Eleven finalists in opera auditions
By Alice Sperling

Concert
Singers on the Road to Stardom
Ópera de San Miguel
Sat, Mar 15, 8pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 82
300, 150, 50 pesos

With an exceptional turnout, Ópera de San Miguel (ÓSM) auditioned 116 qualified candidates for the concert Cantantes Camino al Estrellato. Three scholarships will be awarded in the amounts of 40,000, 20,000 and 15,000 pesos.

Originally the program was planned to showcase three voices, but the quality and quantity of the voices dictated a change to 11 people. Noted voice coach Mario Alberto Hernandez will accompany the singers on piano. The final round of the competition will take place at the concert. In addition to the scholarships, the audience will get their say by voting for their favorite singer. That lucky person will be awarded 5,000 pesos. Tickets go on sale March 1 at the Teatro box office.

ÓSM artistic director Joseph McClain said, “We held our auditions at the Escuela Superior de Música in Mexico City as a majority of singers at this level study in DF. What we hadn’t anticipated was the number of really talented people and auditioning aspiring talent from all over the country was a huge surprise. Almost all states in Mexico are represented.”

“I believe that we have obtained our goal,” he continued. “Obviously, there is a burning need for the funding of professional development of young Mexican singers.”

At the February 6–7 auditions, candidates were required to submit a list of five arias in a minimum of two languages; most provided a repertoire list of three languages. The first piece performed was of their choosing and McClain chose the second. The finalists are Otavio Perez Bustamante, Oralia Castro, Marcela Chacon, Pia Cruz, Rodrigo Garcia Royo, Belinda Gonzales, Flor Del Carmen Herrera, Juan Carlos Lopez, Lydia Rendon, Jaime Vasquez and Fabiola Vengas.

McClain speculated that the reason the turnout was so high is that public funding has been substantially cut. SIVAM, a private organization that used to receive money from the government to support young artists now receives money only from private sources. In the past the organization had been the primary source for the promotion of young Mexican artists. Without some source of funding, young Mexican singers are at a great disadvantage economically as they look for continued training in the US or Europe, where the cost of a voice coach can be $250 per hour.

In addition to the public performance, Teatro Ángela Peralta will underwrite two free shows, March 13–14, specifically for high school and preparatory students in San Miguel. Some of the finalists will perform and a question and answer session will follow. 

“We view this as a situation where everyone wins,” said McClain. “The winning candidates will receive money for future opera studies and get the opportunity to showcase their talents before a live audience; ÓSM is getting to produce great music, nurture future talent and has hopefully found a successful formula for future concerts. Further, after some of ÓSM’s expenses are covered, the proceeds from the concert will go toward the purchase of a new grand piano for the Teatro. The result of all of this collaboration is an exciting concert featuring the best in young Mexican talent and even a chance for the public to vote for stars of the future.”

Ticket price have been deliberately set low so that most can attend. “We are grateful to our founding members. They hung in with us and are making the scholarships and this concert possible,” said McClain. “Naturally, we would always gratefully accept any additional financial support.” Those interested can go to www.operasanmiguel.org  or email operadesanmiguel@hotmail.com. 

Music to My Ears
By John Bills

Catching up with the Baroque & More Festival

When we speak of music of the Baroque period, most of us think of the masterworks composed in the first half of the 18th Century, the mature works of Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel and, of course, Johann Sebastian Bach. But the Baroque period actually began almost 100 years earlier, around 1600, when the music of the Renaissance, with its reliance on polyphony (several melodies interwoven) and somewhat tenuous tonalities, gave way to longer single melodic lines, stronger rhythms, greater emotional intensity, and firmly rooted tonalities; music requiring considerable technical expertise to perform. It is to the great credit of the Baroque Festival of San Miguel de Allende that its second season gave equal emphasis to the influential beginnings of the Baroque period. In the concerts I attended, during the first few days of the weeklong celebration, Vivaldi and Handel stood side by side with Frescobaldi and Monteverdi.

