Last night in the Green Room of the War Memorial Veterans Building, pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg presented the fifth installment of his annual Halloween-themed concert, Death by Aria. In addition to serving as Master of Ceremonies, Greenberg accompanied four vocalists at the piano: soprano Maria Valdes, mezzo Nikola Printz, and tenors Christopher Oglesby and Jesse Rex Barrett, who also gave an oboe performance with Greenberg of the third movement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ oboe sonata, preceded by a somewhat loopy account of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 565 toccata in D minor (without the following fugue).
The Majestic Theatre in New York showing the mask associated with The Phantom of the Opera (photograph by ajay_suresh, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)
Two other Baroque selections framed the evening. Valdes began the program singing Cleopatra’s aria “Piangerò la sorte mia” from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 17 opera Giulio Cesare, while “Dido’s Lament” at the conclusion of Henry Purcell’s Z. 626 opera Dido and Aeneas was given an “all hands” performance. Printz, on the other hand, delivered the most diverse repertoire, taking on one of Lady Macbeth’s arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, “Pirate Jenny,” Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, and “Loathing” from Stephen Schwartz’ musical Wicked. The Halloween spirit was also honored by “Point of no Return” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera, sung by Valdes and Oglesby (complete with mask).
Taken as a whole, this was a something-for-everyone entertainment. However, Greenberg is a first-rate accompanist; and his chemistry with all of the vocalists was consistently engaging. Death by Aria is becoming an annual tradition to poke a bit of fun at the more serious art song recitals. Nevertheless, all of the vocalists delivered solid and convincing accounts of their selections, always blending with the astute support of their accompanist. Death by Aria is well worth repeating annually.
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