Reviews

Governor's School for the Arts' American Songs

      What a celebration of music, youth and family enthusiasm for their talented young people. To hear The Ascot Gavotte from My Fair Lady with the clipped, precise singing of the text with a "fraffly" British accent, and the perfectly coordinated mime of the horse race, with its restrained commentary in music, was quite exciting. This piece was coached by Michael Regan, who shared accompaniment and coaching duties with Robert Brown. Both are to be commended for their excellent work.

      The solo songs, some from musical theater, some art songs, and the duets and small ensembles made up most of the program. When the entire group came together at the end of the evening, the energy level, which had been high throughout, went over the top. Dressed in formal evening wear, they sang Pick a little, talk a little from The Music Man by Meredith Willson and Oklahoma! from Rogers and Hammerstein's ground breaking musical of the same name, Ching a ring chaw by Aaron Copeland and a spiritual, My good Lord's done been here arranged by Lee Cloud and conducted by Robert Brown. As this piece ended the chorus filed out but GSA Director of Vocal Music Alan Fischer had prepared us for this seven minute interval while the entire group got into costume for the Revival Scene from Carlisle Floyd's powerful American opera Susannah. Mr. Fischer's program notes gave an excellent introduction to the scene we were about to see.

      Set in rural Tennessee, the scene featured the excellent second year student Adam Richardson in the demanding role of Olin Blitch. These young people gave a powerful performance with the diction in the chorus that made the words perfectly understood. Crystal Williams created the role of Susanna with great dignity. She acted convincingly, giving a fine scream as she refused the preacher's and townspeople's pressure to confess her "sin" of innocently bathing naked in the creek alone, not realizing she was being observed. Seen as wanton by Blitch, we see that the only lust was in the onlooker's hearts. Crystal is a fourth year student from Portsmouth. It has been our pleasure to watch as her voice has matured, and her stage presence and acting have blossomed. Earlier she sang Harry T. Burleigh's My Lord what a mornin' a cappella in a rich, deep voice.

      It is not possible to review each performance in this fine program but we do want to acknowledge the pleasure of hearing the fourth year students over the years and especially tonight. Michael Haler as Sancho Panza in a lovely high tenor voice sang Man of La Mancha from the musical of the same name by Leigh and Darian with Will Liverman (a second year student), with his deep bass voice, as Sancho Panza.

      Judy Bowers sang Lullaby from the Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti, with its demanding dynamic range from gravely mezzo lines followed by high soprano lines. Equally impressive was Sarah Piscitelli in The Girl in 14G by Tesori and Scanlan as she describes her experience of living with a Queen of the Night singing neighbor upstairs and a cabaret singer downstairs, as she creates each one by turn.

      Christina Hathaway sang Ned Rorem's art song Alleluia with its large number of musical variations and moods on the single word "alleluia", with poise and beauty of tone throughout. Ryan Green sang Celius Dougherty's Shenandoah in a beautiful, mellow bass voice.

      Martin Lonart and Jennifer Peters are graduating seniors and are in their third year at GSA. They both did a fine job in group numbers from South Pacific.

The Governor's School for the Arts Spring Opera

      The students did a wonderful job singing and acting Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in a lively English translation. We saw it on Saturday, April 24, 2004, one of four performances. The Wells Theater is an excellent venue for student voices and the costumes and sets loaned by Virginia Opera added to the professional look of the production. It was easy to forget that these well-trained voices and the twenty-piece GSA Opera Orchestra conducted and directed by Alan Fischer were high school students.

      Count Almaviva was played by guest artist Jarrett Ali Boyd who graduated from GSA eight years ago and went on to persue his dream of a career in music. Mr. Boyd has been seen in several touring companies around the country including Cats and Ain't Misbehavin'. His assured stage presence and acting ability presage a long career in the theater. It was a joy to see him and senior Crystal Williams as the Countess stare each other down with real stage malice only to resolve their differences.

      I find Miss Williams' voice both haunting and powerful and her portrait of a wounded woman shunned by her philandering husband regal and emotionally honest. Cherubino, the young man played by Jennifer Peters, takes himself very seriously, though no one else does. Miss Peters created a fine portrait of a light-hearted plaything. The movements she makes with her hoop skirt when the Countess and Susannah are trying to dress her as a girl were extremely funny.

      The emotional honesty of these young singers was impressive. Judy Gowers as Marcellina, Martin Lonart as Dr. Bartolo, Jeffrey Soto as Don Basilio and Michael Haler as Don Curzio all did a great job in these character roles. Abby Harr was a bouncy, happy Barbarina and Josh Conyers as Antonio, the drunken gardener, was amusing.

      Ryan Green with his rich deep voice played a self-confident and charming Figaro who may be a servant but has full self-esteem allowing him to hold his own with the Count, who is impressed with his position as master. Susannah, his wife to be, played by Sarah Piscitelli, was perky, pretty and smart in the role, using her sweet light voice in a most convincing way. Mozart has written duets, quartets, sextets, septets and choruses in this opera and they were gloriously well-done by these fresh young voices.

      Robert Brown played the harpsichord accompaniment for the sung recitatives. He and Michael Regan did the musical preparation for this opera. The guest artists offstage were Georgiana Eberhard, makeup; Muffy Owens, costumes; Konrad Winters, lighting and Virginia Opera's David Smith, production coordinator.

      Alan Fischer, who both conducted the orchestra and directed the opera, dedicated these performances to the memory of his father Bernard Fischer (1920-2003). Alan's father traveled from New York City to freely offer his knowledge and advice as a teacher and singer, beginning in 1994. The program notes say: "I know he will be here in spirit again this year" and I'm sure that he will be proud of these students and his son for such a fine performance.

      Mozart's operas offer us a well-ordered universe, a tidy story with no loose ends so we can all go home satisfied and happy. Our friends who saw the second cast that performed Thursday and Sunday assured us that they heard fine performances also. Congratulations to all on a superb job!