roles displaying utter commitment to the comedy and musicality of their assignments, while also showing incredible promise for the future of their careers. Soprano Yejin Lee, who elevated the entire performance with her irresistible presence and charm, was the life of the party as Adele. Her robust soprano and effortless comic timing energized every scene she was in. Grounding the production along with Lee’s Adele was the Orlofsky of Elizabeth Harris, whose swaggering mezzo-soprano and coy playfulness made the Prince less of an ennui-stricken fop and more of a fun-loving aristocrat. Of all the performers, Lee and Harris were the most comfortable in striking the delicate balance between frivolity and sincerity necessary to successful productions of light opera.

As Rosalinde, Lisa Faieta sang with an electrifying, burnished soprano that boasted easy facility up to a ringing high D in the czardas. Hers is a voice that will doubtlessly soar in Verdi and Wagner. Similarly, Congju Song was a happy-go-lucky Alfred, whose clarion tenor would really blossom in the high-lying Heldentenor repertoire. Jimin Park as Eisenstein, Michael Parham as Dr. Falke, and Yichen Hue as Frank all displayed mellifluous, ringing baritones and infused the good-natured antics and chaos of Acts II and III with energy and urgency.

To mark Prelude to Performance’s fifteen-year milestone, the foundation invited three alumni of the program to perform during Prince Orlofksy’s gala, “hosted” by WQXR’s Robert Sherman. Soprano Nicole Haslett singing Nannetta’s aria from Falstaff, tenor Noah Stewart singing “Donna non vidi mai” from Manon Lescaut, and soprano Maria Zvetkova with “Io son l’umile ancella” from Adriana Lecouvreur represented the many alumni of the program who have benefited from Martina Arroyo’s guidance and have gone on to have rewarding international careers. Before the end of Act II, Sherman announced that there would be a surprise guest, who wished to pay tribute to Arroyo and Prelude to Performance. It was Harolyn Blackwell, who sang a lovely rendition of “O mio babbino caro,” her soprano as dulcet and crystalline as in the beginning of her career. Ryvkin, who conducted an ideally paced and bubbling performance of Strauss’s score, led the orchestra easily through this brief detour into the worlds of Verdi, Puccini, and Cilea.

Following the curtain call, baritone Mark Rucker, administrative director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation and Prelude to Performance, informed the audience that the chorus consisted entirely of Prelude to Performance alumni, each representing one of the program’s fifteen years and a testament to the program’s deep influence on the next generation of opera artists. —Steven Jude Tietjen