On Monday evening at the Hyder House (one of several exceptional venues for this year’s concerts), Artistic Director Barrett Sills gave a lecture tour of the history of Baroque music for the cello, beginning with a fluid performance of the Sonata in G by Domenico Gabrieli, notable for the languishing melodies of the third movement and sunny dance rhythms of the finale. Next Sills explained the role of ornamentation in Baroque style with a Canzona from 1660 by Frescobaldi, followed by a demonstration of the importance of musical keys in cello composition, by juxtaposing two movements each from the 5th and 6th Sonatas by Vivaldi. The 5th, in E minor, is ideally suited to the cello, making the most of the instrument’s natural resonances; whereas the 6th, composed in B-flat (a more muted key) presents more challenges in order to bring out the cello’s richness of tone, partially overcome here by Sills’ greater use of vibrato on sustained notes. Sills followed with a lovely performance of the Sonata in A-minor by t
he near-forgotten Giuseppe Maria Jacchini, and then finished with a spirited realization of the Sonata in A by Luigi Boccherini, one of the most important transitional figures from the Baroque to the Classical period. Harpsichordist Sebastian Knebel provided sensitive support throughout.

One of the most interesting and varied evenings of the festival was Tuesday’s concert at the Cranston Gallery of “Voice and Viols at the Royal Courts,” featuring Sills on treble viol and viola da gamba, Knebel on harpsichord, Daniel Zuluaga on lute and theorbo (similar to the lute, but with a greatly elongated neck, making for a guitar-like sound), and (substituting on short notice) soprano Lindsay Kesselman. Highlights of this full evening were Mr. Knebel’s exceptionally moving performance of L’Affligée et Tombeau by Johann Jacob Froberger; Sills’ poetry and passion in three pieces for viola da gamba by French master Marin Marais, giving full vent to the pyrotechnics of Le Tourbillon; and Mr. Zuluaga’s tender performance of Prelude for Lute by Nicolas Vallet. Ms. Kesselman sang with an appropriately pure, boyish tone in music by John Dowland, Henry Purcell, and Marc Antoine Charpentier. While she just missed the requisite urgency in Dowland’s lachrymose Come Again, Kesselman executed the melodic leaps of Pur
cell’s Music for a While with dead-on pitch, and had her finest moments of the evening in a moving performance of that composer’s Oh Let Me Weep, one of the true masterworks of early English song. Ms. Kesselman returned the next afternoon for an informal lecture-performance at Casa Grau of early Italian songs and arias well-known to every first year voice student, ably accompanied by harpsichordist Miguel Cicero. Although Monteverdi’s Si dolce il tormento needed more legato to connect its parade of quarter notes, and overall she needs to be more consistent with Italian closed vowels and double consonants, Ms. Kesselman’s lively commentary, including an explanation of the use of vibrato in early music performance, made the familiar new again. Especially notable was a subtly ornamented Tu lo sai by Giuseppe Torelli, her full-out singing of Alessandro Scarlatti’s O cessate di piagarmi, and the heartfelt and eloquently sung Lascia ch’io pianga, from Handel’s Rinaldo.

John Bills has sung over 5,000 performances with The Metropolitan Opera. He writes about music and classic film. Contact him at FliksRUs@aol.com. 

Smart, sassy and sweet
By Judy McKay

Concert
The Other Gershwin
Marianne Koerner
Sat, Mar 8, 7:30pm
Auditorio Miguel Malo
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
Donation 150 pesos

Marianne Koerner, one of San Miguel’s favorite cabaret singers, will perform the songs of Ira “The Other Gershwin” in a benefit concert for Hospice San Miguel. Koerner, who will accompany herself on the Steinway, refers to Ira Gershwin as “the wind beneath the wings of his brother, George.” Together, the Gershwins collaborated on hundreds of songs that have become American standards.

Few may realize, though, that after George’s premature death, Ira continued to write songs, working with other famous tunesmiths such as Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill and Vernon Duke. “His repertoire of music is a treasure,” says Koerner. “These songs are about being in love and loving life.” 

A classically trained singer and pianist, Koerner appeared in Broadway musicals and many television shows in her early career. Marriage, three children and three decades later, she became addicted to the cabaret genre. She has delighted audiences with her original shows both here in San Miguel and on the east end of Long Island, where she and her husband Richard reside in the summer and fall.

