West Palm Beach Opera, February 27th, 2001

This was the first time I took the courage to face traffic and go up to West Palm Beach for two reasons:

1. Luisa Miller is rarely performed and I always wanted to see it
2. Sondra Radvanovsky was Luisa and she has been preceded with some very favorable reviews

The theater (Kravis Center for the Performing Arts) is pretty new and inside it is decorated mostly in white (which is kind of strange) and the format is of an old theater. It is not very big which is good since the singers don't have to force their voices to be projected.

The production designed by George Tsypin and staged by Plamen Kartaloff was very interesting and modern. The set was composed of two revolving walls that served as background of the various scene changes required by the opera (a smart idea), sometimes using props and at other times using projection on the wall (for trees, paintings) to suggest the scenery. I particularly liked Act 3 where there was a circle composed of small circles at the edge and Luisa when singing "La fronte é sparsa di fiore" would place the roses to symbolize her grave. The singers were well directed and it really gave the impression they had rehearsal time. There were some very nice touches: for example, in the beginning of Act 3 Luisa is portrayed as crazy (which makes a lot of sense) and avoids her friends and later her father to embrace death as the only solution; showing that Verdi after all knew his Donizetti !

Sondra Radvanovsky did not disappoint ! She has a big voice, that projects extremely well, in fact, her high notes and the medium are very strong which is a relief after hearing a bunch of "canary" singers ! In her first aria, "Tu puniscimi, o Signore" she sang very well and at the closing of the aria, spun off a lovely high note (and very loud!). Now she is not perfect, she lacks pianissimos and can only sing mezza voce at most (a defect she can certainly work on and it would benefit her in the long run to save her voice anyways). Her high notes are also harsh. She reminds me a lot of Rosalind Playwright (judging from records, I never had the chance of hearing her live), that is a big voice but not always in control. She interpreted well and carried off specially well in Act 3 as a lunatic. A big complaint though: Luisa Miller is full of "picchiettati", one in the first Act as soon as Luisa enters ("Lo vidi e al primo palpito") and in Act 3 ("Andrem raminggi e poveri"), both completely ignored by Radvanovsky with the obvious accord of Guadagno. I don't know why he let her get away with it because it completely spoils the music without them.

Stephen Mark Brown was a disappointment though. He seems to have a good curriculum and I expected much more. I can certainly understand why he is apparently busy, his voice is quite beautiful in the middle and low region, really distinctive, the kind of tenor voice that is appealing to the ear, because it is a bit darkish but also tenorish. But anything above an "A" and there is a huge vibrato that comes to play and as the voice goes up it intensifies, it is really very difficult to listen to ! Some critics describe this as a "beat" in the voice (specially in the high notes), which is characteristic of old singers or singers who have sung heavier or more demanding roles than their voices could handle. He should look for help and fix this problem and could be a good tenor but with this major flaw, I do not think so. His big aria "Quando le sere al placido" was painful to listen to (the audience loved it though).

Evgenij Dimitriev was a disappointment too. His voice is small and too light for the role. He pushed it as much as he could (even took a high note in his cabaletta), but it sounded forced. In a way he reminded me of Juan Pons with a cold !

Stefan Szkafarowsky was an excellent Wurm, together with Radvanovsky the only one who really had a Verdian voice. He is an exceptional actor and the voice is very well projected. Thanks to him, the audience enjoyed very much the duet between Wurm and Count Walter.

Nikolai Bikov was good as Count Walter. His voice is small, but at least he didn't try to push it and he portrayed the character well enough. The only problem was that he is as young as Mark Brown and looked like Rodolfo's brother and not father.

Elizabeth Blake was very good as Federica. This is a thankless role and she made much of it (she even gave Mark Brown a run for his money in their duet and covered him completely in the high note).

Sonia Santiago, who seems to be a local favorite, was a very good Laura. It is a small role but she gets to sing some lovely music (specially in Act 3) and she sang well, very musical.

Anton Guadagno is from the old school (that is, of conductors who let singers sing !) and I'm very thankful for that. I remember an interesting Requiem I saw (almost 10 years ago). He conducted very well and let the music flow naturally. He sometimes has a tendency for slow speeds though. The orchestra played well and so did the chorus.

In spite of two weak principals, Radvanovsky, Szkafarowsky and Guadagno made my trip more than worthwhile !