Concert Opera a Chamber Orchestra forte
Opera is madness, March or not. All the more reason for the Cincinnati
Chamber Orchestra to make opera, and especially Italian opera, the theme of its
fourth concert of the season Sunday afternoon at Memorial Hall.
Led by music director Mischa Santora, the program featured a pair of voices made for Puccini and Verdi, soprano Melody Moore and tenor Mark Panuccio. By the end of the concert, the paint had begun to peel off the walls of Memorial Hall as the performers packed up to do it again Sunday evening at Anderson Center in Anderson Township.
Still, there was no concession to cheap thrills. The program comprised more than just stand-alone, showpiece arias. There were scenes from Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Verdi’s “Otello” and “La Traviata.” Concert opera is something the CCO does wonderfully and Santora is a splendid opera conductor. So when Moore and Panuccio sang the last bars of “O Soave Fanciulla” ending act I of Puccini’s “La Boheme” it not only sent chills up and down the spine, it became part of a completely satisfying artistic whole.
There were moments for the soloists to bask in the spotlight, too, including the opening “E lucevan le stelle” from Puccini’s “Tosca,” where Panuccio served notice once again that he is a leading tenor of the first rank. The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music graduate has it all: a stellar voice, good looks, keen acting skills and the intelligence to handle a major career (the reason he shed 142 pounds two years ago). He even has a fan club, “Fanucci,” which is on the web -- a good thing, since, with a sheaf of international engagements in his pocket, he may not be heard in Cincinnati as often as he has to date.
CCM graduate Moore is enjoying an international career and she still gets back to Cincinnati (she was Donna Anna in the CCO’s concert performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” last June). She brought her aria skills to bear on “In quelle trine morbide” from Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut,” where pure gold shone through her voice.
Moore and Panucci’s first scene together was the act I “La Boheme” finale, and you could forget about sets, costumes and stagecraft. They were completely unnecessary. They sang and acted the lovers’ first meeting up close, on the lip of the stage and the cusp of their listeners’ hearts. You could see every facial expression and every movement of their bodies as they personified Rodolfo and Mimi. Panuccio was framed in the gilt-edged doorway stage right for his soaring “Che gelida manina.” Moore waxed rapturous in her “Mi chiamano Mimi” as Panuccio rapturously looked on. It was electric when they finally touched and their combined voices filled the hall.
Moore was infinitely touching in the finale of Verdi’s “Otello,” where Desdemona awaits her fate at the hands of the jealous Otello. The “Willow Song,” sung to Iago’s wife Emilia (mezzo-soprano Audrey Walstrom), had an aching sweetness, her “Ave Maria” a profound simplicity, and there was searing pain in her “Addio” to Emilia.
Panuccio had another star turn in “Lamento di Federico” from “L’Arlesiana” by Francesco Cilea. This aria, a favorite of Luciano Pavarotti, could not have been served any better, especially considering the visible, palpable grief Panuccio poured into it. Final scene on the program was taken from the last act of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” and again Moore and Panuccio made sparks (Walstrom sang the maid Annina). Moore’s “Addio, del passato” as the dying Violetta was resigned but strong. Their duet “Parigi, o cara” was melting and full of tenderness. Their “Gran Dio! morir si giovine” (“to die so young”) was a powerful mix of hope and despair. It made for a rather abrupt and dramatically unresolved end to the concert (Violetta dies moments later), but was arguably acceptable, musically.
Santora, who
conducted and narrated from his seat in front of the orchestra worked
hand-in-glove with the singers and drew lush, expressive playing from the
CCO. He added a lovely, all-orchestral
posy to the program, Puccini’s “I Crisantemi” (“Chrysanthemums”), a movement
for strings written in 1890 upon the death of the Duke of Savoy.
(first published in the Cincinnati Enquirer March 22, 2010)