Governor's School for the Arts' American Songs

      What a celebration of music, youth and family enthusiasm for their talented young people. To hear The Ascot Gavotte from My Fair Lady with the clipped, precise singing of the text with a "fraffly" British accent, and the perfectly coordinated mime of the horse race, with its restrained commentary in music, was quite exciting. This piece was coached by Michael Regan, who shared accompaniment and coaching duties with Robert Brown. Both are to be commended for their excellent work.

      The solo songs, some from musical theater, some art songs, and the duets and small ensembles made up most of the program. When the entire group came together at the end of the evening, the energy level, which had been high throughout, went over the top. Dressed in formal evening wear, they sang Pick a little, talk a little from The Music Man by Meredith Willson and Oklahoma! from Rogers and Hammerstein's ground breaking musical of the same name, Ching a ring chaw by Aaron Copeland and a spiritual, My good Lord's done been here arranged by Lee Cloud and conducted by Robert Brown. As this piece ended the chorus filed out but GSA Director of Vocal Music Alan Fischer had prepared us for this seven minute interval while the entire group got into costume for the Revival Scene from Carlisle Floyd's powerful American opera Susannah. Mr. Fischer's program notes gave an excellent introduction to the scene we were about to see.

      Set in rural Tennessee, the scene featured the excellent second year student Adam Richardson in the demanding role of Olin Blitch. These young people gave a powerful performance with the diction in the chorus that made the words perfectly understood. Crystal Williams created the role of Susanna with great dignity. She acted convincingly, giving a fine scream as she refused the preacher's and townspeople's pressure to confess her "sin" of innocently bathing naked in the creek alone, not realizing she was being observed. Seen as wanton by Blitch, we see that the only lust was in the onlooker's hearts. Crystal is a fourth year student from Portsmouth. It has been our pleasure to watch as her voice has matured, and her stage presence and acting have blossomed. Earlier she sang Harry T. Burleigh's My Lord what a mornin' a cappella in a rich, deep voice.

      It is not possible to review each performance in this fine program but we do want to acknowledge the pleasure of hearing the fourth year students over the years and especially tonight. Michael Haler as Sancho Panza in a lovely high tenor voice sang Man of La Mancha from the musical of the same name by Leigh and Darian with Will Liverman (a second year student), with his deep bass voice, as Sancho Panza.

      Judy Bowers sang Lullaby from the Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti, with its demanding dynamic range from gravely mezzo lines followed by high soprano lines. Equally impressive was Sarah Piscitelli in The Girl in 14G by Tesori and Scanlan as she describes her experience of living with a Queen of the Night singing neighbor upstairs and a cabaret singer downstairs, as she creates each one by turn.

      Christina Hathaway sang Ned Rorem's art song Alleluia with its large number of musical variations and moods on the single word "alleluia", with poise and beauty of tone throughout. Ryan Green sang Celius Dougherty's Shenandoah in a beautiful, mellow bass voice.

      Martin Lonart and Jennifer Peters are graduating seniors and are in their third year at GSA. They both did a fine job in group numbers from South Pacific.

The Governor's School for the Arts Spring Opera

      The students did a wonderful job singing and acting Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in a lively English translation. We saw it on Saturday, April 24, 2004, one of four performances. The Wells Theater is an excellent venue for student voices and the costumes and sets loaned by Virginia Opera added to the professional look of the production. It was easy to forget that these well-trained voices and the twenty-piece GSA Opera Orchestra conducted and directed by Alan Fischer were high school students.

      Count Almaviva was played by guest artist Jarrett Ali Boyd who graduated from GSA eight years ago and went on to persue his dream of a career in music. Mr. Boyd has been seen in several touring companies around the country including Cats and Ain't Misbehavin'. His assured stage presence and acting ability presage a long career in the theater. It was a joy to see him and senior Crystal Williams as the Countess stare each other down with real stage malice only to resolve their differences.

      I find Miss Williams' voice both haunting and powerful and her portrait of a wounded woman shunned by her philandering husband regal and emotionally honest. Cherubino, the young man played by Jennifer Peters, takes himself very seriously, though no one else does. Miss Peters created a fine portrait of a light-hearted plaything. The movements she makes with her hoop skirt when the Countess and Susannah are trying to dress her as a girl were extremely funny.

      The emotional honesty of these young singers was impressive. Judy Gowers as Marcellina, Martin Lonart as Dr. Bartolo, Jeffrey Soto as Don Basilio and Michael Haler as Don Curzio all did a great job in these character roles. Abby Harr was a bouncy, happy Barbarina and Josh Conyers as Antonio, the drunken gardener, was amusing.

