Tuesday’s concert in the RBA was given by students from the France-Canada Academy of Vocal Arts currently being hosted by the UoT Faculty of Music. The music was a range of mélodies, all in French, by French and Canadian composers.
Soprano Mélina Gerbith and pianist Olivier Seuzaret performed first. Achille Fortier’s ici-bas was followed by Francis Poulenc’s Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin. The Poulenc seemed particularly well suited to Mélina’s rather bright soprano. There was plenty of scope to be playful and she did show off some interesting colours lower in the voice.
Mezzo-soprano Aimée Harness accompanied by Zhilin Xiao gave us Maurice Ravel’s “La flûte enchantée” from Shéhéazade and Poulenc’s Miroirs brûlants. Aimée sang with really good diction and was appropriately dramatic in the Poulenc while maintaining excellent control. Really nice.
Next up were mezzo Taline Yeremian and pianist Rebeca Lluveras Matos with quite a varied set. Auguste Descarries’ En sourdine and Jules Massenet’s Les mains are quite solemn pieces and were sung in quite a bright tone but with some gravitas. I thought though that Yeremine sounded more at home in the much livelier “Villanelle” from Hector Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été, which was sung with appropriate vivacity. All in all, a nicely contrasted set of songs.
And so on to soprano Marion Germain accompanied by Ludovic Rochon. It was a nicely contrasting set. The two songs from Jacques Hétu’s Les Clartés de la nuit were very different. “Thème sentimental” is quite pastoral and sat nicely for Marion’s bright soprano. “Les corbeaux” is much darker and more dramatic and she brought out those qualities very well too. The set closed with Henri Dutilleux’ San Francisco Night which was also pretty dark and gritty and sung with pleasing restraint..
Last to sing was our third mezzo Kyrsten Chambers-Jones accompanied by Brock Tjosvold. Lots of contrast again in two songs from Poulenc’s Cinq Poèmes de Pierre Ronsard. “Le tombeau” is essentially a meditation on death and got treated appropriately. “Ballet”, on the other hand, is pretty playful, even cheeky, and Kyrsten changed up accordingly. She finished up with two songs from Keith Bissel’s Quatre chansons sur des poèmes du vieux français. “D’un vanneur de blé, aux vents” feels quite “Amertican” in some ways and it has a lovely melody sung quite beautifully. “Sonnet pour Hélène” is also rather beautiful but it’s also darker and more dramatic allowing Kyrsten to show off quite a bit of well controlled power.
All in all an enjoyable hour of well chosen songs performed really rather well.
Photo credit: Karen E. Reeves
Thursday’s concert by members of the Ensemble Studio in the RBA was an all French affair (at least as far as language went) and it was rather good. Karoline Podolak iniated proceedings with Mattia Senesi at the piano with Kurt Weill’s “Youkali”. Now I’ve heard this sung by everybody from Barbara Hannigan to Benjamin Appl and I’d have to see that Ms. Podolak is right up there. There was 
First some additional February shows
The Valentine’s Day recital in the RBA was given by Simone McIntosh and Rachael Kerr. They served up fare appropriate to the occasion unlike in 2013 when Franz-Josef Selig gave us a Valentine recital mostly about Death! It was an interesting mix of material starting with two of the Britten folk song arrangements; “The trees they grow so high” and “The miler of Dee”. Quite a bold choice in some ways as the first one is almost, but not quite, a capella so there’s nowhere to hide. It was good. Not only was Simone’s voice accurate and expressive but she gave herself some metrical freedom. There is nothing worse than a singer singing this material as if they have a broomstick up their ass.
Thursday’s concert in the Music in the Afternoon series at Walter Hall was curated by Marion Newman and featured herself, soprano Melody Courage, baritone Evan Korbut and pianist Gordon Gerrard. It featured some classic opera duets and trios ranging from the Flower Duet from Madama Butterfly to an exuberant “Dunque io son” from the Barber of Seville along with Berlioz’ “Vous soupirer” from Beatrice et Bénédict (which sounded like title should translate as “you will be immersed in warm soup”). These numbers were all very well done and there were a couple of solo pieces too with Melody singing the Poulenc La Fraicheur et le Feu with great verve and Evan chipping in with an exuberant “Sit down, you’re rocking the boat” from Guys and Doills.
operaramblings 