Incidentally, Richard, himself a songwriter, will join Marianne on stage as part of this special performance with anecdotes, facts and trivia about Ira, his songs and his times.

Hospice San Miguel provides end-of-life care through physical, emotional and social support to terminally ill individuals and their family members. Since it is committed to turning no patient away because of an inability to pay, it is receiving ever-increasing numbers of requests for patient care from Mexican and foreign residents. Administrative Director Mark Baker said that the organization is truly grateful that proceeds from the concert will be given to the charity.

Tickets are available now at La Conexión, Aldama 3; Casa Maxwell, Canal 14/Umarán 3; Casa de Papel, Mesones 57; and La Victoriana, Hernández Macías 72. Sponsors of the concert are the Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramirez “Bellas Artes” and Colección Cuatro Vientos.

Klezmerson: Eastern Europe meets Latin America
By Isaac Toporek

Concert Klezmerson Fri, Mar 7, 8pm El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro Stirling Dickinson 28 175 pesos

Klezmerson is the very definition of world music: melancholic yet upbeat klezmer music from the Eastern European Jewish tradition mixed with a rich Mexican weaving of African beats, Spanish guitar music and indigenous sounds. 

The highly trained musicians of Klezmerson infuse klezmer with Arabic percussion, such as the darbuka and the daoulli, the Greek bouzouki and the Cuban batá, a percussion instrument used in Santería rituals, and traditional Latin American instruments such as the Bolivian charango, the Mexican guapango guitar and the jarana from Veracruz.

Gypsy and Latin rhythms are interpreted with funk beats, classical music melodies and jazz improvisations on the guitar, violin, viola and flute. Their music is truly a fusion of world beats and sounds.

Because every musician in Klezmerson is a virtuoso in his/her own right, when you listen carefully, you will take delight in their layered musical arrangements as well as marvel in their euphoric improvisations. The great musical energy each of the seven members brings to the stage will make you dance, jump and shout.

The band hails from Mexico City, the dream of director, composer and violinist Benjamin Shwartz. 

The line-up consists of musicians from diverse backgrounds such as Cuban cha-cha-cha and danzón violinist Rolando Morejón; percussionist and composer Rodrigo Santoyo; bassist and guitarist Guido Laris; flautist Maria Emilia Martínez; guitarist Juan Ernesto Díaz; and percussionist Erick Urbina.

Each of these talented musicians help to give traditional klezmer music a fresh and playful twist.

Traditional concerts continue
By Gabriela Servin

Concert
Folklore Harp and Flamenco Guitar
Sergio Basurto
Mon, Mar 3, 7:30pm
Sala Quetzal
150 pesos, limited seating

The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a fore pillar; those lacking the fore pillar are referred to as open harps. Depending on its size (which varies considerably), a harp may be played while held in the lap or while stood on the floor or the ground. Harp strings can be made of nylon (sometimes wound around cooper), gut (more commonly used than nylon), wire or silk. A person who plays the harp is called a harpist or a Harper. Typically, folk/Celtic musicians prefer the term “Harper,” whereas classical/pedal musicians prefer “harpist.”

In the 1600s, the later Spanish or Renaissance harp was taken to the New World by Jesuit missionaries and developed in a completely different way. The indigenous peoples were fascinated with the instrument, made some changes to it and adopted it as part of their own culture. The many kinds of harps in Latin America include the Venezuelan harp, Mexican harp and arpa llanera (harp of the plain). Almost all South American countries have their own versions of harps. In construction and playing techniques, these harps are quite different from the traditional European harps. They were made of thin wood (cedar and pine) and were much lighter than the European harp. The strings were routed up the center of the neck and the instruments were bi-symmetrical, resulting in few structural stresses. Eventually tacitos were used to sharpen notes to change key. The playing style and techniques were vibrant and dynamic in contrast to the softer European tone. Modern Paraguayan harps usually have 36 nylon strings tuned to the d
iatonic scale and are played with the fingernails. The sound is bright with a shorter sustain period after the plucking of each note.

This folklore harp will be used in the concert presented by Sergio Basurto, in which he will play traditional rhythms from Latin America and Mexico.