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Opera Exposures Offers Top-Notch Program
by Raoul Abdul
Published in The New York Amsterdam News on October 18, 2007
On the first Sunday afternoon of this month, Opea Exposures provided a forum for the talents of five excellent singers at a concert in the historic Saint Mark's Church in the Bowery. The program included a nice mix of standard and lesser-known operatic arias and a handful of songs performed with piano accompinament.
The singers were sopranos Geraldine McMillian and Ximena Borges, mezzso-soprano Krysty Swann, tenor John Bernard and baritone Anthony Turner. They were assisted by pianist Jonathan Kelly. The popular raconteur Dwight Owsley presided over the preceedings.
For many present, the highlight of the afternoon was an emotionally charged execution by Geraldine McMillian of Queen Elizabeth's final aria "Toi qui sus le neant" from the original French version of Verdi's Don Carlos (1867). It is known to most of us as "Tu che le vanita" in the more familiar Italian version.
Krysty Swann, understudy of the title role in the much-publicized New York City Opera production of the Richard Danielpour/Toni Morrison opera Margaret Garner, gave a haunting account of the the "Lullaby" from that work. Anthony Turner gave a beautiful account of an aria from the opera Harriet Tubman by Leo Edwards.
Ximena Borges was bewitching in a seldom-heard aria from the Zarzuela La Tempranica by the Spanish composer Jeronimo Gimenez (1854-1923). John Bernard gave a stylish rendition of the African-American spiritual "Ride on, King Jesus." Throughout the afternoon, Jonathan Kelly gave wonderful piano support.
The singers were also heard in excerpts from well-known operas by Bizet, Rossini and Donizetti, as well as an arrangement of a spiritual by J. Rosamund Johnson and "Fy'er, Fy're" by Hall Johnson with a text by Langston Hughes. The program ended with the ensemble performing "I'm on My Way" from Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.
• View performance photos of this concert |
