Recenzje profilu
8“American baritone Stephen Gaertner is...intense and impassioned. His first aria, when he learns from the Old Man of Fleana’s love for Radu, is truly anguished, but his baritone throbs with passion when he declares his own passion. Tamar’s ‘canto notturno’, first heard off-stage and then reprised at the end of the opera, before the final love duet, is beautifully phrased above delicate pizzicato strings with woodwind murmurs interjecting.”
“Baritone Stephen Gaertner has a solid, handsome timbre with a particularly appealing, Björling-like vibrato.”
Recenzje poprzednich produkcji
8...Stephen Gaertner’s Carlo demonstrated a true Verdi baritone force. His opening aria ‘Son [Pereda], son [ricco] d’onore’ was given a darker color and there was some restraint as he emphasized certain words to really create the story he was telling. But it was his ‘Urna Fatale’ that really demonstrated his range. Gaertner showcased torment in Carlo as he delivered each line. While there was no prop he could work with, Gaertner used the audience as he looked into it, expressing the uncertainty in his vow. But as he concluded the aria, he regained his vocal strength and delivered the final note with assertion. And in the second part ‘Ah! Egli e salvo! Oh gioia immensa,’ Gaertner savored each moment. The torment was gone and his voice regained the strength of a man ready for revenge. The cabaletta was propelled by his swift tempo, which only made for a more passionate delivery. That strength was once again emphasized in his second duet with Alvaro...Gaertner’s Carlo was firm, cutting each phrase short with a staccato sound. That...gave the duet dynamism. The final duet allowed Gaertner to once again show that muscular strength. But this time, he was allowed to demonstrate his legato line in full force.
In the title role, Stephen Gaertner cut a suitably changeable figure, ranging from stentorian ruler to the pathetic lost soul Nabucco became after being struck by lightning when he had the impiety to declare himself a god. Gaertner’s burnished baritone imbued the demented monarch’s machinations with an elegant sheen.
American baritone Stephen Gaertner acquits himself splendidly...rendering Tamar’s transition from spurned suitor to illicit love-interest (in Pagliacci terms, from Tonio to Silvio) more convincing than it looks on paper, and investing the ‘Canto Notturno’ which recurs in both ‘episodes’ with real poetry.
...[the equally magisterial Stephen] Gaertner commands a rock-solid technique which, in true bel canto style, allows him to gloriously spin the line in Tamar’s ‘Canto Notturno’ and reach notes above the staff with no seeming effort.
There are a number of ways an opera company can tie works together for a multi-opera production: by composer, plot theme, or perhaps as a vehicle for a particular singer. For its principal operatic production this season, The Princeton Festival joined two one-act operas together based on literary source material. Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini draws its storyline from the early cantos of Dante’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. To round out the evening, Princeton Festival Artistic Director Richard Tang Yuk pulled Giacomo Puccini’s comic Gianni Schicchi away from its usual trilogy companions, exploiting the opera’s Dante source material to create an operatic evening reminding us all why we should behave. This “double bill” premiered June 23 and was repeated to a packed Matthews Theatre house this past Saturday afternoon.
Im sommerlichen Festspielbetrieb etwas abseits der Zentren musikalischer Festivals haben sich die Opernfestspiele Heidenheim mittlerweile einen guten Namen gemacht. In diesem Jahr gab es die 51. Ausgabe, die wieder ein reiches Angebot an Konzerten, Kindertheater und als Höhepunkt Verdis Macbeth bereit hielt. In Heidenheim steht mit der Ruine einer Stauferburg, dem „Rittersaal“, ein reizvoller Spielort für Opernaufführungen Open Air zu Verfügung. In diesem heißen Sommer konnten auch im etwas raueren Klima der württembergischen Ostalb fast alle Aufführungen dort präsentiert werden. Ausgerechnet aber die hier rezensierte vorletzte Aufführung musste wegen zu kalter Abendtemperaturen im Saale stattfinden. In Heidenheim, wegen dreier großer Weltfirmen kulturpolitisch auf der finanziellen Sonnenseite, hat man aber für derlei Gelegenheiten ein Kulturzentrum in ansprechend modernem Design zur Verfügung, das sogar mehr Zuschauern Platz bietet als der Rittersaal.
