Mack’s stage profession within the fifteen years or so since she graduated from the Merola program has steadily traversed the bread-and-butter mezzo repertoire via Rossini, although with a particular deal with the music of Handel and a wholesome dose of rarities. My most up-to-date encounter with the singer was in Rossini’s Otello at Opera Philadelphia, the place she did a lot to anchor what might need been merely a satisfying curiosity with an intense, dramatically grounded tackle (the opposite) Desdemona.
She has solely appeared on the Met in a single manufacturing up to now (debuting because the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka, although it appears to be like like there was a Varvara in Ká?a Kabanová derailed by the pandemic), however that’s set to vary this month with the upcoming staging of John Adams’s El Niño. This, and her assumption final 12 months of the title position in LA Opera’s Ultimo Sueno de Frida y Diego, are simply two of examples of Mack’s consideration to each new music and tales rooted within the Latin world (Mack was born in Buenos Aires). Thursday’s recital leaned closely into these pursuits, with a world premiere track cycle by Rene Orth and a second half solely dedicated to Spanish-language songs.
Mack’s inviting core sound has a targeted, slatey high quality that may disarm with its solidity and presence, regardless of not being particularly massive. As heard this previous week, it has extremely a flexible basis to fulfill the various stylistic calls for of the repertoire she pursues. A communicative performer on the recital stage as nicely, she embroiders every track with character particulars and interpretive selections that regularly interact the listener.
The closest this system got here to Mack’s stage work got here within the opening choice of Rossini’s Giovanna d’Arco, a “solo cantata” from the composer’s Paris years. The formidable fifteen-minute scena provided Mack an opportunity to show in miniature the dramatic selection she is able to within the theater, in addition to the corresponding vocal vary: resonant low notes including heft and shade to the preliminary recitative part, a noble, dignified sound within the plaintive appeals to the character’s mom, and within the showpiece finale, a capability to combine the fioritura materials into traces with form and path.
The remainder of the half was dedicated to the world premiere At First, Now, At all times. Orth, whose music for the brand new opera 10 Days in a Madhouse made a robust impression in Opera Philadelphia’s fall pageant final 12 months, right here units a sprawling textual content of 9 songs by Jeanne Minahan on completely different features of motherhood. There was a lot to take pleasure in early on, the vocal line tugging at a poignant lyricism that stayed on the suitable facet of saccharine, most winningly within the third track “After,” vulnerably learn by Mack, her mezzo brilliant and exact. Later installments had been much less profitable: the textual content, now addressing an grownup youngster, turned much less summary and felt like the ultimate songs in a musical we hadn’t been watching, whereas a static high quality crept into the vocal writing, winsome traces interrupted by sporadic vocal climaxes that appeared unmotivated by the textual content. The expressive and detailed piano writing was a spotlight all through, as skillfully realized by Lee.
4 songs of Astor Piazzolla (organized by JP Jofre) kicked off the all-Spanish language second half, for which Mack and Lee had been joined by the arranger on bandoneon (a relative of the accordion launched in Argentina within the nineteenth century). After the piercing readability of the Orth, Mack launched a really completely different set of vocal colours right here, a beguiling chocolatey sound for the opening “Vuelvo al Sur,” colourful unfold vowel sounds, and a slicing swagger within the closing “Yo Soy Maria” from Piazzolla’s stage piece Maria de Buenos Aires. In a couple of cases the low vary and fewer supported model resulted in Mack’s unamplified voice getting misplaced within the enhanced forces, however this was a fascinating set general.
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Mack subsequent gave a fragile studying of “Dulces Sueños,” a composition by Jofre, which served as a bridge to the subsequent two picks by the famed early twentieth century tango singer Carlos Gardel. Mack turned every of those well-liked songs right into a riveting dramatic monologue, hushed and virtually talking at occasions, significantly in her bitter rendering of “Volver,” whereas Keun-A Lee deftly wove the tango parts within the piano half round Mack’s voice.
The house stretch featured the music of Spain, although “Spain” might be extra applicable for the primary choice: Rossini’s arch fantasia, “Canzonetta Spagnuola,” slyly delivered right here. Federico García-Lorca’s impressionistic “La Tarara” showcased how safe and thrilling Mack’s higher vary might be at its most free, whereas Ruperto Chapi’s blistering “Carceleras” from his zarzuela Las hijas del Zebedeo featured breakneck diction and an ecstatic end.
For the encores we first returned to “Spain” for a wonderfully nice “Habanera” from Carmen, which Mack has carried out onstage at Santa Fe amongst different places. The true hearth was reserved, nonetheless, for the second encore, wherein Mack delivered a blistering rendition of “Malaguena” by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona.
Images: Courtney Ruckman