      Ryan Green with his rich deep voice played a self-confident and charming Figaro who may be a servant but has full self-esteem allowing him to hold his own with the Count, who is impressed with his position as master. Susannah, his wife to be, played by Sarah Piscitelli, was perky, pretty and smart in the role, using her sweet light voice in a most convincing way. Mozart has written duets, quartets, sextets, septets and choruses in this opera and they were gloriously well-done by these fresh young voices.

      Robert Brown played the harpsichord accompaniment for the sung recitatives. He and Michael Regan did the musical preparation for this opera. The guest artists offstage were Georgiana Eberhard, makeup; Muffy Owens, costumes; Konrad Winters, lighting and Virginia Opera's David Smith, production coordinator.

      Alan Fischer, who both conducted the orchestra and directed the opera, dedicated these performances to the memory of his father Bernard Fischer (1920-2003). Alan's father traveled from New York City to freely offer his knowledge and advice as a teacher and singer, beginning in 1994. The program notes say: "I know he will be here in spirit again this year" and I'm sure that he will be proud of these students and his son for such a fine performance.

      Mozart's operas offer us a well-ordered universe, a tidy story with no loose ends so we can all go home satisfied and happy. Our friends who saw the second cast that performed Thursday and Sunday assured us that they heard fine performances also. Congratulations to all on a superb job!

Crystal Williams
"This is the first of many"

      This "first recital" was Friday evening, June 25th in the auditorium at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Virginia where she graduated the week before. Crystal Williams, soprano with Robert Brown, piano gave a wonderful art song recital. Her voice filled the large hall and her diction was outstanding, but more important was her ability to communicate the feeling and meaning in the diversity of songs in Italian, French, German, English and the dialect of spirituals. Robert Brown was an equal partner in this communication.

      The program opened with two early Italian songs, Per la Gloria d'adorarvi by Giovanni Maria Bonocini (1670-1747) , a love song, and Nina by Legrenzio Vincenzo Ciampi (1719-1762). This song is from the first Italian opera given in London in 1748. Claude Debussy's Mandoline and Samuel Barber's Sure on this Shining Night followed. The opera aria was Dove Sono from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. In Issue #32 of Artsong Update, we talked about her singing the Countess in the Governor's School for the Arts production. She closed the first half with two versions of Ave Maria - by Franz Schubert and by J.S. Bach/Charles Gounod.

      We first met Crystal four years ago when, as a freshman, her teacher Alan Fischer introduced us at the Norfolk Art Song Society. It has been interesting to watch her voice grow and change. In this recital she did not hesitate or hold back in sharing her present level of accomplishment. It is as if she has moved from a compact car to a Cadillac and she is learning how to drive with precision and grace this huge recently acquired voice. Watching her grow as a performer and actress is very exciting.

      She returned to the stage in a regal deep pink gown and sang Schubert's Die junge Nonne (The young nun), with its intensity and passion and finally with its sense of peace. There was a transfigured glow on her face. In this and the next Schubert song, Gretchen am Spinnrade, I could easily follow the German text (translations were in the program, also) because of her precise diction. This song explores the terror of intense love and ends with almost unbearable excitement.

      Turning to American music, she sang Summertime from Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin (1898-1937) and an a capella My Lord What a Mornin' by Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949). Two songs by Hall Johnson (1887-1970) ended the program: A City Called Heaven, a field holler (also a cappella) that may have been the most moving piece on the program and the rousing Ride on King Jesus .

      There was a reception and everyone was offered a polaroid photograph taken with the singer by Picturing Perfection. We asked for autographs and on my ticket Crystal wrote a promise: "This is the first of many" and I believe her. Her determination, powerful voice, keen intelligence and elegant poise well beyond her eighteen years has developed under GSA Vocal Studies Director Alan Fischer's guidance. Listening to a program that would be ambitious for a college senior recital, it was easy to forget that she is so young. That she has been awarded a full scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University is all the evidence that is needed to prove my point.

Crystal Williams Update

      Crystal Williams, who graduated last Spring from the Governor's School for the Arts, writes from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburg where she is studying music and enjoying meeting new people:

" My classes are great and my voice teacher, Ms. Susanne Marsee, is wonderful and we work well together. She has a lot to teach me. I am in the concert choir and have a solo in the Winter Concert. I'm singing with a church and we're doing the Pergolesi Magnificat. I love the campus and can't wait until it snows. For now I'm collecting leaves. They look so beautiful and are all kinds of colors. I'll be home for Thanksgiving. Thanks for keeping in touch! Ciao, a presto!"