COC Vocal Series: Anita Rachvelishvili, mezzo; Stephen Hargreaves, piano at Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Four Seasons Centre. Tuesday.
One of the happiest occasions of the COC spring season is the presence of two great mezzo-sopranos, in town to share the role of Carmen, currently on stage at the Four Seasons Centre. Not only are opera fans able to catch them on stage as the Gypsy, they have the opportunity to hear them in recital. French mezzo Clémentine Margaine blew everyone away last week with her gleaming vocalism and stage allure in a noon hour recital at the RBA. Today was the turn of Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili.
In 2009, Rachvelishvili had just graduated from the Accademia dell Scala, La Scala’s training ground for young artists. She was immediately handpicked by Daniel Barenboim to take on this most demanding of roles to open the new season on December 7th. That’s enough to strike fear in the heart of any young artist, given La Scala is arguably the toughest opera house in the world when it comes to audience approval. Even great stars the likes of Pavarotti and Fleming had been on the receiving end of the wrath of the loggionisti. But not Rachvelishvili — she was only met with bravos and a rain of flowers at her debut.
Proving her success was no fluke, the young mezzo has gone on to establish herself as one of the finest young singers in front of the public today. COC was lucky to engage her immediately after her La Scala success, in three performances of Carmen back in the spring of 2010. In 2014, she returned as Dulcinée in Don Quichotte. This is her third engagement with the COC.
Simply put, the Rachvelishvili mezzo is a force of nature. One rarely encounters a voice of such volume. I’ve heard some very big voices in nearly fifty years of going to live performances, among them Regine Crespin, Gwyneth Jones, and Ghena Dimitrova. Rachvelishvili is at least equal to if not bigger than those ladies when it comes to pure decibels. As she amply demonstrated today, the Georgian isn’t all about power – she has a lovely piano as part of her vocal arsenal. It’s also a truly opulent sound, well focused, with great dramatic power when called upon to do so.
She began with two songs by Georgian composer Otar Taktakisvili. “The Sun of October” is somber and sad; “Mother of God” is all of that but also intense. I’ve noticed with big voices like hers, there’s often some initial heaviness, with an excessively pronounced vibrato. In her case, it disappeared after warm up. She also spoke charmingly to the audience in near-perfect English. She sang the Rachmaninoff songs with gorgeous tone, delicately, making sure her big voice did not overwhelm the songs. Marvelous was the well-known “Ne poi, krasavica,” an absolute gem. She also mentioned this song is about Georgia. Too bad the ecstatic “Vesenniye vodi” (Spring Waters) – my favourite Rachmaninoff, was not on the program, which surely would have been stunning. O well…
Two Fauré songs followed. Very lovely was “Apres un reve,” sung with a melting mezza voce. The opening piano accompaniment of “Fleur jetée” is almost like Schubert’s Erkonig! A true singer-friendly collaborative pianist, Stephen Hargreaves was once again exemplary. Excellent communication between the pianist and the soloist throughout. I should mention that Rachvelishvili used the score placed on a music stand, referring to it occasionally. Given that she’s primarily an opera singer who rarely gives recitals, it’s understandable.
The last group was the Siete Canciones populares Espanolas by de Falla, also programmed by Clémentine Margaine. It’s great to hear both interpretations, which I find actually not that different. Both captured the inherent earthiness in the music and the text. Margaine sang it marginally more lightly, particularly the last song, “Polo.” Here, Rachvelishvili briefly dipped into an astonishingly powerful chest voice the likes of which I had not heard before from any female opera singer. Following a huge ovation, she sang “Mon Coeur” from Samson et Dalila, a role she’s going to sing very soon. The audience wouldn’t let her go, and the last encore was “Seguidilla,” even more beautifully than I remembered on opening night.
#LUDWIGVAN
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