Andriana Chuchman (soprano) and Craig Terry (piano) at Jane Mallett Theatre, Thursday, Jan. 21.
Each year, Music Toronto presents a relatively unfamiliar artist to the Toronto audience, as part of its Discovery Series. Often it’s a young artist on the cusp of stardom. It can be either an instrumentalist or a singer. Among the singers I’ve heard the past few seasons were Erin Wall and Elliott Madore. This season it’s Ukrainian Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman.
Perhaps “unfamiliar” isn’t quite appropriate when it comes to Ms. Chuchman, as she is an established soprano on the international level. Native of Winnipeg, Chuchman graduated from the School of Music at the University of Manitoba as well as the Ryan Opera Centre at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She was also a member of the Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera. In a relatively short time, she has already amassed an impressive resume, including performances as Adina in L’Elisir d’amore, Miranda in The Enchanted Island, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera. Toronto opera audiences heard her as Olympia at the Canadian Opera Company’s Tales of Hoffmann three seasons ago. Chuchman is now back to show us another facet of her art, in an evening of art songs.
When I arrived at the theatre, I discovered to my surprise that the program has radically changed from what was originally announced in the Music Toronto website. No Exsultate Jubilate, or Hermit Songs, or Reynaldo Hahn, or Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me, or Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise. Instead, we heard a program of Schumann, Duparc, John Adams in the first half, and Tchaikovsky and Ukrainian songs in the second half. The last group was not the folk songs originally scheduled, but six art songs by Ukrainian classical composer Yakiv Stepovyi. Sometimes program details are requested by organizers so far in advance that some changes are inevitable, but this was unusual.
She opened with a selection of 4 songs out of a group of 26 from Myrthen, Op. 25 by Schumann. These were composed during Schumann’s great burst of creativity in 1840, and among his very finest creative output. Chuchman sang them with beautifully clear tone. It was obvious from the first song, Widmung, that the singer wasn’t quite warmed up, sounding a bit short-breathed and with a slight tremolo in the middle at low dynamics. But by the time the soprano sang the two Duparc pieces – Chanson triste and L’invitation au voyage, she had hit her stride. The voice is lovely and clear, used sensitively with a wide palette of dynamic variation, scaling it back for the intimate Jane Mallett Theatre. What wasn’t there was much variation in her expression and interpretation of these songs other than a rather generalized melancholy. Frankly, I would have preferred a choice of songs with greater variation in mood – there wasn’t a single happy song in the bunch! The one possible exception was Widmung, a paean to the beloved. It’s often sung as an encore, not as an opening. Nicely done, but it could have used a bit more ecstasy. The first half concluded with Pat Nixon’s aria from Adams’ Nixon in China. She did it nicely, with clear diction. This song reminds us that not all contemporary composers are afraid of writing a melody. Kudos to pianist Craig Terry for his strong support and his sensitive playing, strong enough to hold things together, but never any attempt to overpower or steal the spotlight.
A remarkable transformation took place in the second half. With these Tchaikovsky and Stepovyi songs, Chuchman seemed like a different singer. Yes, beautiful voice, but all of a sudden there was plenty of expression and temperament. I feel the music spoke to her. The three Tchaikovsky pieces (Otchevo, Op. 6. No. 5; Zabit’ tak skoro; Ja li v pole da ne travushka byla, Op. 47, No. 7) seemed to have brought out a more nuanced emotional response from the soprano. This was absolutely the case in the six Yakiv Stepovyi songs that followed. I’m slightly familiar with these songs, having heard the recordings made by Pavlo Hunka in his ongoing Ukrainian Song Project with several Canadian singers at the Glenn Gould Studio. These are gems of the song literature, all melodically inspired pieces. It was great to hear Chuchman performed them so beautifully. And she spoke to the audience at length about each song, a nice touch. The audience – with a large contingent from the Ukrainian community – responded very warmly to the soprano, with repeated ovations at the end. She was offered a bouquet from someone in the audience, whom I understand was the son of the composer. She sang three encores, two more Ukrainian songs, followed by ‘O mio babbino caro.’ A nice way to spend a winter’s evening.
#LUDWIGVAN
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