One is silver, the opposite is Golda | San Francisco Symphony Evaluation

Picture by Vittorio Greco

What I can say concerning the instrumental a part of the night is that it was completely tremendous. The instrumental items had been performed with a lowered orchestra, extra consistent with the dimensions of the orchestra for which Mozart would have composed.

I’m no fan of letting the right be the enemy of the nice. Nonetheless, Davies Symphony Corridor is just not an optimum venue for composers like Mozart and Haydn. San Francisco can be dwelling to interval instrument orchestras of worldwide stature, specifically the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale and American Bach Soloists. So the Mozart area of interest is well-filled. However I additionally wouldn’t need a world-class ensemble just like the San Francisco Symphony to not play Mozart and Haydn, simply because Davies is simply too huge and the sound a bit too dry.

Within the huge expanse of Davies, Symphony No. 34 and Serenade No. 13 felt a bit staid, with the latter barely compromised by a tuning downside someplace within the first violins. Each items had been competently performed by a fantastic orchestra, however there wasn’t that oomph that even essentially the most stately Mozart items at all times have. Bicket’s conducting had solidity and confidence, even when his conducting didn’t precisely set the proverbial world on hearth.

Golda Schultz took the stage after intermission. She selected one aria every from the three operas Mozart wrote with Da Ponte, all of which type the premise of her most up-to-date album, You Drive Me Loopy (2024). She added a live performance aria as an encore.

Listening to these items in a live performance corridor meant that the textual content got here by in a manner that not often occurs within the opera home. It additionally meant that we might respect Mozart’s good setting of Italian. And I newly heard some nuances of Mozart’s writing for the orchestra (like his use of French horns in his “rage arias”).

There have been additionally some downsides to placing Mozart opera in a live performance corridor.

I ought to say that having Golda Schultz fly in to do about 20 minutes of singing is the definition of luxurious casting. She is a world artist who sings with main opera corporations around the globe. She has by no means sung throughout Grove Avenue on the San Francisco Opera. And there don’t appear to be any plans for her to take action. So this was a uncommon probability to listen to her in any respect.

Schultz started her set with Susanna’s recitative and aria “Giunse alfin il momento…Deh vieni, non tardar,” from Le nozze di Fiagro. It was a surprisingly tentative and uneven begin. Schultz’s is a shiny and punchy voice when tackling Mozart’s extra extroverted characters. In contrast, her Susanna sounded not sure and cautious, virtually like a singer making an attempt out a job—not a star, like Schultz, who is aware of Susanna. I couldn’t fairly determine it out. Trying on the characters on the remainder of this system that had been arising (Fiordiligi and Donna Anna), it turned obvious that she must be singing the Countess. It’s the position in Figaro that’s extra her calling card. It’s no much less difficult, however it’s clearly extra in her voice sort.

It wasn’t that Schultz didn’t have the excessive notes—it was that the lightness wanted for Susanna is not in Schultz’s voice. She is just not a soubrette anymore. She’s now a totally lyric soprano with a blazing prime. She’s including roles like Gounod’s Juliette, Mozart’s Countess, and, quickly, Puccini’s Lìu. If Mozart didn’t name for a blaze, she sounded a bit bit misplaced.

As any singer will let you know, Mozart leaves a singer completely uncovered. There isn’t a hiding something. Not dangerous approach, not nerves, not tentativeness. Schultz is a stable musician, however the wispy accompaniment Mozart offers left Schultz sounding on her personal. Bicket’s considerably sluggish tempo additionally didn’t assist, forcing Schultz to spin out extra sustained traces in part of the voice that perhaps isn’t her strongest. This additionally meant that the performing was obscure, by no means giving us a way of who Susanna is or why she’s singing. It got here throughout extra like a live performance aria.

A noticeable function of her voice all through the night was some audible issue within the lowest notes. At the moment’s divisions of soprano and mezzo soprano aren’t the identical as in Mozart’s time, and he famously sends his lyric soprano roles down into the vocal basement. Since Susanna is just not a job for which chest voice is taken into account the factor to make use of, being a younger lady and ingénue, it left Schultz little alternative however to be both inaudible on the backside of her vary and even sharp. Audible bother within the low a part of the tessitura appears a considerably frequent function of her operatic singing. Each singer has a wonky a part of their voice; that is hers. Such is life.

