Review: ARIZONA OPERA M R PULLIN STUDIO CONCERT at Home Computer Screens

On Friday evening November 8 at 6 PM Arizona Opera gave its second Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio Artists' Recital for a small socially distanced audience in attendance and its many followers online. The program was dedicated to the memory of Joel Revzen, Arizona Opera's former artistic director and principal conductor. After a few announcements, soprano Cheyanne Coss opened with "Qui la voce," Elvira's mad scene from Vincenzo Bellini's Bel Canto opera, I Puritani. Elvira lived in a time when women had no rights, so in opera madness allowed her to proclaim her true feelings. Coss expressed them most eloquently but had some difficulty with the final decorative runs. Pianist Robert Bosworth's nuanced accompaniment helped her reminisce melodically about happier times. She would return at the end to provide the concert's finale.

Next to appear on the temporary stage set against a multi-windowed door on the side of the opera building, was tenor Terrence Chin-Loy as Des Grieux singing "Ah! Fuyez, douce image" ("Ah! Flee from me sweet image") from Jules Massenet's opera about a pretty young girl from convent school who couldn't say "No," Manon. She has left Des Grieux and he is trying desperately to get her off his mind. Although his character does not succeed, Chin-Loy held the audience at attention as he sang with animated bronze-tinged tones up and down his range.

Soprano Caitlin Gotimer and baritone Rob McGinness had to stay socially distanced, singing straight out at the small audience in the Arizona Opera parking lot for health reasons. Their rendition of the intense verismo love duet from Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci was musically passionate as was pianist Robert Bosworth's ardent accompaniment.

Chin-Loy returned with an aria from Nico Muhly's Two Boys, "I'm only sixteen," and he made viewers believe he was a 16-year youth who had fallen in love with the Internet. The opera uses a police investigation into a violent crime to explore online relationships. This aria probably made a great many watchers want to see the complete opera. Hope it happens.

Mezzo soprano Michaela Wolz who sang the aria "Se Romeo t'uccise un figlio" ("If Romeo killed one of your sons") from Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti è I Montecchi is the only artist in this group I find ready for prime time right now. In this piece, Romeo, disguised as an envoy, says his master regrets killing Capulet's son and asks for Juliet's hand to make peace. Woltz, as Romeo, sang it with dramatic zeal and eloquent Bel Canto style while accompanist Robert Bosworth played with glowing tones.

Returning to cap off the performance was Cheyanne Coss, with "Nun eilt herbei, Witz, heitre Laune" from Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor). In this happy, melodic aria, Alice thinks of how to pay Falstaff back for two-timing her. Coss's delightful interpretation as accompanied by Bosworth left the online audience with something to hum on the way to the kitchen.

This concert will be repeated on Sunday November 8 at 1:00 PM.

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Photo of Caitlin Gotimer courtesy of Arizona Opera.

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