First Merola Program Explores Song as Drama

The Song as Drama curators Nicholas Phan and Carrie-Ann Matheson (photograph by Kristen Loken, courtesy of the Merola Opera Program)

Last night the Merola Opera Program presented the first of its four public performances in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater. Artistic Director Carrie-Ann Matheson and tenor Nicholas Phan co-curated a program entitled The Song as Drama. Each of the eight selections on the program presented its own unique perspective on narrative qualities in song.

Accompaniment was kept to the scale of chamber music. The guitar, played by Mario To, served the first two works on the program. He provided the only accompaniment for Clarice Assad’s “Equanto a noite durar” (as long as the night lasts), which was preceded by Anahita Abbasi’s “Ahou,” which brought the guitar together with a pan flute played by Tod Brody and Jieyin Wu on harp. During the second half of the program, To returned to accompany soprano Alexa Frankian’s performance of Barbara Strozzi’s “L’Eraclito amoroso” (the amorous Heraclitus) on theorbo. All remaining selections were given piano-and-string accompaniment with performances by all of the current Merola pianists: Ji Youn Lee, Yedam, Kim, Sujin Choi, Hyemin Jeong, and Julian Garvue.

The eight selections on the program may have honored “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two,” George A. Miller’s hypothesis of the capacity of our short-term memory; but, as always seems to be the case, the abundance in these Merola recitals provides more than most mere mortals can retain. Suffice it to say that each of the offerings was engaging during its own duration. Nevertheless, the impact of each succeeding performance was convincing enough to block out what had promised to be a vivid memory of its predecessor. The overall experience reminds me of how I usually have to listen to a record album several times before I have a good sense of the overall collection. Last night felt as if I could play the album once and only once!

Still, the succession flowed along at a smooth clip. Each “course of the meal” was engaging “in the moment.” I would not have wanted to miss any of the selections, but I would be just as happy to encounter any of them again in the future. Like the Fifties joke about Chinese banquets, I came away thoroughly satisfied; but, not long after, I found myself hungry to experience the affair again!