The second Schultz started “Come scoglio, immoto resta” from Così fan tutte, nonetheless, it was apparent: this was the repertoire she must be singing. She tore into the textual content. Instantly, there was a full-bodied characterization, a dedication to Fiordiligi’s imperiousness and her essential character power. She even gave us the Maria Callas arm-at-right-angle-hand-to-God gesture that instructed us every thing we wanted to find out about this character. And the Callas chest notes confirmed up. Not surprisingly, the voice sounded much more grounded on this aria.

As soon as that was the case, the restrictions of Davies Symphony Corridor had been extra obvious. From my seat within the rear orchestra containers, the acoustics for voices had been a bit dry and chilly. The corridor undoubtedly sends the voice out to the viewers, however it robs it of some heat alongside the best way. The Davies acoustic additionally does humorous issues to vibrato. Schultz’s voice, common for a lyric soprano, has a reasonably speedy and ripe vibrato. There have been instances when, within the corridor, it sounded extra like a trill than a vibrato, significantly within the center voice.

Donna Anna from Don Giovanni is one other position much more suited to Schultz than Susanna, as she will be able to tear into the textual content with all the righteous anger that Mozart builds in. It was an ungainly alternative to incorporate the recitative (a short change with Don Ottavio) as a substitute of simply beginning with the aria itself. Don Ottavio, after singing a number of traces, simply stands there as Donna Anna has her second. Samuel White acquitted himself respectably, even when the corridor did his voice no favors. His voice, too, was robbed of some Italianate heat, the corridor rendering it a bit bland and faceless (although Don Ottavio can be certainly one of Mozart’s blandest and most faceless tenor roles to start with).

Schultz’s Donna Anna was not fairly as convincing as her Fiordiligi, however it was maybe the extra daring. Donna Anna is an all-or-nothing character, a Tosca earlier than Tosca. Because of this the voice is underneath a number of stress. And the physique is underneath a number of stress to embody grief and outrage: two feelings which might be voice-killers for the singer. Schultz clearly enjoys the position, and the voice is certainly sturdy sufficient and safe sufficient to sing it. There isn’t a questioning her approach. She even threw in some further embellishment within the last verse and despatched Donna Anna as much as a D-flat with no downside.

There have been some rockier moments: a jumped entrance and a last notice that was flat (in an ending that, to be honest, is written by Mozart as an ungainly whimper and never a bang). However these moments had been truly a welcome factor. Schultz is a cautious singer. She is a elegant singer.  That interpolated excessive notice added some spice, even when the spice lingered and muddied the ending. That jumped entrance drove the aria ahead, and the orchestra was proper there together with her.

Schultz ended the night with a totally deliberate encore—a requirement at Davies Symphony Corridor for visiting soloists because the pandemic.  She cheekily famous with wry humor to the viewers: “The boss is making me carry out an encore.” She supplied the live performance aria “Chi sà, chi sà, qual sia” which Mozart wrote to be interpolated into Vincente Martín i Soler’s opera Il burbero di buon core. The connection? It additionally has a textual content by Lorenzo da Ponte. The impact of the aria was just like the singer throwing a rose again to the viewers who threw it to her within the first place. It’s not an aria that’s going to tax the singer or reveal a lot, however Schultz dispatched it with panache and stable coloratura approach.

Schultz is somebody for younger sopranos to look as much as. And there are Faustian bargains being made by sopranos proper now to have the voice and approach that Schultz has. I’m glad that the San Francisco Symphony took the weird step to program operatic repertoire. The orchestra supplied stable and delicate accompaniment to the singer.  Bicket had every thing underneath management and was shifting alongside confidently. But, I’m wondering if the setting of a live performance corridor with an orchestra behind her, all fairly inauthentic for embodying operatic heroines, robbed her of a few of her oomph.

Even so, I’m glad I didn’t let the right be the enemy of what was superb.