This year’s Wirth Vocal Prize winner, Kate Fogg, gave the now customary recital in the RBA on Thursday accompanied by Nate Ben-Horin.  The recital was titled Telling Tales and covered soprano rep across art song, musical theatre and opera (just); all in English.  Since the opera and art song pieces were by Ricky Ian Gordon, Ned Rorem and Stephen Sondhem as opposed to say brett Dean or George Benjamin it all had pretty much a musical theatre feel; so in many ways not really my music.

That said Ms. Fogg is a hell of a performer.  She’s dramatic and oozes personality.  She made really good use of the spatial possibilities of the RBA and she has a really good voce though, unsurprisingly, one still developing.  Her coloratura is impressive and was shown to good effect (along with her acting skills) in “Glitter and Be Gay” from Candide which is nobody’s idea of an easy sing.  She also showed a very good grasp of the required idiom for each piece.  She can certainly sing operatically as in “Take Me Back” from Ned Rorem’s Our Town but she can also produce a more colloquial sound for numbers like “If I Loved You” from Carousel where she was joined briefly by Ensemble Studio baritone Nick Murphy.  Ben-Horin showed all the required versatility at the keyboard.

All in all very well done and a treat for people who like MT more than I.  The Bernstein though made it worth the trip!

Photo credit: Karen E. Reeves