PocketWatch: Songs of the Night

This afternoon Pocket Opera wrapped up this season’s 3-Song Mini Concert Series with the last of its three recitals. The title of the program was Songs of the Night, and things were a bit different. There were two featured soloists, soprano Lindsay Roush and tenor Alex Taite, each of whom sang two arias, meaning that there were four offerings, rather than the usual three. Both vocalists were accompanied at the piano by Pocket Opera Music Director David Drummond.

Roush provided the “bookends” for the program, beginning with Susannah’s aria “Ain’t it a pretty night” from Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and wrapping things up with the “Song to the Moon,” sung by the title character of Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 114 opera Rusalka. Between these selections, Taite’s first selection was “When the Stars Lit the Heavens,” an English translation of Mario Cavaradossi’s aria “E lucevan le stelle,” sung at the beginning of the third act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca. This was followed by “Total eclipse” from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 57 oratorio Samson.

All of these selections were intended for relatively large performing spaces. Even Handel’s oratorio was first performed in the massive space of Covent Garden. Thus, the intimate settings for a single vocalist accompanied by a pianist left the impression that these more operatic offerings were more than a little bit forced. Furthermore, the setting tended to thwart any effort made by either of the vocalists to get into character; and there is certainly no shortage of character in any of those arias. One might conclude that this particular Mini Concert would have benefitted from a set of more “pocket sized” selections.